Pretty Lights: Finally Moving by md9
Actually the long tail has been progressively making all our lives a little more awesome each year in varying degrees for the past ten or so years, but that wouldn't have made for nearly as bitchin' a title. (alright, maybe not bitchin' but at least moderately more catchy) I went with the year 2004 because that's when it was first defined by editor and chief of Wired magazine Chris Anderson in his appropriately titled book "The Long Tail". The long tail lets businesses please more people and make more money while allowing us, the consumers, to celebrate our individuality at little to no additional cost. It accounts for innumerable positive aspects of our day to day lives and yet we seldom even stop to thank it. At this point I know what you are thinking "Mark, enough with the foreplay, just tell us what it is already!" Fine, but there is no need to hypothetically yell at me on my own blog.
The long tail refers to the theory that our culture and economy is shifting away from a system of high sales of a few items to low sales of LOTS of items. High sales of a few items means customers have a limited amount of choices. Low sales of lots of items means companies can target/satisfy a plethora of niche (small, specific) markets. Serving a specific market is traditionally very expensive. It requires storing and distributing its own set of goods. Over the past few years the internet has made distributing products exponentially cheaper, therefore allowing companies to reach more niche markets.
A classic example of the long tail model is Netflix. Netflix, simply known to Blockbuster as "the grim reaper", has taken the movie rental market by storm. Because Netflix doesn't have to fill thousands of storefronts with every title it carries it can offer a much wider range of titles at no cost to them from one place. Now instead of running the risk that nobody will want to rent "All Dogs Go to Heaven 2", and buying a couple thousand copies of it, Netflix can purchase one copy and make it available to every customer via the internet. Since the marginal cost of renting another movie is practically nothing, Netflix can allow its users to watch as many movies as they want and only have to charge a small monthly fee to pay the nerds who run the website. In 2007 Netflix announced that it has 85,000 available titles. I don't know how many you can find at your local Blockbuster (if you can still find a local Blockbuster) but I'm sure its a very small fraction of that.
The internet has been continuously making distribution so cheap that anyone can get their product out there if there is a corresponding niche market that might like it. My two favorite examples of this are the artist Pretty Lights and comedian Bo Burnham. Both produce excellent products that lack mass appeal but have found their niche markets by using the internet's cheap distribution. Pretty Lights has achieved fame by charging everyone's favorite price for his music, free. At PrettyLightsMusic.com you can download the entire Pretty Lights discography for absolutely nothing. Since his product only appeals to a small niche market he is making sure he reaches as many people within that market as possible. Even though he might make a few bucks of some people willing pay for his music, he makes more money through all the additional live shows his increased market presence demands. Enough said? Fine, here's more Pretty Lights
Pretty Lights: Let Em Know It's Time To Go by md9
Comedian Bo Burnham has also benefited from the cheap (aka free) distribution of the internet. He started out posting YouTube videos of his songs in high school that went viral and got him tons of exposure. Unlike most YouTube stars, Bo has actually made a career of it, staring in his own Comedy Central Presents special and having an album in stores. Here's him singing about the site that made him who he is.
One of those Youtube songs that created the buzz.
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