Better late than never dept: There was a long story in The Washington Post this week about playlists, and the growing market for them. It starts with Justine Saylors, who "was deep in 'the grief pit' nearly two years after her son's death":
Saylors had amassed a sizable collection of some of the most heartbreaking music to be found on iTunes. And nearly all of it had been recommended not by professional critics or some sort of Amazonian collaborative filtering bot, but by people who -- judging from notes posted with their iMixes or just the song selections alone -- seemed to Justine to be much like herself: hurting, missing someone special, reaching out.
As a result, she became "one of the more visible iMix creators," on iTunes...
But as personal and private as they can be, such playlists are expected to have a significant impact on online music distribution and sales, according to one recent study by market research firm Gartner Inc. and Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. By the year 2010, the study predicts, 25 percent of online music-store transactions will be driven by people like Saylors.
The Harvard research is Consumer Taste Sharing Is Driving the Online Music Business and Democratizing Culture.
