The Long Tail (2006)

The Long Tail is one of three main theories I will be using within Media In The Online Age prep. The Long Tail which was created in 2006 by Chris Anderson and his theory states that the Pre - Broadband Internet era highstreet stores would have to focus on selling the new/current/popular films of the time in order to fulfil their profit margin. But by doing this the store were it is being sold only has a limited amount of shelf space and warehouse space in order to stock these films. And by doing this and these stores stocking the new/current/popular films for consumers to buy the niche market of products would not be stocked in the same capacity as the new/current/popular films of the present day or even go as far to not be stocked at all, meaning that the consumers couldn't purchase/rent the films of their choosing. Chris Anderson's Long Tail Theory states that due to the Post/Present - Broadband Internet websites such as Play.com, Netflix and Amazon.com where able to stream the niche products digitally meaning that they are stocked to the online retailers and do not have any limitations on shelf space in a store like Blockbusters or HMV. The sales of the niche market products added together enabled will equal or overtake the profit of highstreet stores sales.

The Long Tail theory can be applied to the music industry to ,were highstreet stores like Zavvi and Virgin used to sell music as CDs and albums theses stores are now existinct and only had limited shelf space for the niche market products. All music is downloaded and streamed online through iTunes. The benefit of iTunes is that almost every artist can be found and their music purchased and downloaded. Benefiting the niche market and making a profit to.

Below shows a diagram of the Long Tail and the video created by Chris Anderson and his theory of the Long Tail.

The long Tail is the red line represents all products including the niche market which will continue and not run out and is used digitally wereas the blue line can be represented as the store Blockbuster which has just gone into administration and has limited shelf space so are not able to stock the niche products.