I have talked enough about this topic in various blogs, presentations and events. Sometimes I try to be explicit in the reasoning and other times I add it as a point of reference...

So The Long Tail - as described throughout by Chris Anderson and others talks about  - and here I am talking about the digital media Long Tail where unlimited breadth and depth of a digital catalogue and should become unlimited to the point that it is really only metadata on a webpage, application and a rack of servers that can deliver this content. Content can be amassed from anywhere in the world, multiple suppliers, with multiple digital assets and that the niche products further down the line will be available to all. Therefore catering for, so the assumption goes, every need, whim, want and requirement by the end user and consumer without the added headache of physical storage of that item.

Compare that to the early days of The Long Tail way before Chris published his book where traditional retailers and resellers fought in the late 80's & 90's to be the biggest, deepest and widest range of products housed under one roof (or at least able to distribute that to a physical store) This however did not work as a good business practice as the stock turn and stock holding figures exceeded the business forecasts. As traditionally the Long Tail product (being niche) would, could and did sit in warehouses, shelves and boxes gathering dust and in a lot of cases devaluing quarter by quarter - as to find that hidden gem or specific item that the consumer had been searching for may well be mis-placed, filed, located - not on sale - stuck hundred of miles in a warehouse in the Midlands. Which meant that window of opportunity was in effect lost for another 'x' months.

The result was huge stock write offs from businesses that attempted to re-address this during the late 90s. Core ranges and top sellers would be the core of the business as well as new lines. These would be defined based on the stock turn of each SKU and therefore a new product that didn't hit the stock turn figure defined by the business would be relegated and in most cases defined as a niche product never to grace the sales floor again. This of course made these stores look and feel very... well empty! From the halcyon days of stuffed to the ceiling of stock that could effectively have anything the consumer wanted - to only the real movers and in effect 10% of the entire Long Tail. These business needed to rethink what their offer was going to be - diversification was the key and winner for some (look at Tesco in their dominance - they would never had the same success had they stuck to grocery only) others would downsize and become a core niche play in their own right. Others found the stock write off process too much to bear and in teh end had to liquidate their assets to clear their books.

Then along came the Internet....

If you want to know and understand how the Long Tail and in effect Amazon championed this then read Chris Anderson's book - not new but great to read how these ideas have been structured in his book.

Now we are into Digital Media and where does the Long Tail fit within here.

Back in the early 2000's and the emergence of digital media and in effect portable music files - the strategist among us though that this was the perfect playing ground for the full long tail. Forget a few hundred of thousands products, even forget a millions SKUs - if done correctly the option to have a 20million SKU Long Tail would be possible and the value of that would be truly immense. Suddenly the race was on to build the archetypal platform that could access, serve up and deliver this untapped beast and the ultimate Long Tail would be the rich pickings for the winner!!

As we all know Apple delivered an eco-system that included device, software and content to the extent that they achieved the goal that other scrambled for. Yes their were lots of 2nd, 3rd, 4th placed companies. The consumer adopted Apple as their digital media safety blanket - but there was a problem. A big problem!

What was the value of the Digital Long Tail vs the "perceived" value of the Digital Long Tail? The figures never matched up. They failed to match up for a number of reasons... here are my key 10 reasons...

