I was invited to attend the launch of Chris Anderson's new book - Free - last week. Alas at the last minute I found that the one thing that was lacking in my life, was free time. Anyways, I'm quite certain that he wasn't about to be giving his latest manifesto away gratis. After the grilling he was given by his peers perhaps this latest endeavour won't be as favourable received as The Long Tail.
One other thing nearly slipped my attention this week. As I was cleaning out my inbox I caught sight of a slice of Music Week spam with news that Sony had bought a slice of IODA - who just so happen to be the digital distributor of choice for Gaymonkey.
Could this be? A frantic Google search led me to an article at Wired (the fabulous periodical edited by noneother than Mr Long Tail himself) confirming that indeed the major label is now involved with a digital distribution arm set up as an alliance of independent labels - with the belief of the long tail at the forefront of their business strategy.
A threat to our indie integrity - or a giant 'told you so' ... perhaps both. Still its an interesting sign of the times considering the last decade has been primarily about the majors protecting their assets and shunning anything that wouldn't draw what they considered to be a commercial audience. Provided IODA don't forgo their own intentions, perhaps we should all just be flattered that the big boys want to come play on our patch for a change.
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