Docking The Long Tail

In my opinion, Chris Anderson's The Long Tail was dealt the best body-blow I have yet to see in Lee Gomes's Wall Street Journal column. Running a close second was the success of Pirates of The Carribean II's opening weekend.

The debate over The Long Tail is heating up but it looks to me that Chris is going to have to publish some kind of errata saying that it was perhaps an overstated theory.

Note that the notion that almost all kinds of content will find an appropriate audience works in theory but in my opinion I don't think this sounds the death knell for top 20 singles or blockbuster movies. I think -and labour the point endlessly- that the function of the long tail is a sorting mechanism: niche content that is actually good will move beyond a niche audience. Hence: Golden Age of Content.

My sincere hope is that the long tail will sound the death nell for crap blockbusters -not all blockbusters. See below for evidence of this.

Wondering what the hell The Long Tail is? Check out this short film for an intro. very clever.