Music, Real Estate and the Long Tail
by Aner Ravon

A friend of mine put her apartment for rent a few weeks ago. She was surprised to find out that real estate brokers have picked up her free ad and have taken credit for her apartment in their displayed inventory. She was then amazed to discover that this stunt has been performed by quite a few who were now competing with each other over the commission they obligated their clients to pay for her freely advertized apartment. This made me think (again) of where web 2.0 fits in cutting harmful middlemen.

We all encounter real estate agents. Most of us really don’t like them. Whether we are looking to buy, rent or sell, they are always there, feeding off somebody else’s value. Now don’t get me wrong - good real estate brokers are helpful when they actually provide professional added value, usually in less then obvious situations. If you are looking for a summer home or if you are interested in financial real estate investments, get good professional help. But if you are a student looking to rent, or as a young provider looking to buy the first family home, real estate agents are nothing but leaches. As most people are looking for the obvious stuff, real estate brokers are a classic example of long tail value. I can’t see web 2.0 filling in for niche, lucrative, real estate brokers and the mainstream ones will eventually be replaced by web services. As a matter of fact, they already are.

But what CAN web 2.0 replace effectively? for a long while I believe the most promising arena for quantum leaping through web 2.0 is music. I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but who needs the record labels? I love listening to music, I love playing with music, I enjoy experimenting with music and its my favorite social communication pick up line. What I don’t like is supporting record labers that look to shape my taste, screen the artists before forcing them to slavery contracts, package and over price music for me and then whine about P2P piracy. If you’re an artist or if you appreciate art - go direct! If you’re a web 2.0 master with passion for music - get your taste out there for the community! Cheaper, more effective and gets the money to the right hands.

Music is not only a dominant human passion. Music also drives a very exciting web 2.0 space. We all know iTunes and Pandora. But there are less known, very cool, tools which help us navigate through the music maze of the web. Musicstrands (coverage by Techcrunch), for example, is a fantastic idea. It is a PC plug-in that  tracks what you have been playing and generates your music charts automatically. It then helps you share your profile with your friends and get recommendations. eJamming powers virtual jam sessions by bringing together musicians from all over the world. If you ever needed proof for where web 2.0 and the long tail mix well, there it is. Last.fm allows people to collaborate tastes in order to create personal radio stations. Are we possibly overlooking the biggest social phenomenon?

As mobile phones quickly become iPods and radios, additional and new value chains are forming. It will be very interesting to follow the creation of the ownerships and how the web 2.0 current blends in. I hope it won’t be limited to pre-edited playlists, mobile iTunes and ringtone frenzy. Not that these are not important, but there is something I miss which they don’t provide the answer to. What I miss is a layer that will help musicians and music lovers to monetize their passion to money. Such money that will not only compensate the creators but that will cap the long tail and minimize the role of the middlemen.

Aner Ravon
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