Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead

Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by malbiniak on Thursday May 21, 2009 @07:37AM (#620237)

Isn't the success of Amazon, CD Baby, or Netflix supporting the long tail? Granted, there are additional dynamics contributing to the success of each, but...

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by stcredzero on Thursday May 21, 2009 @11:16AM (#620557)

Reminds me of this from Eric S. Raymond:

    ...the idea that the most valuable gift you can give 
    your users is the *luxury of ignorance* — software that 
    works so well, and is so discoverable to even novice 
    users, that they don’t have to read documentation or 
    spend time and mental effort to learn about it.

Convenience is the luxury of ignorance! We live in a period of time when life is rife with complex information and complex choices. Mental effort itself has become a precious commodity. This explains a lot. It also works against the Long Tail. In order to cultivate esoteric tastes, you need time and you need to pay attention. The Internet makes that easier, but it also makes it easier for the mainstream to coopt what's out there on the Long Tail.

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by philwelch on Thursday May 21, 2009 @11:25AM (#620574)

"We live in a period of time when life is rife with complex information and complex choices. Mental effort itself has become a precious commodity. This explains a lot. It also works against the Long Tail. In order to cultivate esoteric tastes, you need time and you need to pay attention."

You need time and attention to cultivate popular tastes, too. Once you discover a taste for jazz fusion or progressive metal or Japanese pop, though, you can safely stop paying attention to the rest of the music industry.

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by stcredzero on Thursday May 21, 2009 @11:35AM (#620594)

"You need time and attention to cultivate popular tastes, too."

Nope. I can just walk into Borders or B&N on the way home from work, and buy whatever's bestselling in the CD section. Done in a minute or two. (I walk to work.) What's featured or popular on iTunes? Done in a minute or two. I can just listen to what's on the Radio. Heck, I can just go to retail outlets, and they're playing this stuff for me.

The mainstream is still the most convenient, because it has the most resources behind it, because it's still the most profitable. Additionally, the mainstream is an enabler of uncultivated taste -- the ultimate convenience, the ultimate luxury of ignorance.

(In the interest of disclosure, I have played Irish Trad music for over two decades, and my preference for entertaining myself musically is to make it myself!)

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by philwelch on Thursday May 21, 2009 @11:57AM (#620629)

You know, you'd be surprised but I don't have the slightest damned idea what the best selling music is right now. A pop song can come out and I don't hear it for weeks. And I don't own a radio outside of my car.

There's a slight bump when you get into something esoteric for the first time, but afterwards, you just kind of naturally lose touch.

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by stcredzero on Thursday May 21, 2009 @12:56PM (#620729)

There's a slight bump when you get into something esoteric for the first time, but afterwards, you just kind of naturally lose touch.

Not only have I been doing Irish Trad for 20 years, I've also taught it in a music school and competed overseas in it. Thanks for letting a newbie like me know what it's like to get into something esoteric for the first time.

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by philwelch on Thursday May 21, 2009 @01:22PM (#620767)

To be fair, you edited your post after I replied to it. I didn't mean any disrespect; I was simply stating a point.

Are you saying it's more difficult for you to keep up with Irish Trad than it is for you to keep up with pop music? (It obviously takes more time and effort to be a practicing musician than to simply listen to music, but that is a separate question, one that rather confounds my original question.) In other words, are you disagreeing with me, or simply being disagreeable?

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by stcredzero on Thursday May 21, 2009 @01:47PM (#620809)

Recently, as in the past 2 weeks, I've been listening to more J-Pop.

Yes, it takes more time to enjoy a 3 minute Irish tune you play yourself than bringing up iTunes and hitting an internet radio station.

Sorry for the disagreeableness. I'm going to go and brew more coffee.

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by philwelch on Thursday May 21, 2009 @02:19PM (#620861)

But that's my point--playing it yourself is what takes more time, not the obscurity of the music.

It's possible to listen to J-Pop, outside of Japan, for almost as little effort as it takes to listen to local pop on the analog radio. I'd count that as part of the long tail (at least from an American perspective).

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by stcredzero on Thursday May 21, 2009 @02:59PM (#620943)

Even if you just take the obscurity into account, there is a bit more effort involved. But it's true that we denizens of the Long Tail have used the Internet to make things easier for each other.

My point is that Pop music can get to the point of ubiquity where it takes less than zero effort to get exposed to it. It's just floating out there. The economics drives this.

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by doug_m on Thursday May 21, 2009 @09:20AM (#620377)

That really depends what the individual shops are selling - I remember reading that almost all Amazon's revenue for CDs came down to a collection the same size as you'd find in a large high street cd library.

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by mattmaroon on Thursday May 21, 2009 @10:37AM (#620491)

No. All of them get the vast majority of their success from the same crap you find in Best Buy or WalMart. Their success only supports the theory that people prize convenience.

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Re:Declaring the ‘Long Tail’ Dead by absconditus on Thursday May 21, 2009 @11:07AM (#620547)

Sites like Etsy are probably a better example.

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