The Long Tail of Global Music: Why International Music Will Thrive More Than Ever in America, Part II

Here DubMC founder/editor and global music publicist Dmitri Vietze continues to explore how the emerging Long Tail economy will affect the field of global music in America. Using Wired's editor Chris Anderson's recent book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More as a springboard, Part II in this article explores market advantages specific to the global music field in the switch to a digital distribution model. (Part I went over some "Long Tail Basics.")

Why Global Music Has an Advantage in the Long Tail Economy

“World music”—whose usefulness as a term has been debated to near-death—is not a genre of music. Some argue that it is a meta-genre or combination of hundreds of genres from around the world. Some argue that it is an ethnocentric term. Others argue that it is just a name for a CD bin at physical retail. In a future DubMC post, I will argue that “world music” is a philosophical approach to curating your own or others’ listening experiences. This definition: 1. cuts down on all the arguments about whether a certain artist, recording, or song should be classified as “world music” (of course, all of them are, unless they come from Mars, etc.); and 2. points to the future development of the market for global music in America.

Regardless, at physical retail, “world music” has been a catch-all term for a CD / cassette / vinyl bin in record stores where store managers can put all the recordings that do not fit into the “typical Western” genres (pop, rock, country, hip hop, classical, jazz, blues, etc.). Interestingly, the point of doing this was that most music fans and buyers did not know how to find or discover these music forms. We had never heard of most of the artists or even the genres (and sometimes the countries or ethnicities from which they came). We couldn’t pronounce or spell the names of the artists or sometimes even the genres. The stuff was not getting played on the radio. And there was no information superhighway where we could stumble across, research, or listen to music outside of the mainstream, let alone music that was off the cultural radar. Retailers and record labels did not think music fans would buy an album they stumbled across in the rock bin, having never heard of it and having little information from the album cover. By creating a separate space for this “other music” (usually divided into smaller separate niches by region or country), retailers and labels created an entry-point for music fans to discover something new to their ears. Adventurous fans would plop down their cash and take home a little artifact representation of music from some faraway land or some “strange” hybrid of sounds.

Everything was fine and dandy as labels and retailers found some success in positioning and selling “music from somewhere else” using this imperfect but better than ever method. But that world music section grew and grew and grew. One artist would come out of nowhere with great success and within the year a dozen copycat recordings would get released. One genre within the world music section would have some success and that genre would get flooded with releases. Stores like Tower and Border’s had these huge, luscious world music sections where one could spend hours sifting through albums. For the adventurous, globally-minded set this was retail heaven.  But for many others—whose ears may have been plenty adventurous and receptive to some fraction of the music represented there—the world music section was a big question mark. “Where would I start?” “I can’t understand what they are saying.” “There really is a place called Timbuktu!?” “That’s not a guitar!” “It smells like sweat and patchouli over there; yuck!”

I truly believe that a lot of people think that all “world music” sounds the same and that it has something to do with Birkenstocks and granola and peace-love-and-understanding. Even people whose politics do resonate in similar or overlapping ways with “the world music set” (which barely exists and is a very heterogeneous group if it does), may have significant aesthetic problems with the world music section and category as a whole. (And, for now, I will not get into the significant role that xenophobia, racism, and American nationalism has on people’s inability to give global music a chance.) As professionals in the world music field saw their market grow, they wanted to see it grow more. But at some point it hit a glass ceiling. Everyone looked for explanations. And occasionally an artist would break through and sell a million records, spurring everyone to continue on.

Some in the field started to see the world music bin (both physical and mental) as the problem. I believe it was Mel Puljic (USA representative for Wrasse Records and Sheer Sound) that first talked to me about breaking out of the “world music ghetto.” Many American music fans—especially the younger ones, who buy a lot of music (or did before it was free)—are less likely to discover music that is hiding in the world music bin (or on the world music radio program, or at the world music festivals, etc.). The argument is that fans whose primary musical identity is not global in nature, would be more likely to get exposure to a particular artist or album through another connection. This could be musical: the distortion of likembés (“thumb pianos”) by Konono No. 1, or the raunchy beats of MIA, or the trancey blues-rock riffs of Tinariwen. In the physical retail market, how could “non-world music fans” stumble upon these artists? There are no Distortion, Raunchy Beat, or Trancey Blues bins at retail. The popularity of these artists was significantly generated through blogs, MySpace, and other web-based outlets, which have more flexibility about categories, and which can make connections outside of the traditional genre relationships. Political, lifestyle, or aesthetic aspects of the bands might resonate with American fans better than regional/geographic aspects. Visual entry-points (photos, music videos) might speak to non-world-music fans in ways that the world music field has not fully tapped.

