The Long Tail of Struggling Artists
Posted on January 11, 2006
VentureBlog has an interesting article about how aggregators and filterers will be the two technologies that benefit economically from the Long Tail.
Yet despite the fact that "Long Tail" has become short hand, the economics of the Long Tail are, to my mind, still often misunderstood. I continue to hear funding pitches that talk about the Long Tail as a powerful enabler for content creators. Companies are presented to me premised upon the increased value of Long Tail content for musicians and artists and film makers. The fact that increasingly the likes of Amazon and iTunes make it possible for Long Tail authors or bands to sell a few books or records through legitimate, recognized channels is touted as the revolution of the artist. Far from it.Chris Anderson mentioned in the excerpted paragraphs has a blog about the Long Tail here. How can individual artists benefit from the long tail? They can't benefit without moving up closer to the top of tail. At the bottom of the tail -- with little traffic -- it will be difficult for an individual artist to sell many books, songs or paintings. They need to find a way to become more popular and move up closer to the top of the tail.It is certainly the case that in the aggregate, Long Tail content is extraordinarily valuable. The question for VCs and entrepreneurs is "for whom?" I've had the good fortune over the last year or so to engage in a number of conversations about the economics of the Long Tail with Chris Anderson and to see those economics illustrated by innumerable Long Tail investment pitches. And, from those conversations and pitches, I have come to the conclusion that there are essentially two general classes of technology the will benefit economically from the Long Tail -- aggregators and filterers.