The Long Tail

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

Highlighted by mdjesse

The Long Tail

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

Highlighted by arizona2

s they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought (or as they had been led to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture).

Highlighted by atthemoney

For too long we've been suffering the tyranny of lowest-common-denominator fare, subjected to brain-dead summer blockbusters and manufactured pop.

Highlighted by atthemoney

What happened? In short, Amazon.com recommendations. The online bookseller's software noted patterns in buying behavior and suggested that readers who liked Into Thin Air would also like Touching the Void. People took the suggestion, agreed wholeheartedly, wrote rhapsodic reviews. More sales, more algorithm-fueled recommendations, and the positive feedback loop kicked in.

Highlighted by johngoodridge

What happened? In short, Amazon.com recommendations. The online bookseller's software noted patterns in buying behavior and suggested that readers who liked Into Thin Air would also like Touching the Void. People took the suggestion, agreed wholeheartedly, wrote rhapsodic reviews. More sales, more algorithm-fueled recommendations, and the positive feedback loop kicked in.

Highlighted by afc0000

Amazon changed that. It created the Touching the Void phenomenon by combining infinite shelf space with real-time information about buying trends and public opinion. The result: rising demand for an obscure book.

Highlighted by afc0000

For too long we've been suffering the tyranny of lowest-common-denominator fare, subjected to brain-dead summer blockbusters and manufactured pop. Why? Economics. Many of our assumptions about popular taste are actually artifacts of poor supply-and-demand matching - a market response to inefficient distribution.

Highlighted by afc0000

The main problem, if that's the word, is that we live in the physical world and, until recently, most of our entertainment media did, too.

Highlighted by afc0000

It's not enough for a great documentary to have a potential national audience of half a million; what matters is how many it has in the northern part of Rockville, Maryland, and among the mall shoppers of Walnut Creek, California.

Highlighted by afc0000

retailers will carry only content that can generate sufficient demand to earn its keep.

Highlighted by afc0000

In the tyranny of physical space, an audience too thinly spread is the same as no audience at all.

Highlighted by afc0000

The radio spectrum can carry only so many stations, and a coaxial cable so many TV channels. And, of course, there are only 24 hours a day of programming. The curse of broadcast technologies is that they are profligate users of limited resources.

Highlighted by ebouvier

The Long Tail

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

Highlighted by dawalker

effect of conformity and word of mouth.

Highlighted by straxz

The Long Tail

Highlighted by eyalnow

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

Highlighted by eyalnow

What happened? In short, Amazon.com recommendations.

Highlighted by eyalnow

As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought (or as they had been led to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture).

Highlighted by ratbeard

For too long we've been suffering the tyranny of lowest-common-denominator fare, subjected to brain-dead summer blockbusters and manufactured pop. Why? Economics. Many of our assumptions about popular taste are actually artifacts of poor supply-and-demand matching - a market response to inefficient distribution.

Highlighted by ratbeard

sociologists will tell you that hits are hardwired into human psychology, the combinatorial effect of conformity and word of mouth.

Highlighted by ratbeard

In the tyranny of physical space, an audience too thinly spread is the same as no audience at all.

Highlighted by ratbeard

If the 20th- century entertainment industry was about hits, the 21st will be equally about misses.

Highlighted by szulima

entertainment economy is going to be radically different from today's mass market. I

Highlighted by straxz

The past century of entertainment has offered an easy solution to these constraints. Hits fill theaters, fly off shelves, and keep listeners and viewers from touching their dials and remotes. Nothing wrong with that; indeed, sociologists will tell you that hits are hardwired into human psychology, the combinatorial effect of conformity and word of mouth. And to be sure, a healthy share of hits earn their place: Great songs, movies, and books attract big, broad audiences.

Highlighted by ChadLT

The Long Tail

Highlighted by happiocracy

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

Highlighted by yoroyoro

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

Highlighted by twiimd

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

Highlighted by happiocracy

In 1988, a British mountain climber named Joe Simpson wrote a book called Touching the Void,

Highlighted by happiocracy

Then, a decade later, a strange thing happened. Jon Krakauer wrote Into Thin Air, another book about a mountain-climbing tragedy, which became a publishing sensation. Suddenly Touching the Void started to sell again.