In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson argues that the almost-flat end of the tail—which represents the countless recordings that sell in, say, three digits or less—will actually get fatter (or sell more). The near-limitless digital shelf space of the Internet and the tools of discovery that are being launched and developed now will help people find previously unavailable recordings. Just as EBay is linking a very limited pool of buyers with very esoteric or specialized goods that were thought to be unsellable in a previous era, Internet retailers are finding that the more recording titles they offer, the more recording titles they sell. Wal-Mart did not stock Boban Markovic because nobody would buy it. They did not stock it because for the same amount of shelf space, they could sell a title that turned 100 times more often. But in the digital world the cost of stocking an additional title is so low, that even if it only sells one unit per year, there is profit to be made.

But this does not explain why international music will thrive more than ever in America. It explains why niche music will do better than ever, as more customers have access to more titles.  I believe customers will be able to filter and find lesser known titles better than ever. People will be discovering music in new ways. This, combined with the nature of “world music” as a diffuse grouping of seemingly infinite genres and sounds, gives global music a new source of growth.

Here are some advantages for global music in the Long Tail era:

1. There are hundreds of genres represented in international music. Each of those genres represents a new point of entry for new fans. As music fans start to access specific genres on their own terms, instead of as what they previously thought of as “world music” (a mix of a lot of unrelated styles which had certain baggage attached to it), the generalized stereotypes about “what is world music” starts to fade away. While fans might classify the world music section or certain world music compilations as “crunchy” or overtly political, etc., they will be more likely to stumble across a specific song, artist, or genre in the new models of digital music discovery that resonates with them without raising their guard about the world music aesthetic. They like funky music, so they like Fela (and they do not feel any pressure to wear a dashiki). They like puzzles, so they start exploring music forms with highly developed rules such as ragas or radifs. And so forth.

2. As people gain tools for discovering music, there becomes a greater emphasis and ability on finding new music. One of the advantages of the hundreds of genres that fall into “world music” is that they offer a wide diversity of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic structure, timbre, instrumental use, literary and oral repertoire, etc. Each of these unique characteristics is another point of entry. Whereas most forms of “Western music” are very similar to each other in these facets, when you start crossing cultures and stepping outside of the dominant Western musical influence, these characteristics start to vary widely. UK artist manager Chelima Fade recently told me, “‘World music’ is the ultimate ‘alternative music.’” Even very old traditional music will have a new sound to first-time listeners.

3. Since so-called “world music” represents so many genres and ethnic and national music forms, there is a wider array of sources and outlets for business within the field. If you are promoting rock and roll, you have rockers in every country in the world competing for the same audience (music fans, press, airplay, etc.). But each global genre, has its own unique “space,” which includes media outlets and potential fan bases, even space in the minds of potential fans. If you run a rock label, you operate in a very competitive market. If you run a “world music label” you operate in a very segmented market, which allows you to tap into niches not available to other genres. The new tools of the Internet allow you to sidestep the previous obstacles of distance and obscurity.

4. Professionals in the world music field have a lot of experience in crossing cultures and languages and operating globally. Think about how many world music labels release CDs with liner notes in four or more languages, versus record labels operating in other genres. We have global contacts and relationships. All of this gives us an advantage in an era when the world is shrinking and recordings are getting closer and closer to having a single worldwide release date.

It will be interesting to see what happens to customers’ buying habits once they have access to a catalog of virtually everything published. And how that will specifically affect “world music” sales. Though I argue that there are advantages for those in the business of promoting global music in the emerging Long Tail era, there are still many questions about how to leverage those advantages and what tools and strategies are needed to “fatten the tail.” Thoughts on those tools and strategies will be addressed in Part III, coming soon to this space.

DubMC.com is the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., world music publicity firm.

DubMC.com is the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., world music publicity firm.

Comments

[Billy Bryans]

Good posts Dimitry.

How do we speed up the process where the world music audience goes digital and learns to love blogs, downloads and YouTube?

[Webmaster]

Hey Billy,

I'm not sure there is much of a "world music" audience. We've been marketing as if there is, but in reality there are hundreds of much smaller audiences that sometimes unite into one big audience for certain releases/concerts. And to make things more complicated, those small audiences are dispersed... or maybe they live in the same town, but do not know about each other. That is all changing right now. Mostly we cannot see it in the day to day activity of life, but when we step back and look at the shifts in patterns of communication, affiliation, connection... there are major shifts happening. Audiences do loves blogs, downloads, and YouTube. It's just there are so many outlets now; they are as dispersed as the audiences. Putting up a blog or a YouTube video does not mean everyone is going to go to it. Some will, most won't. But slowly building a following based on a curatorial approach allows us all to deepen our connection with a geographically dispersed niche. Master one niche and then go onto another. And another. Link your niches and then you have an audience worth talking about.

Just my not-fully-formed opinion. Would love to see some people come on here and tell me I am wrong. I want to learn more. So let's go, loud mouths: Show me what yuh got! ;-)

Thanks for reaching out on DubMC, Billy. And props to you for the Los Van Van promotion blog you did: http://vanvanintoronto.com/. One niche at a time. (Or maybe many all at once.)

dmitri@DubMC