Book Review – The Long Tail

You’ve probably noticed, but increasingly when it comes to getting things that you want, there are numerous options available (mostly online) to you that weren’t before.  The rise of the personal computer, the Internet, and similar technologies allow the easier and less expensive acquisition of items that just a decade ago would be nearly impossible to find.  They also allow the creation and sale of every type of media from books to videos, to say nothing of physical items.  Just how have these things changed the way that we both produce and consume things in modern times?

The Long Tail looks at just those sorts of questions.  This book from Chris Anderson (editor in chief of Wired magazine) looks at how new rules of production and consumption are starting to change how we buy and sell items, increasingly moving purchases from the few top selling items down into the wider range of less popular items (the ‘Long Tail’ of the book’s title).  It also looks into how, as the book’s subtitle states, the ‘future of business is selling less of more’ (that is, a much, much larger inventory, with each item individually having fewer sales).  Let’s read on, shall we?

Summary

The book opens with an Introduction that starts to explain the Long Tail, noting that compared to the seventies and eighties, there are numerous more options available, particularly in areas related to media (as they are able to be transferred purely digitally).  With more ability to make their own choices, without being limited to the items in stock at a physical store, people are increasingly choosing the less popular items for at least some of their media consumption (leading to the ’98% rule’, that without limits of available choice, 98% of the available options will be viewed, listened to, or read by at least one person).

Chapter 1 – The Long Tail

The concepts of the Long Tail are further fleshed out in the first chapter.  It looks at how offline retailers have a limited amount of space, and only able to carry so many different CDs, movies, types of flour, or anything really.  By comparison, online stores have no limits on shelf space or storage, and so are able to able to carry nearly everything.  The sales of each of the less popular items in turn, while not great individually, add up to represent a sizable amount of online store sales.

Chapter 2 – The Rise and Fall of the Hit

Chapter two follows how the aforementioned limited shelf space led to the creation of the hit, the highly popular item that filled most of the shelf space and was widely followed.  As computers and the Internet allowed more and more choice with fewer limits, the hit is increasingly being replaced by the mini-hit, an item that is a success in an extremely narrow category.

Chapter 3 – A Short History of the Long Tail

All these changes didn’t happen overnight; chapter three follows some of the events that eventually produced the Long Tail.  Starting with the Sears and Roebuck catalog providing more choice than a store back around the start of the twentieth century, there have been expansions in choices ranging from supermarkets to even more catalogs in highly specific areas.  The Internet eventually allowed the Long Tail of all markets out there to be found with limited effort.

Chapter 4 – The Three Forces of the Long Tail

This chapter looks at what effects have created the Long Tail, and points to three major ones.  First, production has been democratized (personal computers have made it easier for smaller companies and amateurs to create their own products).  Second, distribution has been democratized (the Internet has allowed said products, particularly digital products, to be ordered and sent anywhere in the world).  Third, it is easier than ever to connect the buyers with the sellers, thanks to the Internet and specialized websites.

Chapter 5 – The New Producers

The next three chapters look at these forces in more detail, starting with a particularly long chapter about the producers.  It opens with a discussion of how increasingly available technology allows amateur astronomers to provide useful astronomical data to professionals, boosting the overall level of astronomical data.  This serves as an introduction to the concept of the Pro-Am class, the blurring of the line between professional and eager amateurs.  There is mention of how as you go from the professionals (those in the ‘Head’) further down the long tail, the motivations for doing the work change.  There are further notes about how probabilistic statistics (as those used by Google) are increasingly allowing amateurs to draw more attention to themselves than would be possible before the Internet was available.

Chapter 6 – The New Markets

Chapter six continues the discussion of how amateurs are able to get noticed, looking at the increasing power of aggregators, such as Amazon, that work by gathering, listing, and sorting physical goods or digital files that are available.  It notes that as such aggregators have expanded the ability of even less popular works to be found and consumed, there’s been an increasing shift toward digital products, which can be distributed over the Internet, rather than physical ones.

