Music

I came across an odd story in Brand Republic today about the Long Tail in the world of music sales;

A new study of digital music sales by Will Page, chief economist of the MCPS-PRS Alliance, the not-for-profit royalty collection society, challenges the idea that niche markets are one of the most important economic models of the internet -- a theory known as the "long tail". [...] The study found that online sales success still relies on big hits, revealing that of the online singles market, 80% of all revenue came from around 52,000 tracks. In the albums market, the figures were even starker, with only 173,000 albums purchased online from the 1.23m available to buy.

The "old" idea is that the "head" is where the business is- so by having all the "hits" in stock, record shops were doing good business; they could have more records for sale, but they would be better off using their shelf space for more copies of the hits than more choice for the customers.

The "new" idea is that, when presented with more choice, there is more demand- so there comes a point where there is actually more business is selling everything outside the "head" (ie. the Long Tail) than in selling everything in it.

Through a "Guest Comment" post on the Guardian website, I came across this post by Mark Mulligan on the Jupiter Research website, on the subject of "Why music can't be 'just free'." It seems to be quite fundamentally wrong to me so I'm going to explain why I think it's wrong. (Although I'm somewhat conscious that this is my second post in a row that's attacking someone else's post and rehashing their titles with a "not" in them, I don't plan to make this a trend.)

I'm not saying here that all music can— or should— be free. My own idea of "free" is about freedom, which is just as much about the freedom of the artist as the rights of the consumer. (In the same way that I wouldn't want to stand in the way of someone who wanted to build a 21st century business by selling oil lamps. It just wouldn't stop be from using electric lightbulbs...)

But the idea that music can't be "just free" is one I fundamentally disagree with.

I came across this Wired story about a new electric guitar.

The thing about electric guitars is that they have always been kind of stuck in the past; the classic designs of the Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul and the traditional acoustic guitar shape. The way the vibrations of the strings is converted into an electrical signal has barely changed since the 1920s, and because wood is still the best material to use, the kind of engineering knowledge that's been passed down through generations of craftsmen has been more relevant than the latest scientific breakthroughs .

That is, until now.