The Long Tail 2

OK, so you may have clicked from a couple of posts ago, that I just started reading Chris Anderson's book - I know I'm a bit late, but to be fair I bought it yonks ago, and have only just found time to pick it up. It also fell down the reading list order because it was hardback - way too heavy for modern-day, stingy, air baggage allowances!

Apart from being an easy read, full of consumer brands and products that I, and most readers can easily identify with, it's just soooo common sense. The kind of book that has you nodding, smiling and saying to yourself "Oh yeah.." in a sort of light bulb-moment way.

I love the way it was compiled - almost with an open source approach - with lots of view, opinions (both expert and consumer), taken into account. This has probably resulted in the concepts being so clearly explained and illustrated.

My biggest question is why I haven't noticed The Long Tail economics having a massive impact on the way record labels develop and promote new music. I assume there must be more to it than simply giving the kiss of life to the back-catalogue cash cows?? Anyhow, I have a theory, but for once I'm going to suspend judgement and keep reading.

Have You found Joy in Your Life?

OK, so I'm a year or so too late, but after watching The Bucket List on Saturday night it really got me thinking. Jack Nicholson gives an absolutely amazing performance, and Morgan Freeman is....well, his usual regal self. And, I said this blog was going to be about music, love and life - so here's a bit on life.

If you don't know the plot, its essentially about two people brought together as they face death. they create a list of things they want to do before they expire. Its a big hug of a movie, with a heartwarming storyline, and plenty of laughs and tears. Freeman's character is full of interesting bits of trivia, but the point that made me raise my eyebrows, leave the plot line and check my own soul in the mirror, was when he asks Nicholson the two questions - Have you found joy in your life? and Have you brought joy to others?

Pretty deep stuff for a Saturday night Sky Movies night on the sofa but it got quite a family debate going about how to live life and approach death (sobering, happy thought:-). Whilst one pledged to live every day as though it was their last, another vowed not to change a thing and continue to not think about death, I decided to go for the middle ground - living life to the full, with no regrets. This blog is a part of that...

Happy Record Store Day!

I like the sound of this. It can only help raise the notion that it is 'cool' to own physical - vinyl and CDs etc, especially if the content is unique eg. special artwork.

Started in the US, let's hope this really takes off here, rather than just being mentioned as the novelty story on Sky News!

Happy Record Store Day!!
http://www.recordstoreday.com/

Arr, me hearty - Pirate Bay be doomed!!

Quel Surprise, the Pirates at Pirate Bay have been made to walk the plank... all the way to jail.

Now, I had never heard of Pirate Bay (I know, where have I been!!!) - until today that is. I'm old enough to remember when napster first got its knuckles rapped years ago, so how on earth did a site with a name like "Pirate Bay", expect to get away with it??? bizarre...

I still think the majors are fighting a losing battle, but I admire their vigilance. Theft is theft after all, and whilst I see no problem in nerdy kids figuring out how to share music, I don't condone sites set up by "grown ups" that become hosts for viruses, spyware and other related nasty side-effects, which inadvertently encourage illegally obtaining material such as the new X-Men. (Calm down, Hugh - there are worse things in life... - like being beaten to the last pair of Louboutins in your size in the Harrods Boxing Day Sale)

TDK yesterday, P2P today

The first album I ever bought, on cassette, was by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine - Let it Loose. Priceless. And there were a handful of cassette singles which I also purchased to boot. However, I confess that like most of my school-friends at the time, most of the music we listened to was on home-copied cassettes, which were shared and passed around. Was this not the forerunner to Peer 2 Peer?? The technology may have changed, but the result is the same. Minimal sales, maximum availability. OK, the magnitude of the problem may be different, but is that really down to the digital revolution??

Illegal download figures are quoted as though they are some proxy for lost revenue. Really? Sure, there is some relation between the proliferation of P2P, dodgy Russian download sites and falling single and album sales, but do we really think they are like for like substitutes. Case in point, the Pendragon example of selling 50 legit copies of their music DVD in their first week of release, whilst 3,000 were downloaded illegally in the same period. Do we really think that those 3,000 would have been purchased if they weren't available illegally? I don't think so... Do people even have time to listen to all of the content they actually download illegally? I doubt it very much. And if they haven't paid for it, they are perhaps less likely to listen to it at all, if strapped for time.

