Crowdsourcing and the Long Tail

Sell less of more! Chris Anderson’s term the long tail has become a classic since it was coined in Wired magazine in 2004. The concept of the long tail provided us with a strong image of how the internet can change the way we find information/ books/ music/ anythingwhatsoever. Probably the most cited example of the long tail in practice is Amazon where you can buy millions of books and other products. Not only do you find bestselling books, but if you want to know more about, let’s say, belly dancing, you’ll have over 2000 books to choose from. This business model is great if you have something to write about bellydancing. If there is a market, you will find it on the internet.

Last month we attended a seminar where Pim Betist, founder of Sellaband, was one of the keynote speakers. Sellaband is great. It is a place where a community of believers can buy ‘parts’ in musicbands that they like. Parts cost 10$ and if 5000 parts are sold, the artists can record an album in a professional studio with professional producers. Believers receive a cd and earn money on advertising income of the music. Pim held a great speach about the way this affects the lives of the artists. Six artists to date have managed to get the 50.000$ to make their record, something they wouldn’t have been able to if it wasn’t for the crowds who supported them. Sellaband is a crowdsourced record company!

The long tail applies to sellaband because it is a stage for bands that are not supported by the big record labels. The recording industry has grown risk-averse because of the large investments needed for the marketing of bands. If there isn’t a market that is easy to reach, Sony won’t take the risk. Sellaband let’s the believers sell the band to their friends and the people they know will like the music. If 50.000$ worth of believers support an artist, then record companies must be confident to get return on their investment. Sellaband doesn’t replace the recording industry, but it found a space that wasn’t filled by it.

Ironically the site earns a large amount of money on the disfunctioning of the long tail as well. At the time we heard Pim talk, the amount of deposited money was $750.000 of which five bands had to record an album. The math is simple: only five of about 3000 bands manage to reach the 50K threshold. The money invested in all the other bands is money in the bank for Sellaband (you can get your money refunded) which generates considerable interest. So Sellaband might be the long tail of the music industry, once on the site it’s heads more than tails…