In context, this quote from The Boston Globe is 100% accurate.
Older people don't steal music like younger people do. Many of them don't know how, as Foster says, and those that do know how aren't really comfortable with the whole concept. According to Foster, they still want to “put the CD in the case, put the CD in the library" and a non-tangible, electronically-stored download is not appealing.
As The Boston Globe articleand a piece I wrote about Kevin Costner point out, the tendency of older demographics to buy is a huge factor in determining what music record companies put out. Artists that appeal to those of older generations can move more units than those geared toward the youth.
Artists like Sarah McLachlan, Michael Buble, Barbra Streisand, and Susan Boyle have all recently been in the top five. These aren't albums that the kids are chomping at the bit to get their hands on; these are albums kids drown out by playing Miley Cyrus on their headphones.
In addition, older people are more likely to buy a full album, digital or physical, than young folk. That's a really interesting thing to consider as an artist. Technological changes are what made the LP the dominant medium of expression for recorded music. Now digital formats are shifting things back toward a culture of singles, similar to the way music way recorded and consumed during the age of 45's.
How should we respond to this as artists?
There's a certain aura surrounding the making of a full length LP. It feels akin to writing the Great American Novel, painting La Guernica, or building The Eiffel Tower. This is something musicians may have to let go.
Is that necessarily a bad thing?
I don't think so. It's equally possible to express something through art in a shorter form or a long form. An LP isn't better than a single. The two are just different. This is something musicians need to remember as the industry landscape continues to evolve.
Thriving in a time of transition requires embracing change, in both the way we do business and the way we make art.