1. The top 20% of the Long Tail would deliver $ day in and day out without too much trouble or much marketing
2. The availability of the longer tailed items had not yet been digitised or made available
3. The metadata that was being delivered, matched or mixed together was either not there or in a lot of cases just rubbish
4. Apathy some of the mid tier long tail products in the past had been marketed, repackaged, republished, remanufactured and redelivered so many times that there was only so many times that the classic recording of "x" was going to be purchased. Especially when the digital price was now beginning to show a higher cost to the end user compared to the physical units that were now being pushed, heavily discounted or part of a multi-buy campaign to appease the physical retailer.
5. The excuse of  "it costs more because of convenience and instant gratification" failed to wash
6. D R M (enough said about that)
7. Illegal P2P - if the consumer can't find it, cant see it, cant hear it or want DRM - then they will hunt it down themselves. Look at The Beatles and AllofMP3.com - demand for Beatles digital music - which at £3 for The White Album - non-traditional illegal downloaders went there, put their credit card details in and started downloading - they had no idea that this was illegally ripped content being made available to them - but again the demand was there.
8. The labels greed and their own continued fight for survival meant that they had to keep as much of a constant on price from the top tier of their catalogue vs the lowest point of their own individual long tail - why? their digital assets would then be revised as an asset and accordingly lose money of their share value if the word in The City was that $X was just devalued off their catalogue (something that would come back to haunt Warners in 2008)
9. Discovery and unlocking the content based on the users listening habits, purchase habits, mood, discovery, something different or just based on a factor that is human nature - these were few and far between. Where does these relationships live, how are they accessed and how are they then delivered to the consumer that makes sense and encourages more sales based on their experience that has been given. Enter companies such as Muze, AMG, The Filter, Last FM, Pandora to name but a few that would start to bring together relationships and common sense of all this data. Where the data was available that is.. Previously this was based on "customers who purchased X also purchased Y" - no reason other than that. Relationships borne out of Band A were directly influenced by Band B therefore if you like Band A you should like Band B - this kind of hit and miss would stimulate a small proportion of the tail - but nothing that would sustain or deliver a consistent increase and deeper penetration into the long tail that would hold the "valuable" assets
10. Ability to have a complete picture and available access via home > car > mobile > device > work > limitations from the labels and studios meant that there would always be a limitation placed on the consumer that only "x" number of devices, "x" number of activations "x" number of transfers. Now was the time that we as passionate muisc lovers that had a passion and engineering / technical background that could start to bring all this data of listening, buying, trends, influences etc.. all to bear to create the ultimate experience that ultimately would help everyone. Help the labels and studios start to stimulate and sell more products, help the retailer / reseller also start o influence the user by delivering more richer and immersive experiences that went beyond just the original product asset and into the diverse range of products that complemented - such as merchandise, tickets, documentaries, books, articles the list is in fact endless.

Now we reach a state of "FREE" - what is free? how can it be classed? why should it be free? someone has to be paid?...etc

All this and more - this is not coming from people like me and most of my readers. Nor is coming from the "Baby Boomers" that are currently in CEO positions of these large companies. This is coming from the next Generation (Gen Y) that have been let down by technology, access, experience, greed, expectations that the people in charge of the music and entertainment "understand" what they want and how they want to enjoy their music and how? It's not bigger, better and more packaging as EMI and others would like to think will stimulate the "kids" to purchase a physical copy. Nor is it laden down with so much DRM that the can not switch on their mobile before using up a licence. They want to be able to use, listen, share and send to their friends as my generation did back in the day - only now the kids have more technology and gadgets to play with that gives them instant gratification as and when they want it (or so you would think..)

I was of course compelled to kick off this blog (which I have touched on this subject before after I read a Blog by Eloit Van Buskirk "Does the Long Tail apply to Mobile" where in essence it is the same as above - its Digital Media and its the Long Tail - but as I have described above there are limitations to this. Nokia's service does not really go anywhere to address this as there is still elements of confusion around what it does. Yes "unlimited access to music" yes but not to own, transfer, send etc.. which is one of the reasons why kids just don't get it or want it. Own 10 tracks per month = 120 tracks per year which in essence is nothing really. With all the offers that phone operators have (free Wii, Free PSP etc..) they all work out about the same price. So there's nothing really new in that apart from its now music rather than a bit of games hardware. .  full review coming of Comes with Music vs Music Station..

However there has been talk about eMusic  and the Long Tail and how they do see a future in it. Well funny that seeing as eMusic's service until they started doing the major label deals was based on the long Tail titles. Titles that are in effect down the end of teh Long Tail. Artists, tracks and albums that are from niche artists or content from known artists that were out of major label contracts and produced albums that were never really promoted or marketed apart from the core fanbase. That is not the mass market or the mass audience. That is of course the Long Tail.

? So is their a long tail in Digital Media - YES

? Is being tapped into just now - NO

? Is it as valuable as it has been perceived or reported - NO / YES (both really if you start to thin the cost wedge out then you will start to see higher volumes. Higher volumes at a lower cost is ultimately better for the business than little or no volume at maximum cost.

? Can mobile enjoy a Long Tail experience - ALL areas of business can enjoy the Long Tail within Digital Media. You just have to understand how to deliver it effectively and remember the audience that you are aiming your service at, and how and why they would use it.

Get these elements right (as well as creating a better business model with the labels and studios) and the Holy Grail of the Digital Long Tail will be there for the taking....

However you better be quick, with 7million+ tracks, iPods, iPhones, iTunes and now Genius - Apple once again could end up showing the world that not only does digital music belong to them - but the Digital Long Tail just got that much closer....