Internet brands leave music services to experts - Yahoo! News: "...some analysts questioning whether the business is better left to smaller companies specializing solely on running a subscription service, rather than large Internet portals or consumer brands with many other irons in the fire."
This is an interesting story about the subscription music space. They highlight an apparent paradox of the current marketplace.... existing portals and online brands with lots of visitors are having a hell of a time succeeding as a consumer's preferred vendor of music service. Perhaps it is based on consumer perception that the smaller companies are specialists (compared to the big portals' generalist image)? I suppose it's possible... back when I bought CDs, I would go out of my way to go the local record store because I felt like they would better represent my tastes and be more knowledgeable than the 60 year old guy behind the counter at the superstores. I never bought a CD from Walmart or Target... it just didn't seem right to me. Is this the equivalent of what is happening in the online marketplace? Are the portals "not cool enough" for the hardcore music fans? Don't know... but something to think about.
Speaking of specialists vs. generalists, I heard this saying a while ago and it resonated with me:
"A specialist knows more and more about less and less until eventually they know everything about nothing. Conversely, a generalists knows less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything."
I'm sure that is somewhat butchered from it's original form, but I still like it.
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