Digital NARM - Panel Highlights And Commentary

Digital NARM Day 1: Facts, Figures and Food For Thought

A few tidbits from the first day's panels:

• According to Brad Duea, 40% of the songs that subscribers stream on Napster are by the top 100 artists… but those 100 artists only account for 10% of Napster’s download sales. Commentary: Does this mean people don’t like what they are hearing? Or that search is cannibalizing sales? Duea didn’t believe either was true… he believes subscription is simply a more attractive value proposition to customers than pay-per-download. What do you think?
• David Pakman claimed that 80% of the albums released sell less than 100 units. Commentary: Long tail, anyone?
• David Hyman reminded people that despite the popularity of social networking sites (including his own), there is a large segment of the population – mostly 21 and over.
  

• that enjoy a more passive experience like Pandora. Commentary: Just another reminder that online music consumers are a diverse group and each segment needs to be marketed to in a different way.
• Artist manager Harriet Sternberg likened 360 label deals to short-selling stock – artists who enter them are essentially cashing a check against their future. She said that unless the deal is paying you enough money to retire on, it’s probably not worth it. Commentary: I hope Madonna can retire on $150 million.

                                                              - LAURENCE TRIFON

Comments

[Cathy from eMusic]

David Pakman was referring to the stat that that Nielsen Soundscan presented on Monday that said that overall, 80% of albums released in '07 sold less than 100 units. eMusic shows the other side of this - with our focus on surfacing long tail music, 66% of our total catalogue (3.5M tracks) sells at least 1x every 6 months.