Chris Anderson and the 'Long-tail theory'

Long-tail - selling more niche market products to a more obscure audience. The internet allows this theory to be put into affect as Web 2.0 broadcasts said information on a worldwode scale.

 When we buy stuff online, we can reach beyond big hits and into the "tail" of the demand curve, where we're free to indulge our most obscure passions. Anderson argued that serving our niche interests could also make for booming Web businesses. This was the thrill of the Long Tail—it seemed to offer a way for art and commerce to thrive side-by-side. The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of "hits" (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.

Companies affected by the 'Long-tail':

• HMV
• Lovefilm
• Amazon
• PLAY

 The above companies more or less market the same products so these companies must evolve/ change all the time to make them stand out from the rest. This could also relate to their own USP.

 Also, the cost of reaching consumers has dropped because of 3 factors:

1. Democratization of the tools for production- the internet has given the audience access to tools of production such as blogging (prosumers), videos etc. Production costs are no longer a major barrier to entry.
2. Democratization of distribution- with Web 2.0, anyone can distribute. there are no geographical limits and no costs of space.
3. The ability to connect supply with demand- in the past, we have found products through media masses such as TV, radio, magazines etc. Now, we can search online and read peer's reviews. The web allows us to search for niche products that are tailored to our own personal tastes and interests.

The media landscape has changed, for marketers - it's more fragmented. This means they can't depend on 'mass meda' because it's not reaching the same 'mass audience'.

Chris Anderson posited that the Internet, with its vast inventories of books, albums, and movies, would liberate the world from blockbuster schlock, similar to Michael Wesch's theory.

Chris Anderson 

How has internet distribution affected the film industry?

• Sectors of the media, such as magazines, have an effect on film distribution – for example: The NME publishes a film review section in their magazine. So, despite primarily being a music magazine, it also includes other key aspects of culture and media, such as films, also note that The NME and most magazines in fact are produced by IPC Media, who are owned by Time Warner, AKA the Warner brothers who have created many a smash hit film.
• Cloverfield (2008) -’ unlike most viral campaigns, Cloverfield's marketing had virtually nothing to do with the movie itself, and instead concentrated on a fictional evil Slushy company. Puzzle websites containing Lovecraftian elements, such as Ethan Haas Was Right, were originally reported to be connected to the film.

Background info. . .
'Hollyood's Golden Age'.

From the end of the silent film era, about 1927, to around 1948, the Hollywood movie studio system controlled what films were shown across the country. Five major Hollywood-area studios owned large, grand theaters where they would show only movies produced by their studios and made with their contracted actors. These studios were Paramount, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), and Warner Bros.
Always the hotspot of controversy, Hollywood was accused by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), of being a haven for communists. The "Hollywood Blacklist" came into being in 1947, when that committee began summoning certain Hollywood entertainment professionals to testify before the committee, on the suspicion that their work was communist-inspired. The landscape of Hollywood began to change with the mushrooming of the television industry in the 1950s. Television and music recording studios and offices sprung up all over the city. KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, began broadcasting in January 1947. By the end of that year, the first movie production made for television, The Public Prosecutor, was broadcast from Hollywood.