I Believe The Phrase You're Looking For Is 'The Long Tail'

from the yup,-that's-it dept

Wed, Jun 7th 2006 8:55am — Joseph Weisenthal

Of the various ideas about how the internet would change the entertainment industry, perhaps none have been discussed more thoroughly than Chris Anderson's theory of the long tail. As everyone would seem to know by now, the basic idea is that niche works, or older, forgotten ones can become valuable assets once the industry is no longer bound by the constraints of a physical store. So it seems odd that an article in the New York Times, on what lessons Netflix has for the entertainment industry, would cover this area exactly, without any acknowledgment of the extensive work that has already gone into studying this idea, such as Anderson's original piece. Obviously, writers don't have to cite each one of their influences when they're doing a piece, but acknowledging the important work in an area signals that the writer is up to date in the area. There's an irony in the Times article too, in that the intro is nearly identical to Anderson's original piece. Both discuss the way that the internet helped to turn a forgotten gem into a hit once again -- it seems that with a little scouring on Google, the author of this piece might have discovered Anderson's original work.

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13 Comments

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Joe Smith, 7 Jun 2006 @ 9:06am

Obviousness
Long before anyone coined the expression "long tail" it was obvious that the economic opportunity on the Internet was in niche markets. That, afterall, is the basis of the eBay business model - matching up niche buyers and sellers. No need to give credit.
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Paul, 7 Jun 2006 @ 9:13am

Simple explaination
The writer of the article has probably never heard of "The Long Tail". They were just tasked withh writing this article by deadline.
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dorpus, 7 Jun 2006 @ 9:15am

Turning Rock into Classical?
I may give people here a hissy fit by being willing to buy things through i-tunes, but are there music groups that convert rock&roll music into classical? I just discovered a group called "King's Singers" that does this with Beatles or Billy Joels tunes, turning them into church choir music.
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Just Another Joe, 7 Jun 2006 @ 9:40am

Plagiarism
After reading both articles, the Time's piece could boarder on plagiarism because of the similar ideas and arguments. Of course with an endless source of ideas and data available on the web, it could be mere coincidence, but who knows. It would, however, be interesting to read the Time's response after they read Anderson's piece.
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Bob, 7 Jun 2006 @ 11:35am

long tail coincidence
As more and more people add crap to the internet there is more chance of accidental plagiarism.

I think this might be a unqiue idea.

nope, 1,430,000 result on google.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Jun 2006 @ 12:09pm

Re: Turning Rock into Classical?
arthur fiedler and the boston pops
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Spencer Roads, 7 Jun 2006 @ 1:18pm

Re: Turning Rock into Classical?
Yeah, try the Kronos Quartet -- spectacular cover of Hendrix's Purple Haze, to name one.
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freakengine, 7 Jun 2006 @ 1:23pm

It seems that as it gets easier and easier to do research, fewer and fewer reporters are willing to do the legwork. For example, I recently read a Reuters article with blatant factual errors. When I emailed them about it, all I got was a form letter response. I wonder if the editorial staff even notified the writer of the errors.
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Leo, 7 Jun 2006 @ 1:24pm

A million monkeys
Who was it that said: "If you sat a million monkeys down to type for a million years, statistically one compose Romeo and Juliet"... i butchered it

So credit wasnt given where its due, who cares? At this point, i am hard pressed to believe that anything written on the net is, at its best, not merely a collection of other people's work cut and pasted with some transitions in betweeen. Need i remind everyone of virtually every high school and college paper they ever wote?
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Leo, 7 Jun 2006 @ 1:24pm

A million monkeys
Who was it that said: "If you sat a million monkeys down to type for a million years, statistically one compose Romeo and Juliet"... i butchered it

So credit wasnt given where its due, who cares? At this point, i am hard pressed to believe that anything written on the net is, at its best, not merely a collection of other people's work cut and pasted with some transitions in betweeen. Need i remind everyone of virtually every high school and college paper they ever wote?
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Jun 2006 @ 2:26pm

Re: Turning Rock into Classical?
Apocalyptica (metal played on 4 cellos)
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Jrock, 7 Jun 2006 @ 2:32pm

Re: A million monkeys
Virtually? Wrote?!?! haha, all jokes aside, I agree. I think we are getting dangerously close to the point in our existence where unique ideas (and especially unique pieces of written language) are extinct. Come on, nothing anyone says is original. We all put words together in ways we have already heard them put together. And if you think you are the first person to come up with your ingenious idea of recycled toilet paper or whatever it is, you are wrong. A hundred thousand other peanut brains already thought it up and it's probably patented, or written about, or on the market. We're all so obsessed with originality but it is just an illusion.
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tomka, 29 Jul 2008 @ 4:51am

re
megaupload search My favorite megaupload search engine is megauploadfiles.com it’s the most powerful an easy to use. megauploadfiles.com has incredible speed of searching rapidshare links in the internet.
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