His definition of "The Long Tail" basically means that there will be something available for every audience. Chris explains in the article that most people think that only 20 percent of top online media will rent or sell at least once a month. He says that this is because most people are trained to believe in the "80-20" rule. But, he states that the percentage is actually about 99 percent.
Chris also had three rules to the Long Tail. The first was to make everything available. He explained that Nexflix has more titles that aren't available at Blocbuster, such as independent films, because Blockbuster mainly carries popular titles and really doesn't have the room for many independent ones. With Netflix having all sorts of titles, there's something that every person would like that is readily available. His second rule was to cut the price of products in half and then lower them. Everyone knows about how to puchase music off of iTumes or Rhapsody. The price for a song is typically 99 cents. But, Chris explains that people are actually paying to much for a single song. At the end of the day, if you purchase enough songs, it will add up to buying an album at Best Buy or Wal-Mart.
The last rule he mentioned was to "help me find it." While it's very easy to find mainstream products, products that aren't so popular that people may want are difficult at times to find. So, he suggests that commercial services need to meet "both ends of the curve". A great example he gave was with how Rhapsody has certain artists that may be mainstream, but also has a box that has "similar artists", that can take you to another artist similar to the last, and you can do the same for each artist that a person clicks on in that box.
Another important issue that Chris mentioned in the YouTube video, "Identifying the Long Tail", was the "power law". He mentions that the "power law" deals with the small number of things having a large impact. He also mentions that every form of media has a "scarcity effect"; T.V. has a certain amount of stations, radio has so many stations on its frequency, and movie theaters play movies that are new and that are popular. Here is a chart that will help explain this:
Chris also explains that Wal-Mart has about 25,000 popular music titles on its shelves, while Rhapsody has 1.5 million, iTunes has 2 million and peer-to-peer
networks have about 9 million. All in all, Chris explains that about a quarter less of each market is not available in retail stores than online services. This goes with Netflix having 25% more movies than Blockbuster has in its stores, and Amazon having about 25% more books available than inside of Barnes and Noble.
The Internet already plays a major role in the impact of the different forms of media because it offers much information and many products instantly, whenever a person requests to have it. The Long Tail is definitely the future for technology and is the best alternative for consumers.
Information cited from the following links to help write this blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yku0GTrcuw&feature=fvw
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html
Chart explaining "The Power Law" comes from the following link:
http://networkedpublics.org/about_netpublics/chris_anderson_the_longer_tail
Additional video on topic can be located at the following link:
What a nice blog site Terrone and I wish I could figure out how to make my listings like yours on the side for my readings; but, I will figure it out soon. I agree that Chris Anderson's explantion of the 80/20 rule is interesting, but if you read the introduction in the textbook he also found during his research that the 80/20 rule did not apply to online retailers, like Rhapsody. He stated that during his research he found that the 98% rule was more applicable to online retailers because even if they only sell 1 to 5 niches a month, than their sales were never at zero on the x axis of the longtail in his graph. He also explained that is why the tail was much longer then the head due to the availability of all the niches that Rhapsody sold in a month. Good Job, Suzanne
ReplyDeleteTerrone, this is an excellent summation of the video and both the magazine article and the introduction and chapter one in Chris Anderson's book "The Long Tail". Terrone you have explained the 98% rule that the author stated very accurately; and Chris Anderson stated during his research that the online retailer Rhapsody Jukebox sells 98% of all of niches at least one to 5 times a month. He also made an interesting analogy about the graph that the tail is longer than the head, or to put it another way, the x axis is longer than the Y axis or head because the x axis never bottoms out at zero, but slightly above it. This is due according to Donahoe CEO of Rhapsody,because as long as one niche or product sells every month; it therefore makes the monthly sales around 98%. By the way my blogsite address is www.thefutureoftheworldwideweb.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI like how you discussed the 'scarcity effect' and posted that YouTube video. This blog post was very well written and very well thought through.
ReplyDeleteWith today's technology and online availability, there is something out there for everyone today. I fully agree with Chris Anderson says about online sales. It took me awhile to grasp everything from his video and readings, but I do think agree with you that the long tail is where the alternative for products of consumers interests will be located.
Suzanne is correct about your understanding of the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule (that 20% of items account of 80% of all sales) no longer applies with digital distribution. The lack of physical shelf space allows of the sale of just a few (sometimes only one) of millions of different items. In the Brittany Spears (big hits) world, there were a few who made millions sales.
ReplyDeleteGreat choice on the video embed!
ReplyDelete