Mainstream is what sells

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson.

This article can be perceived in two different ways. You can either agree with Chris Anderson’s perspective that “the future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream” or question his general point. I felt like this article attacks the mainstream hardcore. I agree that there are sales and demand for different things that aren’t as a popular but what I took out of this article was the complete criticism and judgment on mainstream and what is “trendy”.

“This is the world of scarcity. Now, with online distribution and retail, we are entering a world of abundance. And the differences are profound”.

I understand others want more than just hits and what is popular but for a business perspective, mainstream is what sells. This is what people demand and desire and that is the purpose for any business; to meet the customers needs. “There is plenty of great entertainment with potentially large, even rapturous national audiences that cannot clear the bar”. This may be true but why take the risk. The decision for a business to take on “potential” hits is not worth the time when they can carry guaranteed winners. Money is involved in these risks and I think it is completely understandable for places to not take it and risk their reputation. For example, if Wal-Mart carried unheard of music to the public that wasn’t mainstream, not only would they be missing out on sales but also losing their reputation of carrying what most consumers really desire. The point of any major successful business is to please the majority; not the smaller group that may like it.

I work at a movie theatre and we have had “non-hit” movies and they fail. It is pointless for the theatre to carry an indie flick that will maybe attract the thirty college students all night long. Instead of wasting those show times and theatre space it would make more sense for the business to have more showings of the movie that has been selling out or the top ten weekend box office hits. These unheard of movies that don’t have any promotion fail attendance wise; they don’t bring in any crowd worth getting the movie. Mainstream sells. Mainstream keeps the business afloat and the paychecks coming. Online distribution works for others taste. Online is the place to go for changes so don’t criticize businesses and the mainstream. If you want variety and not just mainstream, online is the place for you.

Based on mainstream, advertising has significant effect to convince people that this is what they want. But that is what sells. Regardless of how it is being sold, it is what is demanded thus making it priority and easily available for purchase. If you are looking for something less popular then at least you can go online but I don’t expect anything but mainstream being the main focus for selling in stores anytime soon.

Anderson, Chris. "The Long Tail." Wired 12.10 (2006)

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail_pr.html