Yesterday’s New York Times announced that Sony Music will be making some of their back catalogue available via download store emusic in the US, which up till now has only carried music from independent labels.
Although the major labels have never been keen on emusic’s pricing policy (an average 40 cents per track), the site’s ability to ‘long tail’ music via it’s extensive community has finally proved a big enough attraction for one of the major’s to finally cut a deal.
Although Chris Anderson’s ‘Long Tail’ effect has been criticised in some quarters, emusic is a rare example of a download store where the users are as interested in the so-called ‘misses’ as they are in the ‘hits’.
Sony like every other major label has some real treasures hidden away in their back-catalogue, and emusic’s community is one that will delight in discovering these fantastic hidden classics, in a way that iTunes users may not.
What emusic ably demonstrates is the importance that both community and recommendation play in driving music purchase.
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1 comment
Phoebe says:
Jun 3, 2009
I agree that the potential of the long tail has not been disproved; maybe just not yet fully leveraged. These interesting observations from music about recommendations, community, and long-tail content apply to other media as well, such as movies (e.g. see Jinni).