KEY POINTS:
Los Angeles: Faced with a protracted sales slump, record labels are tapping into the tween scene, after Walt Disney has become the unlikely hitmaker of the year with chart toppers such as Hannah Montana and High School Musical.
"A lot of entertainment companies are trying to figure out how to replicate Disney's formula and crack the tween code since it's one of the market's few sweet spots," said entertainment lawyer Fred Goldring.
After mostly ignoring tweens, children aged 6 to 12, music labels from Sony BMG Music to Warner Music Group and EMI Group are signing or distributing tween acts. Many are trying to leverage these acts with TV deals to match Disney's success.
"I predict in the next 12 months you'll see a lot of these companies chasing the tween market and I think they'll do it pretty well," said Goldring, noting that tweens and their parents are among the consumers still buying CDs at a time when many music fans are increasingly downloading single songs from stores like Apple's iTunes.
Tweens overall spend about US$51 billion ($66 billion) a year in the US, with family members seen spending another US$170 billion on them, according to data by Alloy Media + Marketing. Getting a piece of this pie would help the US music industry, which has seen annual sales drop 21.2 per cent since 1999 to about US$11.5 billion.
But many acknowledge Disney is a tough act to follow.
"I'd be surprised if labels don't try, but they don't have the multiple platforms. Disney Channel has been an incredible incubator and that's something our competitors may never have," said David Agnew, general manager of Disney Music Group.
Television network Disney Channel features an almost constant flow of videos that promote its stars to its tween audience.
"Disney Channel is a real marketing juggernaut," Goldring said.
"Parents buy these records for their kids and a lot of it has to do with the nag factor."
The strategy has spawned hits like TV movie High School Musical, which produced the top-selling CD of 2006, and the Hannah Montana series about a schoolgirl who has a secret nocturnal existence as a famous musician.
Last week, 14-year-old Miley Cyrus, star of Hannah Montana, became the youngest artist to have two No 1 albums on US charts within a year. Disney this week released another new CD by sister duo Aly & AJ, another Disney Channel staple.
"There's an incredible future with tween music," said Deb Klein, the general manager for independent label Firm Music, who signed an unnamed tween duo to a multi-platform deal.
Elsewhere, Arista said it had already had two radio hits with 16-year-old Paula DeAnda, who was signed on the spot by music mogul Clive Davis last year. Arista is part of Sony BMG, a joint venture with Bertelsmann.
Sony will also release this year the soundtrack to the Naked Brothers Band, a Viacom Nickelodeon series that follows the ups and downs of a kids' rock band.
Warner Music Group signed High School Musical co-star Ashley Tisdale in a move an executive admitted signalled a change from the label's usual vision.
"At one time, our promotion guys had a hard time getting mainstream radio to pay attention to the tween acts, but now they realise it's not just kiddy stuff," said Agnew of Disney.
- Reuters
