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In yesterday's blog, we discussed Chris Anderson's fascinating book, The Long Tail. In Chapter One, Anderson provides us with a glimpse of his views on hit-driven economics. Data indicates that most of us want more than hits. Everyone's taste departs from the mainstream at some point and the greater our access to these vast alternatives, the more we are drawn to them.

Unfortunately, until recently, these alternatives were relegated to the fringes by overpowering marketing vehicles built by the industries which needed them to assure the success of their blockbuster hits. However, today's system of online distribution and retail makes these alternative niche products accessible and easily reached.

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This summer, we had the pleasure of reading several interesting books; the one that had the most profound effect on us, however, was Chris Anderson's book entitled The Long Tail.

We note from the outset of the book that Anderson's theory was essentially developed out of a 2004 conversation that he had with a friend of his, Robbie Vann-Adibe, the CEO of ECAST, a digital jukebox company. At page 7, Anderson describes the similarity of a digital jukebox and a regular jukebox as both are big enclosures with speakers and blinking lights, often found in bars. However there is one main difference between the two. Rather than a hundred CDs, a digital jukebox has a broadband connection to the Internet and patrons can therefore choose from thousands of tracks that are then downloaded and stored on a local hard drive.

During this conversation between Anderson and Vann-Adibe, Anderson asked Vann-Adibe what percentage of the 10,000 albums available in the jukeboxes sold at least one track per quarter. To Anderson's astonishment, the answer was 98%. Anderson soon found out the songs didn't sell in big numbers, but nearly all of them sold something. At page 8, Vann-Adibe explained to Anderson that in a world of minimal packaging costs and instant access to almost all content in a digital format, consumers exhibit consistent behaviour: they look at almost everything.