The biggest hits of the 1980s and 1990s were massive. Music fans used to discover their music on top 40 radio or MTV and then go to the stores to buy the album. That’s due, at least in part, to the sheer volume of new media competing for attention-be it podcasts, TV shows, video games or YouTube clips. Several executives at top record labels have said it’s harder than ever to have an album get into the mainstream and remain there.

They are struggling to break new artists. They don’t want to say it out loud, but they do say it in private. Music industry executives worry there is another reason that songs aren’t leaving the charts, however. That’s a big reason consumption of older music is going up. Older generations have adopted streaming audio over the past few years, and they are listening to older music. (There’s no data for those 55 and up.) Young people listen to more new music, so that skewed the streaming data.

That was true for just 16% of people between the ages of 25 and 54. Five years ago, 45% of people between the age of 12 and 24 said they were using Spotify, according to Edison Research. The early adopters of streaming services were, by and large, young users. Yet it’s not clear if people are listening to more old music, or if more old people are streaming.

Meanwhile, consumption of catalog songs has climbed by a double-digit percentage. Streaming consumption of new music fell last year for the first time ever, according to Luminate, and is on pace to do so again in 2022. The trend has prompted some journalists and industry figures to claim that older music is hurting the popularity of new music. Yet Wallen’s “Dangerous” is older than that, and no one would describe it as such. Historically, “catalog” sales were anything older than 18 months. The shift is forcing the industry to reconsider its terminology. Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti,” almost certain to be this year’s top-seller, has hit No.

That elongates an album’s time on the charts. With streaming, artists get paid for each additional listen. 1 for three weeks in January of that year and never got back there. Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” the best-selling album of 1985, hit No. In the past, sales of new music were more concentrated around the initial release. The artist makes the same amount of money (and gets the same credit on the charts) if someone listens to it once or 500 times. When people buy a CD or a vinyl record, that sale is registered right away.

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