Wednesday, February 5, 2003

Chatting with high school and college kids convinces me that Clear Channel is another reason why record companies are doing poorly these days. [Steve Crandall's Surf Report 2.0] Not just college kids. How can I find out about interesting new music? I track some artists I especially like, but I have no time to explore new authors. Friend recommendations are great, but if radio is not helping them either, there will be few recommendations. Broadcast and word of mouth complement each other beautifully for information diffusion: word of mouth only can get stuck crossing between social clusters; broadcasting bridges circles. But only if broadcasters are diverse enough to reach multiple groups effectively. It could be interesting to use recent advances in mathematical analysis of information networks to indentify optimal mixes under various optimality criteria. The results might surprise the record companies. If they are willing to listen, which is unlikely. 10:04:50 AM