Remember when you’d rush to a video store in hopeful search for your favourite new thriller/romance/ comedy? The one you’d been oh so patiently awaiting for months on end. You enter the store,  $6.50 in hand, a huge smile on your face THENNNNNNN  you hear the dreaded words : ” sorry, we only have a copy and it’s rented”.

* cue melancholy, heartbreaking( I’m thinking ‘end of Titanic’ style ) music.

BUTTTTTT  WHY????????????

Let me offer a minor portion of the insight I found in Chris Anderson’s ‘The Long Tail’. This “economy of scarcity” is being overcome by what Anderson calls the Long Tail, that is, the “new economic model for the media and entertainment industries”. I personally like to think of it as the ONLINE SALES SENSATION ( better yet, the OSS). We’ve entered an entirely revolutionized world of economics!!( I know, you’re thinking Hell yeah!!!!!) Because of this online sensation, not only does the entertainment industry  drastically increase its profits ( as opposed to video stores like Blockbuster, which only have the capacity to hold, say, 300 movies,therefore resulting in a limited profitability) but we, as fanatic moviegoers, book readers, art admirers (This may be  a very slight generalisation) can experience this virtually (excuse the pun) unlimited era of availability.

Shame… I kind of enjoyed my weekly visits to blockbuster, which regrettably (although relevant to this blog) closed down due to insufficient profitability.