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An organisation's supply-chain mechanisms and processes are central to how well it provides either products or services. Pressure to improve the supply chain and make it more efficient, effective, responsive, agile and demand-driven is continuous. Those excelling in this category have applied visionary change to their supply-chain capability that exceeds the accepted norms for their sector
MOST VISIONARY: PEOPLESOUND.COM
Peoplesound.com is Europe's leading new music download site. 'The unique slant to the company is that everyone involved in the music industry benefits from our business,' says Martin Turner, peoplesound.com's joint founder and chief operating officer. 'Our vision is to revolutionise the music industry supply chain.'
In 1999 the company's four founders spotted an opportunity created by the changing structure of the music industry and internet growth for a significant business, serving artists, consumers and record companies. 'Recent industry changes such as falling consumer loyalty to mainstream artists, exploding marketing costs and less commercial success in launching acts have had a profound effect on record company economics,' Turner points out. 'peoplesound.com offers record companies a simple way to improve the efficiency of the new-artist discovery process.'
More than 11,000 artists are featured on the site and peoplesound.com receives 1.5 million visitors each month. Visitors to the site select the type of music they like and new navigation techniques direct them to music matching their taste. They can listen to selected tracks, using a technique called streaming, before downloading the track in MP3 format.
'The visitors to our site constitute a massive focus group for the industry,' says Turner. Consumer preferences are tracked and opinions...