2010 might be time for the industry to face the music and dance

Image via CrunchBase

Subscriptions have always struggled with retention – mainly because music isn’t designed to be consumed in millions of tracks.

via midemnetblog.typepad.com

Music isn't designed to be consumed in millions of tracks because music is hit-driven and people don't know how to sample unless they've heard it on the radio or through peers first.

This is one more reason why the long tail is a canard. 80% of sales are hit-driven, the remaining 20% come from the tail, the non-popular.

Pundits say Spotify will change the game because it's download/streaming mixed model offers all you can eat music service. This again assumes that people will know what they want to sample. And they won't sample unless they hear it somewhere else first.