NEW LIFE—AND FANS—FOR THE CLASSICS

With The Beatles’ pricey Abbey Road 50th anniversary edition cruising toward a robust first week of 75-80k, we’re seeing that classic rock remains vital in the streaming era. Indeed, Beatles songs have generated 1.7 billion streams YTD. Another eye-opening stat is that the 18-24-year-old demo represents north of 30% of Beatles listening on Spotify—more than any other demographic, including Baby Boomers.

Queen, meanwhile, has racked up 2.1m album equivalents, 949k albums, 1.73m songs and 1.4b streams this year, fueled by the release of the Bohemian Rhapsody film 11 months ago.

This is a sector of the marketplace that gets very little attention, yet it keeps churning along with remarkable consistency.