More on my blog entry from this morning…

Amazon announced over the weekend that they were going to be including podcasts from some of authors and artists that make up front-end of their long tail of products.  Examples include Rick Steves, Sting and some lady named Joss Stone:

Per some obscure blog: “Amazon Podcasts offers customers exclusive content and interviews they won’t find anywhere else,” said Kristi Coulter, Senior Manager of Editorial at Amazon.com. “Amazon is continually finding ways to improve the service we provide to our millions of customers. Thanks to this new and innovative podcast series, listeners can get more exclusive information about the artists, authors and actors they love.”

I’m thrilled that Amazon has included audio content into their website.  It’s not video, which would be ideal, but at least it adds a level of authenticity and human tonality to reinforce the written descriptions for each product be it a book or CD.  Soon, Amazon may be taking the S&S approach asking artists of all kinds to upload their audio interpretations of their respective works.  Soon, we may have fixture designers talking about the benefits of the kitchen sink in question.

In fact, this is what is missing.  Rather than spending time and money on an infrastructure that allows each and every author to upload their respective audio commentary, Amazon has gone out and spent what is likely millions of dollars for a select few artists.  Much of the commentary is backlogged no less.

Amazon fails to truly capture what “content” means in a world that is flat, a tail is long, etc., etc.

In previous lives I have battled with partner agencies responsible for purchasing exclusive content rights for my clients.  Time and time again millions of dollars are spent to purchase the rights to a big name that, in turn, promotes the product in question. 

However, and back to Amazon, this model just doesn’t hold water when people are spending more time watching :30 second YouTube videos of dancing cats and less time watching expensive, produced content on broadcast television.

Amazon needs to open up their entire model to let authors, artists, and creaters of all kinds upload audio and video descriptions of their work.  The backroom logistics will be rough at first - after all, they don’t want me pretending to be Sting - but once those aspects are ironed out Amazon will have a true point of differentiation in the global, online marketplace.  Such a tool in Amazon’s website will be something online shoppers  “won’t find anywhere else.”

Next step: Open up audio reviews to end users.  Make every product review an experience that goes beyond the written word.  Incorporate audio filters to scan for nasty words just like text filters are already used.  Build a level of trust online that no other marketer can even touch.