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 Mobile - Web - Media  Thursday, Nov 17, 2005 3:08:47 PM
Thoughts on File Sharing, the music industry, and a Long Tail Some thoughts on file sharing...There's basically three types of people downloading music. 1. Collectors - these people simply must have more music. They won't listen, they won't check the songs out - they just collect more and more. I knew a guy who was like this, but was into movies. He setup several servers in his home just to store and share movies he never watched. 2. Music Fans - these people seek out the music they can't find elsewhere, and if they could, they'd buy the music. Even better, they want to buy their music and have a digital copy too. 3. Thieves - these people steal the music, and have no plans to pay for any of it. They do listen to the music, and they probably love the fact that they are getting away with taking music for free. The first population should not be see as a revenue loss. If there wasn't a means to download the music, they would never have become involved with 90% of the music in their collections. The only thing to be concerned with, is that these people become distribution centers for the last group, the thieves. You might think it would be best to take these people down, and yes, that might slow down the consumption, but the demand and the numbers are there for file sharing to continue even if you take down the "collectors." The second group are mainly taking music they can't find - or they download music to check out before they buy. This population is basically 'under-served.' The music industry STILL hasn't moved to a digitial world, there's 1,000's of recordings in vaults that people want - but the record companies don't release... because they figure it's not cost effective. In the end, they are missing out on revenue as this population empowers themselves and fills the gaps. The third population, are the only ones that they need to worry about, as they are stealing music that they would normally would have bought if file sharing didn't exist. So the question is, how does the population divide? How many people are in each of those three groups? And, how much revenue was lost when filtered though this idea of the three groups? My point here, is that the music industry benefits by not acknowledging the different groups. It's much better for them to equate every download as dollars lost - bigger numbers - more hype - more money - more press - more laws - more court cases... blah blah blah. The funny part, is that the truth about the decline in CD sales over the years has nothing to do with the Web, and everything to do with the quality of music on the market. Labels aren't interested long careers for bands and artists. They want sales. Unfotunately, you can't treat art like a commodity or a utility - once you do that, you've watered it down, you've taken the magic out, you've turned it into a consumable unit. And what do we do with consumable units? We consume and toss... it all becomes yesterday's trash. Me? I used to in group two, but that was back when Napster was really Napster. I haven't done any file sharing since then, as I'm very satisfied with my current means of acquiring music. For CDs, I hit Tower Records, shop at Amazon.com, or at Border's Books when my wife and I go down to have a coffee and browse the store. For mp3s, I have a subscription at eMusic.com, and have new music from ArtistServer.com coming in each week. What I used to download were live shows - something few labels/bands have learned to capitalize on other than Pearl Jam and several in the "Jam Band" scene like Phish and Les Claypool/Primus. People who become true fans of a band will often seek out live recordings, espeically if they were at the concert. Digital downloads of live recordings is a "Long Tail" sub-market of the music industry that is dying for harvesting. Fans should be able to go to a show, and select to pay an additional fee when they buy their ticket which would give them access to a digital download of the show the next day. See, as you start to unwrap the layers, you can find a multitude of opportunities. Consider the above idea, where "Joe" sees "Band X" - pays $5 for a copy of the show when he buys his ticket. A day later, Joe visits the site - logs in, and downloads the show. Great, more commerce, but what about marketing? What about growing a better relationship between the bands and the fans? The opportunity is all there. "Joe" signs in, grabs his download, then the site can request to add him to a mailing list that has a monthly drawing, thus growing the site's mailing list, increasing the buzz distribution, and starting a conversation between the fan and the band. I can go on and on... here's another opportunity that can grow from the above scenario - cross promotion of artists. If "Joe" came to the site, and you have his attention for a few moments, introduce him to other artists and music - there shouldn't be walls between the artists on the label. I'm ranting on tangents now :), so I'll wrap this up with a conclusion... We are being blamed for the music industry's lack of vision, their inability to evolve, and their inability to recognize the Long Tail of their market. It's not the industrial age any longer, and I might be wrong, but I think the information age already passed too. My time flies when you're having fun. 
filesharing
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