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The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

Chris Anderson (Goodreads Author)

3.81 · Rating details · 26,480 ratings · 697 reviews

The New York Times bestseller that introduced the business world to a future that s already here -- now in paperback with a new chapter about Long Tail Marketing and a new epilogue.

Winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book of the Year.

In the most important business book since The Tipping Point, Chris Anderson shows how the future of commerce and culture isn t ...more

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Paperback, Revised, Updated, 288 pages

Published July 8th 2008 by Hachette Books (first published 2006)

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Oct 02, 2009 Scott rated it liked it · review of another edition

OK, this book gets down-graded because it is an excellent example of snake oil. Kool Aid.

Let me explain. I'm sure that some people love this book. However, Chris Anderson takes an excellent insight, then extends and extrapolates this insight all out of shape, drawing general conclusions about the whole economy that make absolutely no sense.

First, consider the source. Chris Anderson is the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. If you've never read Wired, it is a huge media cheerleader for the high OK, this book gets down-graded because it is an excellent example of snake oil. Kool Aid.

Let me explain. I'm sure that some people love this book. However, Chris Anderson takes an excellent insight, then extends and extrapolates this insight all out of shape, drawing general conclusions about the whole economy that make absolutely no sense.

First, consider the source. Chris Anderson is the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. If you've never read Wired, it is a huge media cheerleader for the high technology / IT industries. For example, the articles in Wired display consistent technological triumphalism, like a discussion of the "death of print books," without providing supporting data or a complete picture.

The Wired ethos permeates this book. Example: Anderson says that he can point to "hundreds" of examples of companies that typify the Long Tail approach, but spends the most page space on a select few: Amazon, Rhapsody, Google, etc. Anderson also focuses on music and books for examples, then makes generalizations about all business enterprises that have no economic basis for manufacturing or other non-entertainment industries. The chapter on aggregation seems to have the general message "push the inventory problems down to third party suppliers," yet this kind of strategy can lead to fundamental breakdowns in your ability to deliver unless you can scale like (guess who?) Amazon - especially when you are talking about cars, refrigerators, etc. that are real products.

After 100 pages I could not take this book seriously. It's a shame. The insight of the Long Tail, that you can make a business case for selling a wider diversity of products that aren't "mega-hits," makes a lot of sense. Web technology makes the selling of these products possible in a way that was not possible with brick-and-mortar stores. However, an understanding of how several successful businesses harnessed this idea is not directly generalizable to an entire economy. Making unsupported claims about supposed new "truths" does not make these claims actually true. ...more

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Oct 17, 2006 Otis Chandler rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, business

Interesting Tidbits
- Three forces need to create the long tail:
1. democratize production: give average people the ability to create quality content (movies, music, blogs)
2. democratize distribution: technology to aggregate *all* the content in a genre (Amazon, Netflix, iTunes)
3. Connect Supply and Demand: filters to help people find the niche's they are interested in (Google, recommendations, best-seller lists)
- One quarter of Amazon's sales come from books outside its top 100,000 titles. T ...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Jake Losh rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: business, economics, nonfiction

I disliked this book for two reasons: I do not believe it represents any original ideas and it is, like most business books, horribly verbose. Yawn-zilla. Yawn-a-saurus rex. Avoid.

I take issue with the idea that this book even represents a body of original ideas. The long tail concept is very cute, but after reading it, I can't stop thinking about the story of Sears-Roebuck which Anderson writes about. The notion of giving people access to a plethora of products that were heretofore unobtainable ...more

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Aug 25, 2016 Maria Dobos rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Coada lungă oferă o perspectivă interesantă asupra provocărilor pe care le ridică digitalizarea, avântul de neoprit al tehnologiei și dezvoltarea piețelor virtuale în contextul economiei globale. Pornind de la principiile clasice ale interacțiunii dintre cerere și ofertă, Chris Anderson analizează cu luciditate modificarea legilor economice și orientarea din ce în ce mai accentuată a consumatorilor și producătorilor spre economiile de nișă, folosindu-se de exemplul unor proiecte de success – A ...more

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Jan 29, 2009 Lilly rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book is an exploration of how niche markets are on the rise courtesy of better distribution. And that's a gross summary. Much discussion is given to the rise of the digital world and how it's expanded the marketplace so that there can be a Long Tail Distribution (for you statistics nerds out there)--- beyond the major hits, you can continue to sell (for example) less popular items, and lots of them. There are markets within markets.

