The Airportline: Observations

Do you remember when Christ Anderson came out with The Long Tail and predicted the end of the 'Block Buster culture'? People were suppose to go from mainstream culture to more specialized books, movies, music etc. that were more in tuned with their own needs and preferences. Of course you remember, well, turns out that this is not really happening, not in the way anticipated anyway. In a great exposé of modern media consumption the Economist analyzed what is happening in the world of books, news, music and film and came back with the conclusions that hits sell better than ever, and have a greater market share than ever. Nishé movies and music also do better then before, thus not totally busting the Long Tail theory. Everything in between is struggling, from medium sized newspapers who've seen their classified ads collapse, to musicians with a young fan base not buying albums anymore, the business of popular culture is relying more and more on big hits. And maybe Peter Cherning, who recently stepped down from a role overseeing the film and television business at News Corp, is right when he says that 'Hits are going to be the single biggest beneficiary of technology'. The Airportline thinks that this is a sad prospect. For those of you interested in contemporary media consumption I highly recommend this long but very informative article.