uiscZ

Seth Godin
keters can’t buy enough ads or reach enough sneezers to
spread the word about interesting new music. So the
entire market stops.
The insight here is not that the music industry ought to
figure out a better way to solve this problem. They don’t
need a better form of advertising. The insight might be
that there isn’t a better way. The Naxos music label (they’re
the guys who sell the $8 CDs) is doing great. Why
Because they organized the product-marketing in all its
forms – around the idea that sneezers wanted good, cheap
versions of the music they already knew. Naxos was right.
The market stopped listening. Naxos won.
Sony’s classical label can’t compete because they’re not
organized at the product level or the promotion level to
win at that game. So they whither.
When faced with a market in which no one is listening,
the smartest plan is usually to leave. Plan B is to have the
insight and guts to go after a series of Purple Cows, to
launch a product/service/promotional offering that somehow
gets (the right) people to listen.
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