Blog: Richard Hackathorn

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The Long Tail: Initial Impressions

I just started reading the book The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired Magazine. The book comes highly recommended by several colleagues, including Sami Akbay, Vice President of Marketing for GoldenGate Software.

The introduction starts by focusing on top-seller lists of hit albums, books, TV shows, and so on. Top sellers rule! At least, they have in the past, through mass distribution channels that decided what got produced. It was the old 80-20 rule. 80% of the revenues come from 20% of the products. So, focus on the 20% (top sellers) and forget the rest.

Times they are a-changing... As society shifts to the global Internet with digital goods, that same behavior does not seem to be valid. That is the revelation that Anderson highlights. The moment of insight came in a question from the CEO of Ecast, a digital jukebox company offering 10,000 albums. What percentage of the 10,000 albums sold at least one tracks over the past quarter?

Normally, the answer would be 20% or a couple of thousand albums. The actual answer is 98%. Think about this!

So, as the company added more and more albums, that 98% held and their revenue continue to grow unbounded. This is a whole new perspective on expanding your market. I can't wait to get deeper into the book...

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