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The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More Hardcover – July 11, 2006

by Chris Anderson (Author)

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What happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture go away and everything becomes available to everyone?

"The Long Tail" is a powerful new force in our economy: the rise of the niche. As the cost of reaching consumers drops dramatically, our markets are shifting from a one-size-fits-all model of mass appeal to one of unlimited variety for unique tastes. From supermarket shelves to advertising agencies, the ability to offer vast choice is changing everything, and causing us to rethink where our markets lie and how to get to them. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it, from DVDs at Netflix to songs on iTunes to advertising on Google.

However, this is not just a virtue of online marketplaces; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for business, one that is just beginning to show its power. After a century of obsessing over the few products at the head of the demand curve, the new economics of distribution allow us to turn our focus to the many more products in the tail, which collectively can create a new market as big as the one we already know.

The Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance. New efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing are essentially resetting the definition of what's commercially viable across the board. If the 20th century was about hits, the 21st will be equally about niches.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wired editor Anderson declares the death of "common culture"—and insists that it's for the best. Why don't we all watch the same TV shows, like we used to? Because not long ago, "we had fewer alternatives to compete for our screen attention," he writes. Smash hits have existed largely because of scarcity: with a finite number of bookstore shelves and theaters and Wal-Mart CD racks, "it's only sensible to fill them with the titles that will sell best." Today, Web sites and online retailers offer seemingly infinite inventory, and the result is the "shattering of the mainstream into a zillion different cultural shards." These "countless niches" are market opportunities for those who cast a wide net and de-emphasize the search for blockbusters. It's a provocative analysis and almost certainly on target—though Anderson's assurances that these principles are equally applicable outside the media and entertainment industries are not entirely convincing. The book overuses its examples from Google, Rhapsody, iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and eBay, and it doesn't help that most of the charts of "Long Tail" curves look the same. But Anderson manages to explain a murky trend in clear language, giving entrepreneurs and the rest of us plenty to think about. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson offers a visionary look at the future of business and common culture. The long-tail phenomenon, he argues, will "re-shape our understanding of what people actually want to watch" (or read, etc.). While Anderson presents a fascinating idea backed by thoughtful (if repetitive) analysis, many critics questioned just how greatly the niche market will rework our common popular culture. Anderson convinced most reviewers in his discussion of Internet media sales, but his KitchenAid and Lego examples fell flat. A few pointed out that online markets constitute just 10 percent of U.S. retail, and brick-and-mortar stores will never disappear. Anderson's thesis came under a separate attack by Lee Gomes in his Wall Street Journal column. Anderson had defined the "98 Percent Rule" in his book to mean that no matter how much inventory is made available online, 98 percent of the items will sell at least once. Yet Gomes cited statistics that could indicate that, as the Web and Web services become more mainstream, the 98 Percent Rule may no longer apply: "Ecast [a music-streaming company] told me that now, with a much bigger inventory than when Mr. Anderson spoke to them two years ago, the quarterly no-play rate has risen from 2% to 12%. March data for the 1.1 million songs of Rhapsody, another streamer, shows a 22% no-play rate; another 19% got just one or two plays." If Anderson overreaches in his thesis, he has nonetheless written "one of those business books that, ironically, deserves more than a niche readership" (Houston Chronicle).

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Product details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Hyperion; First Edition edition (July 11, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1401302378
ISBN-13: 978-1401302375
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 391 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #466,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #411 in Books > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Research
- #529 in Books > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales > Consumer Behavior
- #722 in Books > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Web Marketing

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The Tails of Two Cats: Manx and Maine Coon

ByW. Greenon January 16, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The Manx Cat,the powerful King of the Land of Hollyork,was fat and smoked big cigars. He drank martinis for lunch. All day he bellowed, blustered and belched from his throne atop a tall, glassy tower in the big city. Beautiful girls waited on him hand and foot, hoping for an opportunity to please him. He had everything, and everyone wanted what he had. He was the king of the entertainment and business jungle. His stubby but magical golden tail was admired by all. It was the source of all that was good. It created the hit records, movies and books. It sent forward ceaseless waves of ideas, products and services that everyone purchased and used. Favored singers, actors, and writers became heroes. Other very talented people were ignored. Their voices, sometimes very sweet, went unnoticed. This fat cat was in charge. Everything of consequence was produced and delivered by the Manx Cat. The entire world hung on his every word, as they watched their Magic Picture Tubes and reacted to every twitch of his tiny, yet magical tail. He was the King of the Economic Jungle.

Now, there was another cat in a faraway land.The city people in the Manx Kingdom knew little of this part of the world and cared less.This cat was the King of the Land of Maine -- a Maine Coon Cat. Unlike the Manx, he was long of tail,lean and he lived a clean life. His kingdom was larger, more diverse and filled with great multitudes of little people. But they lived in small hamlets far apart from each other. And because the people of Maine lived so far apart, they were unaware of their own goodness and wonder.

