Comments on: How’re we doing?

By: Павлин

Павлин — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:47:42 +0000

Без особого преувеличения можно точно сказать, что пост тему раскрыл на все 100 процентов.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:34:11 +0000

All generalizations are false, including this one!

As indicated in my previous comment, the PRX is a habit. Being a regular habit, I have had many years to rub shoulders with other music devotees and have constantly been impressed by shoppers’ age ranges (8 to 80) and interests.
So I am skeptical about the claim that most of the customers are principally boomers.

Also the implication that boomers are only buying Grateful Dead (or Lawrence Welk recording for their parents) also falls short of the mark. As a 50-something my tastes overlap with my 20-something daughter in some areas that might surprise you; the Decemberists, Children of the Revolution, Jesse Cook, DeVotchKa, Ed Palermo, Duke Ellington, and (yes even those over the hills guys) Jimmy Hendrix and Led Zeppelin to name just a very few. I for one am interested in learning about new and upcoming acts, I’m just interested in those that are a little off the edges of typical American *** music.

Finally I think your readers are kidding themselves if they think only 20-somethings are reading blogs. Writing blogs maybe; free time, enthusiasm, and abundant energy count for something after all. But reading blogs has quietly become much more mainstream then it was just a few years ago.

In the final analysis what really counts is the quality of the writing. It’s not just the content. So I say to the bloggers: show me your passion, paint colorfully in your descriptions, be persuasive in your arguments, and you may well open my ears to something new. In the process you may expand your musical horizons too.

By: Carl Homrighausen

Carl Homrighausen — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:42:10 +0000

I think it also has to be considered that blogs in general are more likely to be accessed by ‘twentysomethings.’ While the blog may not cater to as many of the ‘Baby Boomers,’ it has to be recognized that there just aren’t as many of them trolling about on the web as there are ‘twentysomethings.’

By: Bob Bembridge

Bob Bembridge — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:34:37 +0000

I agree with Neil that the blogs don’t represent the musical interests of your customers, most of whom are Baby Boomers. Nearly all the blogs appear to be geared toward twentysomethings.

By: Brett

Brett — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:11:47 +0000

Thanks Neil – that’s a good point.

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:33:22 +0000

I’ve been crawling the Exchange for almost 16 years now and have something over 2500 titles in the collection to show for it. My interests are varied including Western Classical, Hindustani Classical, Rock, Blues, Folk, Jazz, World, Alternative, and some modern ***, so you can see that I’m open to a wide variety of musical experiences.

One of the really great things about shopping the Exchange (besides huge selection and great prices) is the varied tastes and wide knowledge of the staff as well as the music they select to play in-store. Many times have I been introduced to some unusual and interesting recording just by walking in the door. More than once this has prompted me to buy directly off the turntable/cd player.

Sadly the same wide diversity of musical interest shown by Exchange staff in the store is so far lacking in the blogs.
With this in mind, I have two recommendations in mind:

First: provide short “my interests” bios of bloggers tied to your “Categories” menu and/or (better yet) in the RSS feeds so readers can select bloggers with common interests.

Second: keep diversity in mind when looking for new bloggers.