The Long Tail

One feature of the media production industry that is slowly becoming an issue of increasing significance the “long tail.” The long tail, a phrase coined by Wired magazine Editor in Chief Chris Anderson, is expanding its grasp on the media market. The long tail refers to the less popular, apparently unwanted products that most major retailers do not carry in their stores because they are not worth the shelf space. A book or DVD that will sell only a copy or two each year will not make back the money it takes to keep it stored and displayed.

These products that are not purchased often enough to justify their space in a store make up the long tail. The hit CDs and the DVDs of blockbuster movies are not part of the long tail because they are better sellers and are actually worth a store’s carrying them. For years, the big money makers enjoyed a long shelf life at major retail stores, while the long tail receded into the background, falling out of print or other forms of production. Now, times have changed.

The long tail products are staging a revolt against their more popular counterparts, with much assistance from online stores, especially those unaffiliated with major companies and retailers. Websites such as amazon.com and overstock.com are offering more variety at a lower cost than retail franchises such as Circuit City, Target, or Borders. I recently purchased the 1994 comedy film Little Big League. Grossing just over $12 million (Yahoo! Movies, 2007) during a year in which the top fifty movies ranged from $28,735,315 by Drop Zone to $329,694,499 by Forrest Gump (“Top Movies of 1994,” 2007), Little Big League was rather unpopular even when it first came out into theaters. Needless to say, it is even less popular now, and more than likely not to be carried by any store trying to make money. When a movie makes as little money as Little Big League did when it comes out on DVD, retailers are quite reluctant to keep it on their shelves.

Thus, such a movie becomes hard to find, and almost disappears. When I went to Best Buy at the Pyramid Mall, I could not find even one copy of Little Big League. When I went next door to Borders, not one copy of Little Big League. When I went over to Barnes & Noble, once again, same thing. These stores have made such movies a piece of history.

I decided the only way to get it was to buy it online. Among the websites I searched were the Internet versions of the three stores I traveled to, as well as amazon.com and overstock.com. The lowest price, after shipping and tax, was at overstock.com. Even when these larger companies try to follow the trend by complimenting their brick and mortar establishments with an online supplement, they cannot compete. The online prices must match the in-store prices or else a company could put its own stores out of business. Thus, the online sites for these major franchise retailers do not help much in lowering the prices and making them more competitive.

This shows a very important trend in current and future media distribution. The unknowns, the niche items, the non-mainstream products are now viable assets to businesses that can afford to offer them. This movement has several important consequences. First of all, there will be an incredible increase in the variety of media products available to consumers. Movies like Little Big League are not lucrative enough to make the cut at most stores. Years ago, before this trend took hold, I probably would not have been able to get my hands on a copy of that movie, or others like it. But, now I can. Secondly, the prices of these products, as well as the bestselling books, the blockbuster movies, and the hit CDs are all dropping.

Not only did I purchase Little Big League from overstock.com for a fraction of the price it would have been from Best Buy or Borders, but even last year’s favorites such as Pirates of the Caribbean and X-Men (“Top Movies of 2006,” 2007) are less on overstock.com. Lastly, what gets the go ahead for production in the first place will eventually change. Instead of only producing movies because they will be blockbuster hits, or only signing an artist who will record a multiplatinum selling album, companies can produce media that will find a niche audience and maintain a modest, yet consistent flow of profit.

This last change is very relevant to us as consumers. As these internet based, long tail companies make obscurities and non-mass products more and more profitable, it will set the stage for more of these movies, television shows, and music albums to be produced in the first place. It will be harder for big corporations to justify focusing all their resources toward the hit of the year when a movie that will reach a fraction of the number of people, might make the same amount of money, if not more.

This very well may usher in an era of smaller, independent production companies showing a better survival rate. A certain movie studio or record label that produces a very specific genre might find that it now has an more substantial outlet for its product. The survival and development of focused media production companies could definitely benefit the consumer as independently made, specialized productions improve in quality and size of selection. This trend would have a very large impact on the production of media.

While this shift in media distribution power might seem unimportant, it affects how we buy, where we buy, what we buy, and how much we pay. The long tail trend affects how we buy because we will no longer purchase our media based on what the stores tell us is popular or what the stores are pushing with their marketing and promotions. We will only buy what we want. I decided to purchase Little Big League, and I looked around to find it. The long tail phenomenon lets us decide exactly what we want, see which sellers are offering the best price and service, and purchase accordingly.

It affects where we buy because gradually, consumers will be less and less likely to make the trip to an actual store. Why would a consumer travel to a brick-and-mortar establishment to come home empty handed, or pay even more if they are even lucky enough to find what they are looking for? I used to buy DVDs exclusively from Best Buy. Now, however, I am going to look at overstock.com first. It is much easier to breeze through a few web sites, find the exact product you are looking for, and buy it for half the price.

Affecting what we buy is the biggest impact the long tail effect has. It simply gives us a wider selection. Obscure, generally unpopular, and old media products that are taken off the shelves, and probably discontinued, at major retailers are immortal when being sold by Internet companies who need only a digital picture of the product and a couple copies in their huge storage warehouse to offer it to millions of people. As addressed earlier, the long tail era has ushered in an age of much lower prices. With tax and shipping, Little Big League was going to cost me about fifteen dollars on Barnes & Noble’s web site. On overstock.com it was a little over seven dollars. The shift in pricing as the long tail takes control will be considerable.

All of this has yet to be seen. But I think that the long tail will have some very significant effects in the future. Companies, especially those on the Internet, who base their survival on those media products that make up the long tail, will bring the decline of larger chain retailers like Best Buy and Borders. This will, in turn, lower the price of such goods and increase the variety of items available.

Lastly, all of these changes in the management, economics, and content of media will bring a shift in who provides our media. The big budget studios and the major record labels will not be able to dominate if smaller companies can make just as much money by selling their products on long tail oriented web sites. Even though the long tail phenomenon is in its earliest stages of development, it is definitely growing in the consumer world and will definitely have significant ramifications in several layers of the media industry.