How Do You Filter For Mojo?

Related link: http://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2005/07/prefiltering_vs.html

Most discussions of new digital media business models get around to filters pretty fast. Digital tech takes the cost of production and distribution pretty close to zero. This leads to an infinite explosion of content, so now there's value in filters that help you find the good stuff.

As Long Tail originator Chris Anderson put it recently:

"...the day when people like me [i.e. magazine editors] decide what makes it to market and what doesn't is fading. Soon everything will make it to market and the real opportunity will be in sorting it all out."

Here's the part I keep wrestling with: What's the new model filter for mojo? That is, the mystique that makes a large number of people want to buy a piece of pop culture. All the new filters I know of rely on recommendations based on assessments of merit, as in the case of blogs or Weed or garageband.com. But as much as I like and root for some of these filters, I'm not sure any has yet got to what makes people buy in large enough quantities to make it pay a living wage for the artist, not just the filter.

I don't think most people buy music or magazines or movies because of merit. They buy them as an act of tribal identification and participation. Merit of some sort is almost always necessary, but it isn't sufficient - good reviews, on their own, usually don't drive sales. Another way of looking at it is that in pop entertainment, pop culture is the medium: The pop artist modulates pop culture like a trumpet player modulates the air. Modulating pop culture is what trends are about. And a trend traditionally has been jump-started by a big marketing investment.

This may be why the new filters have yet to produce hits. Garageband.com can point to Bo Bice making it to 2nd place in the most recent American Idol contest, as well as Geoff Byrd gaining an independent record deal. But that means that the artists are now the beneficiaries of old-style, celebrity-based marketing. And note that while American Idol is younger than many of the new filters, unlike them it has already produced several hit performers.

So what's the new filter for mojo? Is there one?