eMusic sales ‘support long tail theory’

The company, which was one of the first online stores to sell DRM-free MP3s in Europe, said the finding supports the existence of retail's ‘long tail’.

The ‘long tail’ theory was first mooted in 2004, in a Wired magazine article by Chris Anderson. It proposes that the mass distribution model of the Internet lets busineses sell a large selection of goods in small quantities to a large population of customers at minimum cost.

For example, while a large number of people will buy one ‘hit’ album, around the same number of people will buy albums from a combination of millions of ‘non-hit ’artists.

However, the theory recently came under criticism following a November 2008 study released by British licensing body MCPS-PRS. That study claimed that of the 13 million songs on the internet, ten million did not sell a single copy.

Madeleine Milne, eMusic Managing Director Europe, said eMusic’s sales debunked these findings.

"eMusic is the Long Tail,” she said. “Our customers buy music beyond the mainstream top 40 because we provide them with more context than any other major music retailer through Web 2.0 features, insightful editorial content, a passionate subscriber community and an easy-to-use and effective recommendation engine. And, we reinforce the music discovery experience with subscription pricing that encourages experimentation."

The firm also announced that its catalogue has surpassed five million tracks.

In November, eMusic announced the sale of 250 million downloads since establishing its current subscription model in 2003.

www.emusic.com