Get Some Long Tail…
Over the past few years as editor in chief of Wired, Chris Anderson has re-energized that pathbreaking publication into one of the most consistently provocative, interesting, and visually arresting mags around (he's also got good taste in other mags; scroll down).
Along the way, he's managed to pen a number of great articles, none better than his October feature on "The Long Tail," which explains just and why cultural proliferation works to make more of everything available in truly incredible ways; and how businesses better respond if they want to keep customers happy. Read Brian Doherty's summary of the story from Hit & Run here. Among the fascinating elements of the story:
Not only is every one of Rhapsody's top 100,000 tracks streamed at least once each month, the same is true for its top 200,000, top 300,000, and top 400,000. As fast as Rhapsody adds tracks to its library, those songs find an audience, even if it's just a few people a month, somewhere in the country.
Anderson has signed a book contract based on the story and has started a consistenly interesting blog called, you guessed it, The Long Tail. Definitely worth regular reading.
