What if the top hits of the entertainment scene were not the biggest revenue raisers? In the Long Tail reading for this week, Chris Anderson suggests that this may well be the case for many online sellers.

Websites such as Amazon, eBay, and iTunes have discovered that there is strong demand for not only the hits, but also for the many lesser-known items, alternative music, and second-hand products. The hits might only make up a small portion of total choices out there, but the rest of the market goes on for a long, long way – thus Anderson speaks of it as ‘The Long Tail’.

A great example of the Long Tail sales making up a large portion of online purchases is on the huge online site, Amazon.com. As Anderson points out:

More than half of Amazon’s book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles.

Anderson shares a 3 point guide to how online entities are seeking to gain the most out of the Long Tail:

1. Make Everything Available

2. Cut the price in half. Now lower it.

3. Help me find it

A music streaming site that has really put these three rules into action very well would be Spotify.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abulhussain/4349671648/

To begin with, Spotify has made many tracks available to the music fan. In fact, there are countless artists and genres to choose from! And best of all, it’s free! They have followed the rule of keeping the Long Tail as cheap as possible, gaining their revenue from the advertising that airs between songs. And lastly, they do their best to ensure that listeners can find the lesser-known music by suggesting various artists that they may also enjoy.

Spotify boasts a Discover page which shows various artists that you have listened to lately, and for each artist it suggests lesser-known artists that you might like based on their similar sound or genre. This is a great way of plugging the Long Tail, and giving some of the not-so-famous music some airtime and followers.