Long-tail economics

The tech bloggers are warning us that what's coming is a set of new web apps and services that have "long-tail economics" at the heart of their business models. Wired magazine recently described the long tail phenomenon. Essentially, it's a lot of small publishers getting relatively few hits as opposed to a few biggies dominating the publishing space. "(This is ) an entirely new economic model for the media and entertainment industries, one that is just beginning to show its power. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it in service after service, from DVDs at Netflix to music videos on Yahoo! Launch to songs in the iTunes Music Store and Rhapsody. People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what's available at Blockbuster Video, Tower Records, and Barnes & Noble."

So much for the mainstream. More and more, we will find it easy to drill down to that particular content that interests us--whether it be music, videos, books, or simply the thoughts and writings of other people anywhere on the planet.