What does this mean about the way consumers work their way into niche markets? The common complaint of the digital age is that there is just too much out there, much of it low quality. People need to sort through the masses and find exactly what they are looking for, but where to start?
Unfortunately, I don't think we've quite "ended the tyranny of the hit" as Mary discusses in her post, because I think that is exactly how people are introduced to less-popular media. I'll give an example:
Amazon is a great way to find new media. They carry more books, for example, than any library could hold. But have you ever walked into a library with no idea of what you were looking for? Just browsing the shelves, all of the shelves, is time-consuming and not very helpful. Usually you want a starting place, maybe a recommendation. On Amazon, you start off with something that is more of a hit and move on from there through its "you might also like" kind of recommendations. From there you might find a less-popular book. If you like that, you might have found yourself in a new niche, somewhat freeing yourself from the tyranny of the hit. But you started there.
You began at a hit at some point before finding yourself in the long tail. But is that such a bad thing? You have to start somewhere.
I dunno, I think it can be frustrating that we always have to start with the most popular stuff, but at the same time, where would we start if we didn't start there? Just like you said. I can be a little bit of a hipster sometimes, but in order to find the more obscure things, you need to be aware of what's mainstream.
ReplyDeleteI can see your point, lots of companies who try to cater to to only the obscure end up going under pretty quickly. Like Victoria said, there has to be a starting point. After all, it wouldn't be "different" if there wasn't a status quo by which to compare it.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, hits do have a purpose in leading people away from them, which is funny. People do have to start somewhere, but I don't think it's necessary to start at a hit if you know generally what sort of things you're looking for. In your Amazon example, if I know that I want a book of a certain genre, then I can look up the genre, and I don't have to start at a particular book that is a hit. But if I don't know what I'm looking for, then I probably will start out by looking a hit. And I don't think that's such a bad thing either. I'm just glad people can find all of the material in the long tail will relative ease nowadays.
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