The Long Tail

You know its interesting with the boom of the internet age and how early it is in its evolution and yet there is an exponential amount of information that continues to be uploaded every single day. With websites like Netflix or Amazon, there is a countless number of materials from specific mediums that they have in stock that seems to get lost in the pop culture spotlight. As times and trends change over time these popular materials (movies, songs, books, video games) get lost in the dust and as the new generations develop their own trends, there is still a small population that digs up the past and looks for those lost iconic materials. This interest in the past continues to keep this notion of The Long Tail, developed by Chris Anderson editor of Wired Magazine, running and making a ton of money. I really believe that all The Long Tail idea is, is about the resurgence of trends and how those trends carry over into future generations. It is all about the random purchases of the 1994 mediocre Nintendo game that no one really cared about. Those are the purchases by a bunch of people that create a large amount of income that sustains itself over a long period of time.

To me personally, I believe that this will always relatively sustain itself over time especially since the internet is only getting larger and more information is being downloaded onto it every single day. We, as a culture, have a short attention span and new trends run in and out of our lives every single day. We don't always notice what we are going to hold onto and what we are going to forget about. I know that I always look back at things from when I was a kid that was poplar and try to find it again. My girlfriend got me a Super Nintendo for my birthday last year. This is an example of The Long Tail and how it will slowly sustain itself over a long period of time and will be able to create a ton of money. But what keeps it alive is the accessibility of these materials through the websites that have been developed. Without the internet it would be much more difficult to maintain this interest and accessibility.