Link slideshare:

http://www.slideshare.net/sarasarrouf/the-long-tail-yahoo-3834745

Yahoo Launches Low-Cost Music Service

Subscription service undercuts competing services from RealNetworks and Napster.

Switching from a traditional record store to a global online music library

What is long tail?

Long tail in entertainment is simply making everything available, providing alternatives, and segmenting the market in a way to shift from mass marketing into a customized marketing.

Yahoo has launched a version of Yahoo Music Unlimited, a new, aggressively-priced online music subscription service.

By doing that, Yahoo is trying to give a huge variety of songs, Hits and Misses in the same time!

Why? Simply because there are other tastes in the market pie! And these tastes will eventually develop and attract its target market where these customers will show loyalty to the site. Imagine entering to a supermarket and you don’t find what you are looking for, you will never step into that shop anymore!

RULE NUMBER 1: MAKE EVERYTHING AVAILABLE

How? Again, simply by offering a balance between supply and demand. All around the world there is a lack of supply. And, that is the difference between online and offline business. In e-business, there are no shelves spaces to take into consideration. There is equivalent data entry and tracks will be downloaded on demand.

Not to forget that yahoo is concentrating on the genre of each song in order to suggest other unknown alternatives / misses. So, yahoo will outcome today’s traditional marketing that focuses on rated albums and songs.

By doing that, yahoo will be eliminating the 80-20 rule also known as Pareto’s principle and creating fair distribution between hits and misses.

RULE NUMBER 2: LOWER THE PRICE

Less costs ............. Less prices

For an introductory price of $59.88 a year, or $6.99 when paid monthly, the service will give users access to over 1 million songs from all major record labels and most independent labels.

With its pricing, Yahoo is undercutting rivals RealNetworks and Napster, which both charge about $15 a month for comparable services. Apple Computer's ITunes, the biggest online music store, doesn't offer subscriptions but charges users per song or album download.

Yahoo Music Unlimited also will offer songs for purchase for $0.99 a track. Subscribers will be able to purchase and permanently own tracks for $0.79 a piece. Purchased songs can be burned onto a CD, transferred to portable devices, and used on a total of five PCs, according to Yahoo.

RULE NUMBER 3: HELP ME FIND IT

Yahoo will offer tracks in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) format encoded at 192 kbps, a high quality when compared with other services. Users can also transfer music to digital media players that support Microsoft's latest digital rights management (DRM) technology.

Yahoo Music Unlimited includes the Yahoo Music Engine, software that will let users manage their music collection. Users will also be able to share their music with others via Yahoo Messenger and will get access to Yahoo's LAUNCHcast online radio service,.

And as we have mentioned before, yahoo is using e-marketing to help customers find the new provided service, these e-marketing contain; providing external links and suggesting the site as an alternative, using main search engines on the net, and targeting and positioning groups with similar activities especially on facebook, youtube, tagged, and many others.

Of course not to forget the licensed agreements obtained from the artists and record companies to avoid conflicts and not to end up like mp3.com

Finally!

We conclude that new modern technology and the internet are making the world more globalized. And is eliminating border in a way that everyone in concerned. And the long tail concept represent a deep look and explain precisely that reaching niche market will eventually create a new market with tons of opportunities.

Ref: T3 magazine march 2010\ yahoo.com

Link slideshare:

http://www.slideshare.net/sarasarrouf/the-long-tail-yahoo-3834745