[Dixielandjazz] The Tween Market

[Steve barbone]

CAVEAT: NOT OKOM

However, a solid Musical Marketing piece. My, my, look who Disney targets.
Look how successful they reach that market. Will this new music audience
perpetuate Disney's success? You bet.

Cheers,
Steve

A Musical for Tweens Captures Its Audience

NY TIMES -  BEN SISARIO - February 8, 2006

The executives at Disney are quite clear: they are not surprised at all by
the runaway success of "High School Musical," the new break-into-song
television movie that has quickly established itself as a "Grease" for the
tween set.

Since its premiere on Disney Channel on Jan. 20, the movie and its four
reruns have attracted more than 24 million viewers, Disney said, and the
soundtrack, on Walt Disney Records, has raised eyebrows in the music
industry for an unusual double play: reaching the Top 10 on the Billboard
album chart with virtually no radio support and making a remarkable 45
percent of its sales online, through Apple's iTunes Music Store.

"Surprised? No," said Gary Marsh, the president for entertainment of Disney
Channel Worldwide. "Thrilled? Absolutely."

As Mr. Marsh sees it, the popularity of "High School Musical" ‹ the story of
a cute boy and a cute girl who feel an overpowering urge to sing, sing, sing
(and since this is Disney, that is the only overpowering urge they feel) ‹
is a result of the company's carefully honed approach to storytelling and
marketing.

" 'High School Musical' embodies the basic DNA of who we are and the themes
we represent," he said. "Express yourself, believe in yourself, celebrate
your family, follow your dreams. If you can capture those themes in a movie
and in song, then you've got a pretty neat formula for creating something
special."

Disney Channel has already commissioned a sequel to "High School Musical"
and has other musicals in development that should have a special appeal for
tweens, youths roughly 10 to 14 who are a little too young for teenage
entertainment but too old for children's shows.

The movie's premiere drew 7.7 million viewers in 5 million households, a
record for this cable channel. The soundtrack has been setting records too.
Last week its anthem, "Breaking Free," rose 82 spots to No. 4 on Billboard's
Hot 100 singles chart, the biggest one-week jump in the chart's history.
"Breaking Free" has bounced around iTunes's Top 10 (eight other songs from
the album are in the Top 100), and the full soundtrack has been the No. 1
iTunes album for much of the past week. (It was No. 2 yesterday.)

Though the songs have not been promoted to radio stations, they have been
played on Radio Disney, a network of 53 stations.

The film's success across media is an example of Disney's self-reliant
marketing strength. Disney Channel hyped the show and its music for weeks
before the premiere, introducing the cast on a New Year's Eve show and
running music videos in heavy rotation. Disney offered "Breaking Free" as a
free download around the movie's premiere, and after the first broadcast,
quickly ran a special singalong version of the show, directing viewers to
its Web site for the words; the lyrics were downloaded 500,000 times in 24
hours. 

"They have developed a real expertise for synchronous Internet applications
linked to TV content," Stacey Lynn Koerner, executive vice president of
Initiative, a media planning and buying firm, said of Disney.

Released during the music business's midwinter lull, with few major new
albums as competition in stores, "High School Musical" also benefited from
holiday sales of iPods and iTunes gift certificates.

"This is a demographic that is very used to listening to digital music,"
said Michael Goodman, an analyst with the Yankee Group, a technology
research company. "What is a little surprising about it is the actual
purchases that are occurring. Generally the under-25 set goes to file
sharing before legitimate download services."

"High School Musical" also indicates a new musical phase for Disney. Years
after it introduced the world to Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and
members of 'N Sync ‹ and then watched them leave the fold and make fortunes
elsewhere ‹ the company has begun to cultivate a new breed of pop stars who
bear the Disney imprimatur.

Hilary Duff, now 18, began her career on the Disney Channel show "Lizzie
McGuire" and has released several albums on Disney-owned labels, selling a
total of 7.3 million copies in North America. The albums seem aimed at an
audience that is growing up along with her. The Cheetah Girls and the girl
pop duo Aly & AJ (ages 16 and 14) also began their careers on Disney Channel
series.

The challenge now facing Disney and "High School Musical" is whether the
soundtrack can cross to a broader pop audience. Walt Disney Records is now
considering whether "Get'cha Head in the Game," a hip-hop-flavored song from
the musical, should be promoted to Top 40 radio stations in a version
recorded by the boy band B5.

"It's no surprise," said Bob Cavallo, the chairman of Buena Vista Music
Group, which includes three Disney labels. "Hilary Duff sold over 10 million
records worldwide. It all started with 'Lizzie McGuire.' Those songs were
not ever on Top 40 radio."

"The power of the channel and Radio Disney," he added, "and the incredible
amount of work we do online, is what can sell our records. The gravy is MTV
and Top 40 radio."