Comment on Student's blog

Here is a comment I left on a blog post named The Long Tail, when will the music Industry get it?

I agree with your opinion that Record companies and musicians need to give in to the “trend” of the Long tail and niche markets. What they are doing wrong is still following the old business (back in the days of web 1.0 when sharing was almost unheard of). Consumers are smarter than they were before, that goes for anything, not just music. Marketing must now be more strategic than it was before to target niche audiences.
A perfect example of Strategic marketing in my opinion would be Radiohead’s release of their latest album In Rainbows. The band recognized that CD sales were declining and that digital and concert sales were growing (Gallo 2007) so they allowed people to download their music and decide which price to pay for it. Results showed that 3-5 people did not even pay for the album (Richard 2007). The release was still profitable though as it not only allowed people who had never listen to the band before get a “free” copy of the CD, it also gave Radiohead free adverting! Their revolutionary way of distributing music was documented in newspapers, blogs and even television news. The “free music” or “choose the price” strategy also proved effective in selling concert tickets since most of their shows from their around the world tour have sold out!

Chris Anderson has written a good article which expands on this topic: http://www.thelongtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/radiohead-econo.html

References:

Richards, Jonothan. 2007. 3 in 5 didn’t pay a cent for Radiohead’s Album. Times Online: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2817679.ece

Gallo, Phil. 2007. Digital Sales boost music industry, Album sales drop again. Variety: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117956655.html?categoryid=16&cs=1