A very conversationally written book, by the editor of Wire ...more

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May 29, 2009 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: didn-t-finish, business, non-fiction

I give up...I can't take any more of this horribly boring book. My economics textbook keeps my interest better than this, which is extremely sad. I'm giving it two stars instead of one only because it had a few good tidbits of information regarding the evolution of the music and publishing industries (there was some interesting stuff about things such as Myspace and Lulu that I hadn't heard before). None the less, this is another book about an idea that probably made a fascinating article in a m ...more

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Feb 18, 2010 Martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2010books

I’ve been reading what I like to think of as some “business-lite” books for school, pulling me (kicking & screaming) away from my beloved novels, fictional worlds, and imaginary characters. Apparently there is little or no place for novels in business. The good news is that these business-lite books are, by their very nature, super-readable and somewhat interesting. They are also (again, I guess by their very nature) the most repetitive books imaginable. While I like novels, and have even re ...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Brooks rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I heard a clip on this book on NPR back in August and have had wanted to read this book for sometime. When I first heard about this book, we were having a conflict with one of our e-commerce customers. There SKU base kept growing and my boss kept saying they did not control their inventory. Well, here is proof positive that they did know what they were doing. The book is written by an editor of Wired magazine. The basic premise is that with infinite variety and reduced (and in many cases zero) d ...more

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Aug 05, 2007 Inggita rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: media-socsci-journ-philo

one of the most important guides to the dotcom econ - although after a while you might get tired of being told of the same thing over and over again (esp Wired readers might find it annoying of being told what they've discovered a long time ago) each of the stories page after page are another nail on the coffin - and most of us down here in ANALOG INDONESIA with rolling blackouts (wiping out your lifetime of data in seconds) can just dream away. a must-read for non-practitioners, and a good conf one of the most important guides to the dotcom econ - although after a while you might get tired of being told of the same thing over and over again (esp Wired readers might find it annoying of being told what they've discovered a long time ago) each of the stories page after page are another nail on the coffin - and most of us down here in ANALOG INDONESIA with rolling blackouts (wiping out your lifetime of data in seconds) can just dream away. a must-read for non-practitioners, and a good confirmation for us who has an online bookstore... But then, in a fully digital life that's analyzed here, scarcity is a thing in the past. While "scarcity" is the center of "economy" as a discipline. So what would happen if scarcity is irrelevant? THERE are also two bonus revelations: DEATH OF DEWEY, the decimal system used by libraries to list & store their books collections - NOW we just type any subject/author/booktitle, like GOODREADS here, and we'll find the book - even tho' we don't even know it (a title) exists yet. Not only it renders Dewey obsolete, it will also EXPAND the universe of subject selections of the extremely provincial and limited Dewey (Dewey didn't list Islam and Hindu as part of its Religion subject, ignorant to the fact that a large part of earth's population subscribe to these two religions). More choices ARE GOOD, not paralyzing - as long as we got good selections of more choices, and assistance on getting these good recommendations (see the MIT lady's column) - for example: after the digital world offer more choices for couples, the wedding planner profession grows - where availability and convenience equal more sales. DOUBLE EFFECT of digital search: shorten search + increase sales/grow market.
Another phenomenon CA presents is "democratization of production tools" resulting in an explosion of works plus distribution channels, subcultures ("microcultures") grow, the "mass" gets less massified.. is this risking nations' disintegration? CA's optimistic that these are only extending our network's power, strengthens the bonds between us and our friends, sharing music/content, even tho' we do "egocasting" (pursuit of individual personal taste enabled by TiVo, iPods) - there's no statistics to back this optimism, tho'.. at least mainstream TV producers & daily editors should learn fast; "The Audience is the Network," summarized JibJab's guru Spiradellis, hence the phenomena of YouTube/Google Video, also blogger v. old-school journalism (see Technorati's blog prominence chart, pg 187) - if you don't have time to read the whole book (beware of the Indonesian version, they delete portions of the book - maybe because they can't find the perfect translation!!) read the 9 rules of Long Tail towards the end of the book. ...more

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Feb 05, 2018 Pawel rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2018

I’ve read this book many years ago and revisited it now in 2018 as a way to see how many or little things have changed.

This is a book written when - quote - “YouTube was a 6 months old website”, and “Netflix will some day go into streaming rather than sending movies on DVDs”.

Definitely worth reading on the long tail theory which absolutely applies to today’s market and products. Heck we even see a long tail of products now (apps)!

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Apr 26, 2009 Daniel Solera rated it it was amazing

Shelves: business-economics

Chris Anderson's book can be summarized by saying that the consumer retail market these days is driven more by a bottom-up movement (what he calls "post-filters") than by top-down factors ("pre-filters"). The idea can also be synthesized by saying that "hits" are no longer as big as they once were because they now compete with individuals with louder voices.

