Sean Patrick Cooper

Yet according to Adam Klein, its chief executive, eMusic has stayed strong and stuck to its indie roots by serving a niche clientele with sophisticated tastes and a tendency to buy more music than the average pop consumer.

“Everyone wanted to see if we were going to become a puppet for pop-culture music,” Mr. Klein said. “We said we never would, and we will continue to service this segment of the market, which is a very sizable segment of music connoisseurs.”

This article is a lazy examination of eMusic, the online “indie music” digital retailer. Lazy b/c the word ‘indie’ is used 8-times as a sort of cultural signifier, like hip-hop kids or skaters. Whatever, picking on the use of the word ‘indie’ is an easy target. Not worth delving deeply into.

What’s actually worth pointing out is how the company seeks to re-position itself in the digital distribution marketplace.

Take this quote again:

Mr. Klein said. “We said we never would, and we will continue to service this segment of the market, which is a very sizable segment of music connoisseurs.”

 Klein is obviously trying to not abandon the customers who brought to his company a level of cultural clout and allowed eMusic to be seen  as something like the local record store with good taste. However, he’s also trying to break into the segment of the market not frequented by ‘music connoisseurs,’ as he identifies it. This is strange, to me, to say that the quote unquote mainstream market is basically a bunch of fans with unrefined palates. I’d venture to say there’s a healthy segment of Lady Gaga’s fanbase that consider themselves to be sharply developed curators of their own preferences. Why, really, can’t a company be a curator of the below the radar fare along with the stuff that’s all over the radio and internet? The separation seems artificial, entirely arbitrary. Just make sure the music is good—service those who have a developed palette, and the revenue will accumulate.