The Long Tail

[jeriendhal]

A very innnnnnnnnnnnteresting examination of consumer tastes and how they relate to electronic methods of distribution.

Link: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html?tw=wn_tophead_7

Comments

retrospect

[p-o-u-n-c-e-r.livejournal.com]

This is another of those things that, in retrospect, ought to have been obvious.

International rights to US music were, once upon a time, sold under the assumption that ONLY current music was profitable -- so the rights were sold more or less forever. Your German or French teen wanted Chubby Checker on 45 or LP just like the US teens, right? And if somebody in the distant future of 1980 or so wants that stuff, then it's be up to a German press to crank out another disc ...

But when 1980 or so actually rolled around, the format was digital CDs. And to keep the "presses" busy all the time -- to distribute the costs of buying the new press among as many hours and discs as possible -- the old back stock was re-pressed. Chubby Checker, the Ink Spots, Elvis, Herman's Hermits, Steve and Edie ... anybody who had sold ALL rights FOREVER to a German or French music company suddenly started seeing their pictures on the jackets of CDs. CHEAP CDs, at that.

A secondary import market sprang up in the US. A consumer over here could either pay premium prices for an old scratched up LP, lobby the "record companies" to re-issue (and pay royalties to) old artists, or immediately upgrade the collection with an imported CD.

The domestic record companies felt nearly forced to issue cheap local CDs of backstock in order to compete with the imports.

So, fast forward another couple decades and the distribution channel is even cheaper than digital CD ...

Isn't it surprising that we are surprised by how popular, and even profitable, backstock can potentially become?