The Long Tail (edit title)

• Rated 4 stars

“Synopsis: As search, storage and distribution costs trend towards zero in an increasingly digital world the economics of commerce are changing. While massively selling high-demand ‘hits’ remain important, lower costs have made it economical to trade in an ever increasing ‘Long Tail’ of low (but not zero) demand niche products a la iTunes, Amazon, eBay etc etc.

My Take: Should be seen as one of the most influential books written in recent years. Neatly identifies and summarises the paradigm change in the economics of culture and commerce that has been brought on by the Web 2.0 world. I’d read the original article this book was based on a while back so I thought I was across the concept and I wasn’t in any hurry to read the extended version, but now I’m kicking myself for not having read it earlier. There are insights on every page.

Highlight: Some stunning facts about the history of media consumption including:

In 1954, 74% of houses with TVs tuned in to watch “I Love Lucy” (compared with only around 19% who watch the highest rating show on TV today – “CSI“).
When the VCR was introduced in that late 1980s, early 1990s, movie distributors tried to sell videos at retail for $70-$80 a pop! Unsurprisingly, high market power content providers have struggled to deal with all historic changes to their market.
Finally, the most amusing description of the skills of a DJ I’ve ever read “Clubgoers vote instantly with their feet, relaying their decentralised expectation and preference info to the DJ in aggregate”. ie they leave the dance floor if they don’t like the music! (To be fair, this sentence is in no way reflective of what is an extremely accessible book).”

• Rated 5 stars

“Eye opening”

• Rated 5 stars

“Keeping on reading border-line economic books, I’ve tried this one from Chris Anderson, the editor in of Wired Magazine.

The Long Tail is about market niches and how they can be profitable in a scenario with low distribution costs (as iTunes, Netflix and so on…).


Typical long-tailed graph (ex. x-] products and y-]sales)
Longtail image refers to the sales trend in which high sales (on the y-axis) are concentrated into top sellers (the green-coloured part) which are the ”Hits” or the “Blockbusters” but a relevant part of sales’ volume (which corresponds to the area) is present also in the long tail going rightward (yellow coloured). Usually these niche’s products cannot be sold by classic bricks-and-mortars shop but they can be sold by online store (as niche music for iTunes or whatever products for eBay) where handling cost tend to zero and you have no shelving costs. The book relates this effect also to democratization of production’s tools (as cameras or recording equipment) and of distribution (as eBay, self-publishing tools or YouTube).Suggested, also for the chapter about Wikipedia, where Long Tail applies on the supplier side rather than on the demand side.”

• Rated 4 stars

“striking insight; more accurate lens on today's culture”

• Rated 3 stars

“very nice”

• Rated 4 stars

“Interesting read about the effects of technology.”

• Rated 5 stars

“No other book illustrates so clearly how the web has transformed the way we create, distribute, consume and share content.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Insightfull. Learns about the niche. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“One of the most powerful book to explain the reason why the internet changes everything when it comes to doing business. Based off a lot of scientific data, very convincing.”

• Rated 5 stars

“"One of the most powerful, and oddly inspiring books i've ever read. Makes us look at the economic climate in a totally different light, and shows us how the Internet, Social Media has changed the face of trading forever. A reference point for years to come...."

Also 2 pieces I followed up with:

http://masterpraz.blogspot.com/2009/04/master-prazs-take-why-yashraj-failed.html
http://masterpraz.blogspot.com/2009/04/long-tail-bollywood-hollywood-hits-and.html
”