Apples, Oranges & Monkeys

Val Land's Weblog, Tuesday February 7

It happened when the PC and Mac was adopted at the revolutionary grassroots level by corporate America.

I remember vividly an ad that ran in the computer industry trade rags back in 1987: “MIS Director Buys Mac, Keeps Job.” It signaled the acceptance of the personal computer as a competitive asset in corporate America.

It happened in 1994 when Netscape introduced on-the-fly display of webpages, where text and graphics appeared on the screen as the web page downloaded.

It happened when Google perfected their ranking algorithm and changed the face of search.

It happened when Apple introduced the iPod and changed the physics of the music industry.

It happened this month when Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not reached the top of the charts with some 363,735 over-the-counter sales during its first week of release. Downloads from iTunes and other online venues will likely push the total over 400,000.

The biggest names in the music industry must now bow to the young Sheffield band whose records are distributed by an independent label. The Beatles’ 1963 debut Please Please Me spent 30 weeks at No 1 but took more than a year to sell 500,000 copies.

And they did this by bypassing the music industry, relying on the Web, free downloads, playing live gigs and word of mouth.

But they’ve done more than set a new record, they’ve created a new model that allows emerging artists to bypass the dysfunctional roadblocks of a broken industry.

The lesson here is starkly simple: break the rules, disrupt your market, and capture market share by engaging your prospects virally where they live: on the Web, on blogs, on podcasts, and live, at seminal, core events.