Business: In the entertainment business, it has always been about reaching the top of the hit parade. A small number of blockbusters and bestsellers have dominated the landscape, while that huge mass of books, films, TV shows and bands which have never quite achieved the same big sales or prominence are the also-rans. The hits rule the roost.
But, as Chris Anderson points out, this age of hits and misses may be at an end as the notion of infinite choice takes hold. The rise of web-based businesses, which have taken advantage of seismic changes in production and distribution methods and costs, are at the root of this transformation.
Outlets such as iTunes and Amazon have inventories many times the size of their equivalent bricks-and-mortar stores such as HMV or Waterstone's - and these e-tailers are finding there's a market for everything they stock.
Thanks to the internet, niches are now on the same economic footing as the big-ticket hits and the total value of millions and millions of small sales is greater than that of the bestsellers. Of course, power-laws dictate that the lens is still focused on such headline-makers as The Da Vinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean and Justin Timberlake. Yet the new long-tail economy, where retailers are not limited in what they can sell by the physical size of their stores, is potentially just as lucrative.
The long tail, says Anderson, is that infinite aisle where you can find absolutely everything, from out-of-print books to arthouse foreign language flicks. Moreover, its existence has created a myriad of cultural and commercial opportunities.
Anderson is editor-in-chief at tech magazine Wired and The Long Tail initially began life as a lengthy business essay published in October 2004.
The piece provoked much comment, analysis and debate so Anderson felt it merited further exploration and research.
What he's found on his trip along the long tail is that the behaviour of consumers has changed dramatically now that they enjoy infinite choice.
It turns out that our tastes are not quite as mainstream as marketeers may have led us to believe.
For instance, while the sales of music CDs has dropped rapidly of late (down a quarter between 2001 and 2005), people are still buying music. However, it's less mainstream fare, representing a thousand splintered subgenres, which is appearing in their shopping trolleys. It's the hit-making side of the industry which has suffered a blow.
Over at Amazon, there are nearly four million titles available, an inventory which no conventional shop could carry due to space limitations. Instead, a Main Street store will attempt to maximise its revenues from a number of high yield tomes.
Amazon does not have to limit its inventories in the same way so it can afford to stock a multitude of titles without incurring extra costs. Because the titles are available, people will buy them. While individual sales may not be huge, Amazon has found that every title does have a potential customer and, when you put all these sales together, an impressive number emerges.
Anderson certainly has masses of data and anecdotes to back up his arguments. If there are faults, they're in the occasionally unwieldy tone and language that turn what could be a thought-provoking tale of an internet revolution into an economics textbook.
It's also a little frustrating that Anderson does not elaborate on what he sees as the long-term implications of the long tail beyond mere retailing.
Just as the internet has had a huge effect on content creators and users of every kind, Anderson's long-tail economics will also have a bearing on how everyone may operate in the future.
Jim Carroll writes about music and the music business for The Irish Times
The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand By Chris Anderson Random House Business, 238pp. £17.99