Chris Anderson on Long Tails

Chris Anderson wrote an awesome article for Wired about the power of the Long Tail. I had heard the basic ideas behind the article before, with the exception of his take on MP3.com. Andersen argued that you cannot have a successful business containing only Long Tail elements.

The problem with MP3.com was that it was only Long Tail. It didn’t have license agreements with the labels to offer mainstream fare or much popular commercial music at all. Therefore, there was no familiar point of entry for consumers, no known quantity from which further exploring could begin.

He believes that you need both the hits and the long tail to create success and Amazon, Netflix, and iTunes are good examples spectrum coverage done right.