The Great Phenomenom of the Long Tail

Recently I have been quite interested by the long tail phenomenon as discussed by Chris Anderson in his article The Long Tail.

Increasing the supply of online products, will shift the consumer away from the 'hits' and move them towards niche products weather that be books, music/bands, movies or clothing. Chris Anderson argues that the Long Tail is a shift away from the physical world to a online environment. Producers may save money on packaging, store space and shipping costs, allowing products to be ordered only when they are sold making the product go straight from the warehouse to the consumer this cuts out all those in between stages.

Web sites such as Amazon keep record of what comsumers have bought and what topics they are interested in. The site aids the consumer by adding comments such as 'people who bought x book also bought y book' based on other consumers spending patterns. Thus opening a new door to consumers and inviting them to enjoy a book they might have not look at in the first place.

For online retailers shelf space does not matter, the number of items for sale is not limited in any way other than warehouse size, however there are issues large numbers of items that rarely sell. Cutting out the middle men reduces cost of items for consumers. But consumers must venture away from the traditional store bought item which would be sold in the head of the long tail, and towards niche items in the tail.


What appeals to the masses does not appeal to everyone. People will venture online to find new topics and interests that the physical world of retail simply cannot supply, due to many constraints.

In the physical world a muso or film producer must already be known by consumers, as making a loss is easier to do in the physical world than the online world. Anderson argues that in online sales, "a hit and a miss are on equal economic footing, both just entries in a database called up on demand, both equally worthy of being carried" This allows becoming artists to enter the artistic world of consumerism at relatively low cost.

As for weather items predominantly featured in the long tail make a profit, much research has been conducted into this area, but the fact that artists are trying to shift into the area of high sales which is not the tail end is very interesting. From a media students point of view, all items weather produced by composers, writers or seamstresses in the long tail are trying to get into that head section where glory is found and money is made.

This is an interesting statement to ponder...