For example, during its most popular seasons, "I Love Lucy" was watched by 70 percent of households with televisions. That kind of homogeniz ...more

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Apr 11, 2008 Kip rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone with internet experience

One of the most interesting non-fiction books I've ever read. Sort of a combination of economics, technology, and culture. Anderson presents compelling arguments and data to identify, examine and extrapolate on a clear inflection point in the macro environment today. Tools of production are more readily available (think desktop publishing, blogging, and digital video), distribution is cheaper and more widely available (think Netflix, iTunes or Amazon v bricks-n-mortar), and a wide range of recom ...more

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Oct 13, 2009 Lauren Albert rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: tech-internet-social-med

The book, and its main idea of the Long Tail, has seriously affected the way I see many industries. When the digital book world started really taking off, after Amazon jumped in, I found myself referring to it in discussions of the future of the publishing industry. The internet has allowed businesses to reach consumers (and for consumers to reach businesses) who fall out of the majority--who "live" in the long tail. An important book in helping understand the effect the internet has had on reta ...more

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Jan 13, 2018 Aman Vig rated it liked it

Such biz. books, where the author is laying out a pattern, idea or a concept, are interesting when those ideas are exemplified i.e. the cases with which the author's trying to prove their point. Those are the most interesting patches for me, though at times things just feel repetitive.

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Jun 13, 2012 Nick rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended by John Sutherland in _How Literature Works_ as providing a solution for dealing with information overload. I was a little surprised to find myself reading a book about marketing but the combination of an interesting concept and light tone (plus many many hours of subway riding) kept me reading through to the last page. Said interesting concept got much less interesting as the book wore on and I found myself reading more to see where Anderson would finally slip up and say, 'Okay, I a Recommended by John Sutherland in _How Literature Works_ as providing a solution for dealing with information overload. I was a little surprised to find myself reading a book about marketing but the combination of an interesting concept and light tone (plus many many hours of subway riding) kept me reading through to the last page. Said interesting concept got much less interesting as the book wore on and I found myself reading more to see where Anderson would finally slip up and say, 'Okay, I admit that there might not actually be a good way for publishers to make boatloads of money off of the internet'. Of course, said publishers make up a big chunk of Anderson's potential market for this book (not to mention the audience for _Wired_). Doctorow published a great review of this book in the Guardian and seems to do a solid job of targeting the major logical fallacy of (near) zero distribution costs, namely that when the cost to deliver a product per customer drops to (near) zero the whole model breaks down because who's going to pay something for nothing? Ebooks are great for authors, but not so much for publishers and retailers.
The tip for dealing with information overload that Sutherland gleaned from this book, such as I was able to understand it was that websites like GoodReads, LibraryThing, Amazon, etc can use the books you've already read to come up with recommendations based on what people similar to you have read, helping you explore 'the tail' (the 80 percent of literature that is not in the mainstream canon): "The 'long tail' approach did not seem to mean keeping within frontiers (like narcotic genre-followers) but mapping out whole new, but not dauntingly large, territories, as a kind of mosaic of freshly discovered discrimination...a gigantic smorgasbord in which the onus was on the skill, and idiosyncrasy, of the consumer, no two of whom would pile their plates identically." Sutherland seems to see Anderson's point of view as being a little overly optimistic, because he points out that picking out food at a buffet is a lot different from dealing with a 'deluge' of information. The implication that the average person can eat on their own but needs someone to pick their books for them is more than a little patronizing. Certainly, there's a lot of fluff that sells out there, but who's to say what's fluff to me is fluff to you?
I think you _are_ seeing more and more small press publishers, like Small Beer Press, Soft Skull, McSweeney's etc, who represent smaller and smaller niche markets which may or may not be based on genre but work by creating small, overlapping 'tribes' of readers, not unlike what has happened in music over the past decade. At the same time, there is more and more room now for random outliers to pick up a huge readership and blow everyone out of the water with a record-breaking Kickstarter fund raising drive. Pre-selling and teaching seems like the way of the future for authors, which may seem a little depressing, but I can't say it's any worse than being forced to sell yourself to a publisher just to get your name out there. The big guys are going to get a lot smaller before all this is over, though, which I can't say I think is all that much of a bad thing. ...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson offers a visionary look at the future of business and common culture. The long-tail phenomenon, he argues, will "re-shape our understanding of what people actually want to watch" (or read, etc.). While Anderson presents a fascinating idea backed by thoughtful (if repetitive) analysis, many critics questioned just how greatly the niche market will rework our common popular culture. Anderson convinced most reviewers in his discussion of Internet media sales, but hi

...more

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May 13, 2012 Remo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, empresa, ensayo, historia-reciente, smart-reading, economia, no-ficcion

Chris Anderson escribió en 2004 un fantástico artículo en Wired.com titulado The long tail. Sobre ese artículo construyó un blog, thelongtail.com, que luego convirtió en libro. Las premisas del autor son tres:
1.- Con inventarios digitales podemos alcanzar una oferta casi infinita.
2.- Cuando a los compradores se les da oferta infinita, su demanda se prolonga mucho más allá de los éxitos o bestsellers.
3.- La suma de todas las ventas de los productos menos demandados es un porcentaje muy important ...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Христо Блажев rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Крис Андерсън описва края на хитовете в “Дългата опашка”
http://www.knigolandia.info/2010/03/b...

