The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

The Long Tail is about the long list of products that never get the most attention in the market
yet collectively create a vast market. It's all thanks to the internet. The book was written in 2006
and holds up as a clear summary of how digital products started to replace physical products in
the 21st century. Consumer convenience and consumer choice appear to be the driving forces
that are being reflected in markets that didn't exist prior to the internet age.

In the old world of 20th Century platforms, the public has sold "the biggest hits." Prior to Amazon, Craigslist and eBay everyone
had to live with whatever made the cut at stores that based marketing on shelf space and shelf life.
Back then the journey from manufacturing to marketing involved a series of expensive bottlenecks
that only the biggest players could afford to get past.

Everything changed with the internet as the long tail began to grow while the hits began to shrink.
The long tail is like the tail of a dinosaur. Think of the head
and body of the dinosaur as "the biggest hits" and the tail as a long span of lesser known niches.
The long tail is all about how niches compare with hits on a distribution curve. Those who aggregate the long tail, such as iTunes,
by offering hits and niches, have had big success.