Now the Maine Coon was good king. He traveled from village to village honestly admiring the handmade artifacts of his citizens. He would tell everyone he met about the many good works of his people. In each town he would arch his back and waggle his long tail in appreciation of their interesting and diligent efforts. The little people did create many good and different works, but their work went unknown. That is until...one day when a little girl presented the Maine Coon Cat with a special gift. It was a magical White Cube she had been given by an eccentric, but intelligent, bald-headed troll whose workshop was in an abandoned stable. The electric box captured pictures of every product, thing, talent, and service available in the Land of the Long Tail. Most magically, the Cube could send these pictures of goodies to every person in the land, every minute of the day -- and if the people wished hard enough, the pictures became real and words, music, and things of every sort were delivered instantly to the little people. Sometimes they paid for their wish -- sometimes they got things for nothing. It was a strange and wonderful machine. The people of Maine were now united. No longer were they outcast and unknown. Unlike the people of Hollyork who sold in bulk to the masses, the citizens of the Land Of Maine sold their works one by one to discriminating and dedicated customers.The Maine Coon Cat was most grateful to the little girl and to her troll friend as his Kingdom was now important just like the Manx Kingdom. He raised his long tail proudly for everyone to see. And the people cheered him.

Now the Manx Cat really didn't seem to care about the magical White Cube. His tail still had some magic -- but not quite as powerful as before, because the entire world could now see everything everyone had to offer, not just the things that were issued forth by King Manx. Although he took a pay cut, he still smoked cigars and he remained convinced he was king of everything that was important. Faraway, the Maine Coon King continued to live his clean and simple life, and he too was happy because his people were happy. They enjoyed the Kingdom of the Long Tail.

And everyone in the two kingdoms lived happily ever after.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Seminal idea, although the book is a bit padded

ByMecon January 20, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

You probably already know what "the Long Tail" means. If you don't, go take two minutes and find out.

The concept of the Long Tail is simple and powerful. Anderson first proposed the idea in 2004 and then elaborated it into this book.

The book is a little padded as the author rings a lot of changes on the idea, some of them shallow and repetitive (but some not). However, he also presents a lot of interesting data across markets. This is valuable -- the value of this idea is not just how much fun it is to talk about (and it is a lot of fun), but how well it actually explains real-world phenomena. So I appreciate data such as a table of book sales clustered by number of copies sold. I was expecting 50% padding, and I was pleased that the book was only 30% padding. That compares well with most books. :)

I would like to see more material on the temporal long tail. Anderson writes about music categories such as "jazz", "classical", "pop" (and a lot of sub-categories and micro-categories), but he doesn't split the music by the year published such as "1970s", "1980s", "1990s". A lot of musical trends are correlated with year of publication, and a lot of music listeners like the music they listened to during young adulthood. That's got to have some effect on popularity of old music.

Overall, though -- this idea explains a lot of markets, and non-market sharing, too. You need to grok this idea and this book is a very good source.

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Brave New Economics

ByEugene A. Melinoon September 21, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Neither a dystopia nor utopia, the economics of the Long Tail is disruptive. The beautiful irony is that capitalism may have fulfilled Marx's prophecy that the workers would one day control the means of production. A digital technology revolution, not a socialist revolution, has put the means of production and distribution in the hands of anyone willing to use them.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Slick, well written, good insights

ByVincent Poirieron January 11, 2008

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The bad news is that this book is really a long magazine article, which possibly reflects Chris Anderson's daytime job, editing "Wired". The Long Tail feels padded and lacks the substance of a real book. Too many of the examples are repeated.

The good news is that the one or two insights of the book really are insightful.

We've all heard the 80-20 rule of thumb that 80% of the wealth is health by 20% of the people. (The two numbers don't have to add up to 100 BTW, but we'll pass on that.) The distribution of wealth scales. In a total economy worth one billion dollars for one hundred thousand people, that means that the richest 20,000 people have 800 million dollars. But the rule can be applied to a situation as many times as we wish. 20% of 20,000 is 4,000 people who would have 80% of 800 million, or 640 million. We apply it again and find that 800 people have 512 million.

When you plot this on a graph, you'll find yourself drawing a curve that is very thick at the left (the rich few at the head) and peters out to a long thin tail (the many poor). This is called a power law distribution and many processes in nature and in economics follow it, in particular for consumer markets. Wal Mart & Sears are in the left's fat head, while the fusion jazz record store is in the curve's tail on the right.

Anderson's insight is that the internet has thickened the long tail for markets. Fifty years ago if you wanted to listen to Ethiopean jazz, you had one option: fly to Ethiopia. Thirty years ago you had the second option of going to import jazz record shops in large cities. Today, you can live in Medecine Hat, Alberta and instantly order Ethiopique No. 4 from Amazon. The demand was always there: in a population of millions there's always one or two eccentrics who want something unusual. More than that, in a population of millions on top of the ordinary necessities found in the fat head, everyone wants something special that belongs in the long tail. The long tail is thickening and the 21st century's gold mine is probably in it.

Vincent Poirier, Dublin