Chapter 7 – The New Tastemakers

With this rise of the Internet, it’s also become increasingly possible for regular individuals to set the tastes of other individuals.  It covers three different means by which Internet marketing was used to generate publicity for musical performers (one was a flop, one led to a successful mass market release, and the last group decided to keep control of their own music and not have a mass market release after all).  With so many taste makers, it’s become increasingly necessary to separate the signal (the worthwhile media out there) from the noise (the media that isn’t very good, or at least, doesn’t appeal to you).

Chapter 8 – Long Tail Economics

This chapter notes that Pareto Rule (that 80% of your inventory will account for only 20% of your sales) is becoming increasingly less potent; as stores are able to stock nearly everything, the less popular items will start to provide a larger portion of their sales in aggregate.  It goes on to note that as the traditional economic concepts of scarcity and limits to what is available are starting to be upended by the newly increasing availability of nearly everything.

Chapter 9 – The Short Head

Chapter nine looks at the other end of the curve, at the short head composed of highly popular items.  It discusses how, in order to get to such a popular level, the items in the head need to have a wide appeal, but as a result, they tend to have a shallow depth, as well (that is, they tend to be bland and don’t have a deep connection with their consumers).  As more options become available (and are easier to acquire), this head is likely to make up a lower portion of future sales, further flattening the sales curve.

Chapter 10 – The Paradise of Choice

This title, a play on ‘The Paradox of Choice’, notes that consumers don’t necessarily experience ‘choice paralysis’ (the inability to make a choice, leading them to not make any choices, as The Paradox of Choice claims) if they are confronted by a wide range of options.  To avoid choice paralysis, though, there needs to be a search service to guide the consumer to the desired choice.

Chapter 11 – Niche Culture

With all these choices, it’s becoming increasingly possible for individuals to make their own choices on entertainment and other types of culture, rather than sticking with the culture that is determined by mass media.  Rather than splitting us up into individual tribes, each composed of people who like one type of media and don’t bother with any others, chapter eleven maintains that such a niche culture will actually make us more open-minded and allow us to connect with others more easily.

Chapter 12 – The Infinite Screen

With most of the book focused on music, chapter twelve looks more closely at television and movies, and how they are affected by the infinite viewing power of the Internet.  With the increasing ability to find, view, and even produce any type of video that we wish, video entertainment will increasingly move away from big blockbusters and toward shorter, less likely to be professionally produced videos that meet our interests (think YouTube).

Chapter 13 – Beyond Entertainment

While most of the book looks at the Long Tail in media and entertainment areas, chapter thirteen notes that it is having effects in other fields as well.  It gives several examples of where businesses are applying Long Tail methods to expand their options and their sales, including both traditional businesses (like Lego and KitchenAid) and web-only businesses (including eBay and Google).

Chapter 14 – Long Tail Rules

The final chapter finishes off the book by noting the two secrets to making a thriving Long Tail business: make everything available, and help the customer find it.   It doesn’t stop there, making several suggestions as to how you put such methods into place, from lowering your costs by letting customers do the work to giving up control to simplify your business model.

Coda: Tomorrow’s Tail

The book finishes with a short segment noting that, with the rise of technology such as 3D printers, it is becoming increasingly possible to turn not only media but even actual objects into nothing but bits, allowing physical items to become an even greater part of the Long Tail.

Pros

• Very Interesting and Thought Provoking: There are a lot of good points raised, and plenty of interesting concepts discussed, within the pages of the book.
  
• Well-Supported: The conclusions and deductions made throughout the book are backed up by ample research and significant resources.
• Easy to Follow: It’s easy to get highly technical when writing on a subject like this, but Anderson keeps everything simple and understandable through the book.

Cons

I don’t say this very often (because it doesn’t happen very often), but I can’t come up with any flaws in this book.  So, no cons.

Overall

The Long Tail is a fantastic read, highly thought-provoking, and easy to understand.  It makes you think about something you probably do fairly frequently (buying and/or downloading items online) in a profoundly new light.  It’s definitely worth a read through as the world increasingly moves toward buying, selling, and enjoying products in the Long Tail.