[FA Worldmusic] The Long Tail of Global Music, Why International Music Will Thrive More Than Ever

[Jim Sowers]

Hi All,

I've held back on weighing in because I have had a half-drafted blog entry
sitting on my server for some time now, but wanted to chime in.  There are a
couple of points worth noting about the "long tail" via-a-vis
"global"/"world"/"international" music.

First, some long tail music is just that -- long tail music -- it is not
wildly popular in any given geographic region or genre, e.g. there are lots
of rock bands on MySpace who have a  very small following.  Well-known
genre, unknown/little-known band.

Then there is music that represents well-known artists in lesser/unknown
genres; think Lord Kitchener (Trinidad); Koffi Olomide (Congo); Brenda
Fassie (South Africa).  Each of these artists was/is wildly popular in their
home country and genre -- thus they represent the "short head" locally, but
in the grand scheme of music, they represent the long tail (compare this
with the Rock band on MySpace which does not represent a short head in any
market.)

Chris Anderson recognizes that the long tail is actually contains a
"microstructure" of "tails within tails" (see The Long Tail, p. 139, and the
graph on p. 140)

This is what Calabash Music has been trying to do, with limited success,
aggregate the best of artists in the lesser-known genres--the genres that as
a whole people refer to as "world".

Second, my definition of world/global/music is, with a few exceptions, music
that is in the long tail.  When it moves into the short head, by definition
it is no longer world music, because once it is a big enough seller, it gets
its own bin in the CD store, or rubric in the online store.  Reggaeton is a
perfect example.  In late 2002, a Cuban DJ friend of mine turned me onto
Tego Calderon when things were just get rolling.  When I played Reggaeton in
the clubs, people loved it, but nobody had heard of it.  Now it is
mainstream, and Hip-hop artists are collaborating with Reggaeton artists (no
doubt impressed/scared by the wild popularity and sales figures for
Reggaeton).  Even salsa in the past few years has moved into out of the
"world" bucket and into the mainstream, or at least into the slightly more
specific "Latin" bucket.

This leads to the third point, which Dmitri's article doesn't mention:
demographic shifts.  One of the reasons there will be greater interest in
"world" music is because of the migration of people from around the world to
the U.S. -- people who want to hear the latest from their own countries, and
they are doing it through the internet without any help from iTunes.  I can
give a score of examples, just one is http://www.naijajams.com/  ("Naija" is
a term for Nigerian), and if you want to know what is really happening in
Nigerian music, check out their site.

Fourth, the effect of having a long tail of music available online in terms
of sales dollars is unclear.  Chris Anderson concedes that whether the long
tail increases demand or just shifts it depends on a number of variables,
not the least of which is the constraint of hours in the day. Moreover,
there are downward pressures on the price of music--whether people want to
admit it or not.

Sure Apple has held at 99 cents/track, but divide the number of tracks sold
on iTunes by the number of iPods sold, and you wind up with something less
than 2 albums per iPod.  (Obviously, this is a mix of people ripping music
they have paid for, and "sharing" music they haven't).  So, while I agree
that there will be more interest in "world" music, the ultimate payoff for
artists may be better-attended concerts rather than greater revenue from
music sales.

Finally, Mr. Anderson makes some observations which are worth noting for
music aggregators: "Successful Long Tail aggregators need both hits
andniches....Consumers want one stop shopping." (Ibid. p. 148)

Shameless Plug Here:  This is why it is important to have a Calabash Music
(or someone) be successful at aggregating international/world/global music.
Much of the music will be ignored by Apple, but if it is not actually
assembled into a "long tail" somewhere, the benefits of being part of that
long tail will not flow.

Sorry if I prattled on too long.  I had no intention of writing this much
:-)

Jim Sowers
Attorney/DJ/Adventurer
Chief Rhythm Officer, Calabash Music





On 11/15/06, Anastasia Tsioulcas <anastasiat at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Actually, I wrote a piece waaay back last January :) for Billboard/Reuters
> about how well Western classical music was doing in terms of digital
> download sales, and mentioned Chris Anderson's "long tail theory" in
> passing.
>
> That article got a lot of play within the classical music business. In the
> following months, various other media outlets took up my research, stats,
> and premise--some writers took the trouble to credit Billboard, and some,
> uh, didn't (such as in the Guardian piece Ian linked to).
>
> Of particular interest to the globalistas: When I originally approached my
> editor about doing such a piece for Billboard, I suggested that I look
> specifically at world music & jazz sales *as well* as classical--I wanted to
> get a sense of how such "niche" genres as a whole were doing. Unfortunately,
> that approach got nixed, but I still think that there's a lot to be learned
> in that regard: I am convinced that these genres share many of the same
> opportunities & challenges.
>
> I've archived my piece here:
>
> http://cafeaman.blogs.com/classicals_digital_leap/
>
> Cheers,
> Anastasia
>
>
> On 11/15/06, David < davidmdalle at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > Interesting stuff, thanks Dmitri.  I wonder how this compares with the
> > situation western classical music would be in.   The Western Classicalmusic industry seems to have the longest tail in the game.  Though a lot of
> > the recordings on that tail probably have much more government and private
> > sponsorship.   From a retail perspective in the last 20 years or so, Western
> > classical music has always seemed like a "dying" breed.  But that's
> > because it (for the most part) does not create retail "hits", especially
> > when comparing big label classical divisions (Sony, Warner etc) and
> > their pop music sides.
> >
> > However the sheer amount of recordings which are made (and can be found
> > by the specialist) is simply mind-boggling.
> >
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> www.anastasiat.com
> Anastasia Tsioulcas
> anastasiat at gmail.com