The Long Tail

I enjoy reading Chris Anderson's blog on The Long Tail. Since being exposed to this by my friend, Pam Laird, I have come to see it as a very exciting economic principle. I struggled over how to describe it - settling for now on the broad term "economic principle" as that best describes how I am applying it to my own new business development efforts. Since this market has not historically been easy to serve by a concentrated business - and now is much more so - this economic principle is creating a new frontier. Ready, set, explore!

In reading a posting from last May, I found a few interesting concepts:

• the niche markets of The Long Tail require better filters to match buyers and products. The mainstream media is not setup to handle this.
• the length of "broadcast shows" will become much more varied - and probably shorter for the most part
• between the "head" (big hits) and the "tail" (hobbies) lies the "body" (great middle ground), which Chris describes as "Existing goods that haven't reach their full potential market." Now if we can just figure out the difference between those that "haven't" and those that "never will" we will know where to invest.
• The concept of IP law being only for the "head" is interesting. Take music as an example, if RIAA is struggling to protect the "head" and in the process losing the PR battle, doesn't that create opportunities for the "tail" to take the opposite approach - free content - and win the PR battle? Maybe there is already a music service for this group. Anyone know?
• I love our new Roomba, too! I know this should be embarrassing, but I love watching its pattern.