Отдавна книга на подобна тематика не ме бе впечатлявала толкова. Крис Андерсън наистина е успял да напише една безкрайно интересна и четивна книга, която на всичкото отгоре разкрива супер интересни неща за пазарите и продажбите в наши дни.

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Jul 04, 2017 Honza Marcinek rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ač je kniha hodně stará a vychází z článku, který byl napsán v roce 2004, tak přeci jen byla pro mě více zajímavější než kniha Herd, kterou jsem nedávno četl. Velmi čtivá kniha se spoustou insightů, jenž můžete v jistých podobách uplatnit i dnes.

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Jan 22, 2017 Karl Niebuhr rated it really liked it

This book explains how to take advantage of the Internet by offering a long tail i.e. a great variety of products. This is essentially why platforms like Amazon are so profitable. https://karlbooklover.com/the-long-ta...

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Apr 15, 2012 Stephen Smotherman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: business

A great book for every online reseller to read.

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Jan 23, 2010 Phil Simon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Superb. Incredibly well-written and researched. Anderson is one of my favorite authors. This is one of the most important business books written in years. Read it...then read it again.

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Jan 01, 2015 Monica Willyard Moen rated it really liked it

Shelves: audible, bookshare, business-career

This should be required reading for anyone who wants to do business online. It's that important.

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Nov 13, 2012 Joel Goldman rated it really liked it

Terrific explanation of the long tail in marketing. Explained why there will always be room for good self-published authors.

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Dec 12, 2013 Cara rated it liked it

This book takes an interesting idea and stretches it out way too long, no pun intended. This could have easily been a magazine article.

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Nov 09, 2011 Nicholas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, professional-development

Should have read it a long time ago. Does a good job popularizing concepts later/also discussed by Benkler, Weinberger, Kelly, and Shirky.

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Mar 20, 2018 Ayman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: human-econbiz, science-computing, za_scribd, human-socio-polit

This is an amazing book by the 2005 Times top 100 and Editor of Wired magazine is 10 years old, however, it was a prophetic account of how the new business models of the information age are changing human society.
1- In the old model we were limited by geography in everything from local interests to products we consume, massive supply chains of the 20th century replaced that with mass production and national/global interests and products
2- supply chain models suffered a physical constraints of s ...more

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Sep 24, 2017 Boni Aditya rated it liked it

Shelves: economics-finance

If there is no internet then there is no Long Tail - That could have summed up the book - The book contains various examples - all too well versed across the Internet eco system - The Itunes - The Ebay - The Amazon - The Google for Ads - The Netflix and yada yada yada....

This might be coming out only because I have seen the same examples referred to over and over again in a book that I have recently consumed "Free: The radical price of everything" where he uses the same examples. One striking ex ...more

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Dec 17, 2017 Isabella Roland rated it really liked it

This book gives you a new way to think about the way we create products. Consumers want hyper specific content. Being a generalist is not a good idea when creating products. Selling your product to everyone is not the goal. "Everyone" is not your market. You need an ideal customer in mind. Bottlenecks like the cost to get into a business are going away. For example: anyone can not sell t-shirts on Amazon with no overhead. In the past I would have had to get a way to print the shirts, acquire the ...more

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Dec 31, 2017 Aman rated it it was ok

Shelves: economics-business, journalistic

TL;DR: Meh. Read the review instead of the book.

Another one of those superficial magazine articles forced into books. 2.5/5 rounded down to 2 instead of rounding up because it fails in its grandiose claims though this would typically be a solid 3. No it doesn’t articulate anything not understood within the framework of conventional economics. It’s techno-optimistic in that uniquely Valley way - the author notably dismisses the concept of news bubbles in a sentence. Retrospectively, not one of h ...more

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About Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson

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Chris Anderson was named in April 2007 to the "Time 100," the newsmagazine's list of the 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world. He is Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, a position he took in 2001, and he has led the magazine to six National Magazine Award nominations, winning the prestigious top prize for General Excellence in 2005 and 2007. He is the aut ...more