> My recollection is that Chris Anderson's "Long Tail" never particularly promoted prosperity for those in the long tail but rather for the aggregators of the long tail. And that seems to have happened to a large degree.
This was exactly my understanding as well, but, some personal anecdotes also bring up some interesting questions.
The people on the long tail that I've seen be successful often just do things a bit differently, so I'm not entirely sure how you could easily measure success. Creators I know of use the aggregator platforms like a marketing tool, and sell "other things". So, for a couple of working musicians I know, no more CDs or any real money distributing music, you sell schwag, live concert revenue, etc. Woodworker's I've followed seem to embrace teaching and use a combination of schwag, recommended tools, educational tools, etc. in addition to the occasional custom piece of furniture. The successful ones do seem to follow the "true fans model", where they basically try to "live in their niche" out on the tail, and regularly connect with people.
But I'm not sure the long tail examples that are succeeding, are the "future of business". Really, they're just people who've done the math and figured out how to keep a small business afloat. But this money is a drop in the pond now compared to the platforms itself.
These aggregation platforms are basically becoming the gatekeepers and central banks of their marketplaces. And at least the way I've seen the long tail theory presented, they never really talk about the potential central gatekeeping aspect. It's always a happy "gee, we'll be really diverse and stuff", but never, "at the cost of fewer places to access a lot of these goods".
This was exactly my understanding as well, but, some personal anecdotes also bring up some interesting questions.
The people on the long tail that I've seen be successful often just do things a bit differently, so I'm not entirely sure how you could easily measure success. Creators I know of use the aggregator platforms like a marketing tool, and sell "other things". So, for a couple of working musicians I know, no more CDs or any real money distributing music, you sell schwag, live concert revenue, etc. Woodworker's I've followed seem to embrace teaching and use a combination of schwag, recommended tools, educational tools, etc. in addition to the occasional custom piece of furniture. The successful ones do seem to follow the "true fans model", where they basically try to "live in their niche" out on the tail, and regularly connect with people.
But I'm not sure the long tail examples that are succeeding, are the "future of business". Really, they're just people who've done the math and figured out how to keep a small business afloat. But this money is a drop in the pond now compared to the platforms itself.
These aggregation platforms are basically becoming the gatekeepers and central banks of their marketplaces. And at least the way I've seen the long tail theory presented, they never really talk about the potential central gatekeeping aspect. It's always a happy "gee, we'll be really diverse and stuff", but never, "at the cost of fewer places to access a lot of these goods".