So, here's my hypothesis for debate. I like music. Now that I am a grown up, who has a job, I have chosen to spend some of my disposable income on music - subscriptions, downloads and old-fashioned actual CDs. And guess what? most other grown ups I know do the same - actually most of them don't download at all, they still just buy CDs, shopping around on the internet for well-stocked, physical, value for money libraries. Grown ups that are willing to pay for music in the past will probably always pay for music, and related content, in some form or other. Grown ups, at least the law-abiding ones I know, are unlikely to deliberately illegally download or file share, even if they may have in the past dabbled on the odd Chines or Russian download site, when they thought it was 'kosher'. Kids will mostly try to get anything for free if they can, so that they can spend their totally undeserved pocket money on something else that they can't get for free - mobile phone top-ups, new computer games, magazines, sweets and chocolate, football stuff - or is that just the spoilt, over-privileged children I know? I know I'm stereotyping but a lot of this is indeed about different generational attitudes and moral codes.

So the point, again. Fighting P2P is, perhaps, a massive detractor, which is sucking in an inordinate amount of airtime, resource and government attention. P2P merely provides insight into one of the many ways that music is now accessed, and could be leveraged for future opportunities and possibilities. The technology might be new(ish), but it's really just modern TDKs isn't it? Or have I got it all wrong...

The Long Tail - What does it mean for music

In October 2004, for Wired, Chris Anderson, in the article which was the pre-cursor to his book, wrote "Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream."

Instinctively, I think we all agree with it, yet from afar it still looks as though the megabucks, development money and time only go into one-hit, or one-album wonders. Even though the platforms, infrastructure, recording artists and the paying public are probably ready for Anderson-style ways of doing business.

Take me as an example. I am a fan of a wide range of music - from mainstream rock and pop, commercial rnb, to folk and the odd bit of jazz and country. Reason being, what I really love is songs - melody, harmony, stories - and great vocals. So, I'm constantly on the lookout for new, often lesser known artists who fit this criteria - like Teedra Moses, Jazmine Sullivan, Ryan Shaw - whose music I can legally download, or better still whose gigs I can go to. And, occasionally I find a new one! but it is definitely not easy, as all airtime and promo attention is dedicated to the next Britney, Justin or X-factor sensation.

So, my conclusion - "If you build it, they will come..." Even in these credit crunch times, people will pay for good music, of a kind that they like, and that lifts their spirits. It just needs to be easier to get hold of.

Straight in at number 1...

Selling records appears to be very unlike any other product launch. All those of us that have done GCSE business studies (or a marketing degree) will at some stage have come across the development, introduction, growth, maturity model for products. And for a lot of companies, this is pretty much how it works.
Not so, it seems for the major record labels. It's either instant success, straight in at number 1, or you're toast, unceremoniously dropped or shelved after a couple of go's. This puzzles me. It seems to me that some artists grow mainly through viral marketing, eg. Eva Cassidy, or just a slow burn based on hard work - small gigs up and down the country, and relying on word of mouth, or the odd DJ endorsement. So why are they cast aside if they don't hit top ten single sales in their first week - dunno really.
I am just about old enough to remember when singles were released and climbed their way up the chart as their popularity grew. Nowadays, you hear a song for weeks and weeks before its 'official release date', with all of the promo and advertising truncated to ensure the highest possible entry point and quickest payback possible for the record company. In my mind, this is very much responsible for killing off the organic development of good music, has probably contributed to the declining single sales and is completely at odds with the business digital age, virtual communities twittering and facebooking, and the whole changing way we live our lives and consume music - spotify, owngig et al... Another frustrating example of the industry dragging its feet and hampering single 'sales' is not being able to legally download or purchase a single track on its own, for whatever reason - licensing issues, release date, whatever it may be - it's no wonder peer to peer is rife, and justifiable to some.
Instant hits is what record companies want, while instant access and availability for listeners, is still on the back burner...