Little Music Sold by 'Long Tail' Theory

Posted on Dec 24th 2008 10:00AM by James Sullivan
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It's the Internet version of the old philosopher's riddle: If a song never gets downloaded, does it make a sound? According to a UK music researcher, a whopping 10 million of the 13 million or so available downloads sold not a single copy last year.

What's more, of the three million tracks that did sell to at least one listener, 80 percent were concentrated on just 52,000 "hits."

The finding has inspired a hearty round of jeering for the 'Long Tail' theory of modern marketing, which holds that the Internet has connected the sellers of niche and specialty products to buyers they might not otherwise have found. As it turns out, the music industry looks an awful lot like the rest of the planet -- a tiny number of haves, and a whole lotta have-nots.

The numbers are equally grim for album sales: Of 1.23 million available, only 173,000 were downloaded. Yes, kids, Janet Jackson's 'Feedback' was in fact downloaded for actual money once or twice.

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