Older people don't buy music (or anything else) as much as young people, so no one is marketing to them. But older people are more loyal to the acts they like. That's why old acts like the Rolling Stones, Barry Manilow, Paul McCartney, & B.B. King can still make lots of money performing live even though any new music they release doesn't sell much. In many cases, their target audience doesn't know that these acts still record because the record companies aren't pushing their music. Older people in general don't hang out on the internet. Some acts release their new albums independently like The Eagles & Prince, others do deals with Starbucks coffee like Paul McCartney & James Taylor. Some sign with KOCH records, but they don't have the funds to get them out there really. Sting & U2 have put songs in commercials to get heard. Sade's new song is being used in advertisements for a TV show. But companies don't market to the older population. I remember there used to be TV shows like "Matlock" and "Murder She Wrote" geared toward the mature audience, but the networks got rid of them, not because their ratings were bad, but because they wanted to lucrative youth market. The Isley Brothers had to resort to the "Mr. Biggs" image to get the younger people to buy their music Others had to work with the "producer of the month" like Charlie Wilson & Duran Duran, or stick rappers on their songs like Teena Marie. I saw no reason for Lionel Richie to do a duet with Akon when there's a Jill Scott or an Eric Benet out there, other than try to get radio play and a hit song. Although a lot of the time these are the record labels' ideas and not the performer. I really doubt Keith Richards woke up one day and said "Hey Mick, let's release a remix album", or Sting said "I really must get Puffy P. Diddy to remix Roxanne and put his 'uh huh' chants all over it.", lol.
