(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2007, which does not exist now).
Book Title: The Long Tail (Author: Chris Anderson)
Chris Anderson learned that in the web culture (and then in every other things), when so many things are supplied demands follow. I think it’s like Say’s Law “Supply creates its own demand” (although this Say’s Law has its different interpretations).
The title “The Long Tail” comes from the shape of the curve (this book used Rhapsody.com’s sales) with volume (of sales, etc) in the Y-axis and inventory in X-axis. In the left side where the hits are, sales are high. That’s the head. And the tail is in the right side where all the non-hits when combined are bigger than the hits.
In case of Rhapsody and iTunes, musics are offered not in the same way as the traditional shelves in music stores. They are downloadable, cheap in storage, many non-hits are offered, many obscure songs are there, and everybody from everywhere can buy, and it turns out that the non-hits have buyers.
So it’s a big change from the traditional hit-driven market to niche (non-hit) market. All niche producers (individuals or small business who are empowered by many technologies which are cheap now) can compete with all the big companies and may have customers. Not just in music and movies sold in the net, but the long tail phenomenon can be observed in many other things, as Chis Anderson studied. Many interesting stories, a good read.
Books, Arts and Beyond 