Highlighted by happiocracy

Amazon.com recommendations

Highlighted by wendyis

rising demand for an obscure book.

Highlighted by wendyis

This is not just a virtue of online booksellers; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for the media and entertainment industries, one that is just beginning to show its power.

Highlighted by moyrumayhem

This is not just a virtue of online booksellers; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for the media and entertainment industries, one that is just beginning to show its power. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it in service after service, from DVDs at Netflix to music videos on Yahoo! Launch to songs in the iTunes Music Store and Rhapsody. People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what's available at Blockbuster Video, Tower Records, and Barnes & Noble. And the more they find, the more they like.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what's available at Blockbuster Video, Tower Records, and Barnes & Noble. And the more they find, the more they like.

Highlighted by moyrumayhem

As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought (or as they had been led to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture).

Highlighted by wendyis

they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought

Highlighted by sanilunlu

An analysis of the sales data and trends from these services and others like them shows that the emerging digital entertainment economy is going to be radically different from today's mass market. If the 20th- century entertainment industry was about hits, the 21st will be equally about misses.

Highlighted by moyrumayhem

For too long we've been suffering the tyranny of lowest-common-denominator fare, subjected to brain-dead summer blockbusters and manufactured pop. Why? Economics. Many of our assumptions about popular taste are actually artifacts of poor supply-and-demand matching - a market response to inefficient distribution.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

Many of our assumptions about popular taste are actually artifacts of poor supply-and-demand matching - a market response to inefficient distribution

Highlighted by zeenko

The main problem, if that's the word, is that we live in the physical world and, until recently, most of our entertainment media did, too.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

The first is the need to find local audiences. An average movie theater will not show a film unless it can attract at least 1,500 people over a two-week run; that's essentially the rent for a screen. An average record store needs to sell at least two copies of a CD per year to make it worth carrying; that's the rent for a half inch of shelf space. And so on for DVD rental shops, videogame stores, booksellers, and newsstands.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

For too long we've been suffering the tyranny of lowest-common-denominator fare, subjected to brain-dead summer blockbusters and manufactured pop. Why? Economics. Many of our assumptions about popular taste are actually artifacts of poor supply-and-demand matching - a market response to inefficient distribution.

Highlighted by happiocracy

In each case, retailers will carry only content that can generate sufficient demand to earn its keep.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

It's not enough for a great documentary to have a potential national audience of half a million; what matters is how many it has in the northern part of Rockville, Maryland, and among the mall shoppers of Walnut Creek, California.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

In the tyranny of physical space, an audience too thinly spread is the same as no audience at all.

Highlighted by wendyis

In each case, retailers will carry only content that can generate sufficient demand to earn its keep. But each can pull only from a limited local population - perhaps a 10-mile radius for a typical movie theater, less than that for music and bookstores, and even less (just a mile or two) for video rental shops.

Highlighted by happiocracy

If the 20th- century entertainment industry was about hits, the 21st will be equally about misses.

Highlighted by zeenko

The other constraint of the physical world is physics itself. The radio spectrum can carry only so many stations, and a coaxial cable so many TV channels. And, of course, there are only 24 hours a day of programming. The curse of broadcast technologies is that they are profligate users of limited resources. The result is yet another instance of having to aggregate large audiences in one geographic area - another high bar, above which only a fraction of potential content rises.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

There is plenty of great entertainment with potentially large, even rapturous, national audiences that cannot clear that bar. For instance, The Triplets of Belleville, a

Highlighted by happiocracy

Hits fill theaters, fly off shelves, and keep listeners and viewers from touching their dials and remotes.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

The main problem, if that's the word, is that we live in the physical world and, until recently, most of our entertainment media did, too. But that world puts two dramatic limitations on our entertainment.

Highlighted by zeenko

In the tyranny of physical space, an audience too thinly spread is the same as no audience at all.

Highlighted by happiocracy

The first is the need to find local audiences

Highlighted by zeenko

The other constraint of the physical world is physics itself

Highlighted by zeenko

Wired 12.10: The Long Tail

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