Much ado about nothing: The Long Tail Debate
July 27, 2006
Chris Anderson’s blog post, magazine article, turned book, “The Long Tail, Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More” is causing quite a stir in the traditional media world. If you are not familiar with the Long Tail concept try the book or the Wikipedia entry (tail in yellow).
First Lee Gomes from the Wall Street Journal takes Chris to task in his article titled, “It May Be a Long Time Before the Long Tail is Wagging the Web.” Chris responded and Lee responded and it has turned into a fairly interesting debate. I won’t rewrite the debate as Nick Carr did a great job in a series of posts you can find here.
At the end of the day I think both sides of the debate agree that there is significant profit to be made in the long tail and that it is easier for most of us to play in the tail than in the head. Whether sales in the tail will outstrip sales in the head - does it matter? I really don’t think so. Chris has a great read on what is going on and so does Lee. I recommend the book for everyone except Britney Spears (she is so firmly fixed in the head she need not be concerned abou the tail).
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[…] TexasVC puts the debate in perspective […]
So how does the long tail square with the winner-take-all economy, which as I recall seemed to propel a number of books into the short tail of the bestseller lists a few years back?