Den långa svansen har alltid behövt hitsen

Fredrik Wackå har pratat med Märta Stenevi, marknadschef på Bokus, som bekrätftar att den långa svansen finns. Dock verkar Märta ha missat att Chris Anderson i sin ursprungliga artikel tydligt pekar på att en återförsäljare behöver erbjuda både de stora hitsen och den långa svansen.

"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.

Offering only hits is no better. Think of the struggling video-on-demand services of the cable companies. Or think of Movielink, the feeble video download service run by the studios. Due to overcontrolling providers and high costs, they suffer from limited content: in most cases just a few hundred recent releases. There's not enough choice to change consumer behavior, to become a real force in the entertainment economy.

By contrast, the success of Netflix, Amazon, and the commercial music services shows that you need both ends of the curve. Their huge libraries of less-mainstream fare set them apart, but hits still matter in attracting consumers in the first place. Great Long Tail businesses can then guide consumers further afield by following the contours of their likes and dislikes, easing their exploration of the unknown."

När Fredrik sammanfattar det hela med "Den långa svansen finns alltså. Men kroppen behövs för att vifta med den." så understryker han en central del i The Long Tail snarare än att peka på något nytt.