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Quick! What comes into your mind when you think of big companies who sell every kind of music to every kind of customer? Or what comes into your mind when you think of Amazon, who is trying to sell every kind of product to every kind of customer?
Did the words "product knowledge" or "product expertise" come to mind? I would imagine, probably not. The early consumer sites that jumped on the net in the mid-'90s loved to talk about how big they were. "We've got 300,000 CDs." "We carry 2,000,000 books." Then a new site would open up and say, "No, we have even more, we have 500,000 CDs."
If you're impressed by numbers, then you're saying, "Wow, that's a lot of CDs." Now step back from your feeling of wonderment and ask yourself some questions. How many CDs are the employees of these "mega-stores" actually familiar with? How many have they actually heard? How many have they even seen?
My point: when you try to do the "mega-store" concept online, you have to give up something in exchange. What you give up is focus, and once you give that up, you've given up the claim to be knowledgeable about the products you carry.
Here's another problem. Have you ever tried to contact one of the Internet "mega-stores" with a product question? Two or three days later you'll probably get some answer to the effect of, "We are not able to answer that particular question at this time, should you have a question about your order...(blah, blah)."
I've listened to every single CD available at this site, most of them several times. Why? That's simple: I'm into this music! I started an Instrumental Guitar site because I love instrumental guitar music. I don't know anything about rap, so I don't sell rap. I like a lot of keyboard music, but I can't really say I'm into it. I can't distinguish a good lyric from a bad lyric, so I stay clear of that area.
Guitar Nine is all about focus. Specialize in something you can get your arms around, and you become an expert.
Does that mean I know everything about instrumental guitar music? Not hardly, but I learn about it and study it every single day of my life.
If you have a question, just ask me. I'll give you the best answer I can. And that's the difference between Guitar Nine and the "mega-stores". It's also the difference between Guitar Nine and the dozens of indie sites that carry anything and everything under the sun -- they can't be experts over their entire product line. You can't be an expert in "indie" (again, what is "indie"?) It would be like saying you are an expert in all kinds of music, and I truthfully haven't run into anyone like that in my life.
This music isn't shipped to your house from some warehouse in California, I'm literally surrounded by it. You send us an order, and I can walk a few steps and pick it. I can grab the CD off the shelf at a moment's notice and listen to it, if I've somehow forgotten the qualities that made it special.
The advantage of concentrating on a niche product like instrumental guitar music virtually guarantees the business will never be a mass market business. It also means that you'll be dealing with me, personally, in some shape or form, whether you're an artist or a customer. Size does matter.
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