Sorry for not economics at all this time. I cannot help myself not to share this great entertainment from Eurovision Song Contest 2006. You may find my detail posting related with this contest in here (with additional song lyrics in here). Just for now, let me do some “maksa” thing by relating Eurovision 2006 results with a bit of economics term. My main issues are about “product differentiation” and “consumer sovereignty” among European music audience.
As we all may know, a lot of song contest only prefers particular type of music which is mostly pop or ballads or sometimes rap or even hip hop (for Indonesia there are also KDI for dangdut music). Also, most of the performers are shape with glamorous, good-looking, fashionable style, and clear-nice voice. In economic term, we can say that a song contest would like to produce a well-defined package of merchandise that people will buy (vote). Therefore, this situation is – perhaps – violating the rule of ideal market mechanism.
Consumers (voter) have no other choice to buy because the variety of the product (song or music) was not diversified enough. Not mention that possibly there are potential consumers whose not vote because their preferences not available in the market (contest). Thus, if this choice of competition is still maintained then we can expect that there is no ‘growth’ in the society.
What we have seen in Eurovision 2006 is that another product has been offered by Finland. It was rock music. A rock band with ugly monster appearance called Lordi has been chosen to represent Finland in the competition with dominant pop or ballads song. Typical rock music style with fires on stage and loud music were performed by this band and they really rock monster! And surprisingly they gain most votes from 35 European countries audience. Even, many commentators said that this year Eurovision is the best ever, mainly because of this band uniquely-superb performance. (You may see their performance here)
IMHO, Eurovision (especially Finnish Eurovision committee) has gain very good point by giving a chance for rock music to compete in the contest. It is not only creating a good opportunity for other music genre but also offering people with more choices, which mean more audience and potential market. Simply by saying that product differentiation is still important in music market and need to be further expanded. Such a good spirit and approach on managing a big competition for a continent like Europe. Also, the consumers in this market (I mean the voter of Eurovision) show a significant sovereignty by responding very well on a new product offered.
To call for comments or opinions, I am wondering if in Indonesia there will be such a contest where all kind of music and performers may compete. It does include different island and culture in Indonesia’s diversity on folk’s music. Any of you have connection with TV broadcast? Maybe we can sell this idea…
Finally, keep the music play please...
2 comments:
Recent issue of The Economist has an article about it (to read click here)
So apparently it is also about economics, or they also enjoy being "maksa" once in a while :-p
With a leader with such a well developed sense of humor, I'm not surprised the Finns won this thing.
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