Chris Anderson reports that Universal has released some early results from its experiment with mining the long tail. The long tail is Chris Anderson’s theory (and book) that as unit costs fall the value of a long catalogue increases and the larger the share of revenue that will be generated by small share items.
Universal released European music dating back 30 years as part of an experiment, but only in download form to minimise unit costs. The initial release in February 2006 was of 3,000 previously unavailable tracks. Since February there have been 250,000 downloads.
Universal have commented “Overall, these results lend weight to author Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail theory. In his recently published book of that name, Anderson contends that given the growing choice and diversity of music that is legitimately available through the Internet consumers will be increasingly drawn to recordings beyond current hits. In this scenario, the total sales of this repertoire (the long tail) can match or exceed those of the hits.”.
This application of the Long Tail raises some interesting research questions. Clearly there is no need to research which titles to offer, all titles should be offered. There might be some scope to do pricing research, particularly in areas such as multiple discounts and linked purchases. There is likely to be a pressing need to research the interface, to identify the best way to organise the catalogue, this research should ideally combine qualitative with trial and learn experimentation, to help users find the tracks they are looking for and the tracks they might be interested in.
To read the Universal press release click here.
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