Music Fans Feel the Power of a Long Tail

Chances are you have never heard of The Glaciers. And chances are that if you hadn't started reading this piece, you never would have. The band, which combines elements of alternative country, folk, and art rock, does not expect to make it big. "Very few bands that we know make a living off of their music," says Glaciers co-founder Ian Stynes. "We just want to continue making music." That a band with so few commercial prospects can do just that is a demonstration of the forces that are reshaping and democratizing music. The internet, which has had an incredible leveling effect on almost everything it has touched, is now in the process of making music more accessible and more meritocratic than it has ever been.

That artists like The Glaciers, who might have languished in obscurity and remained unknown outside their local scene only a few years ago, are now receiving e-mails from as far away as Japan is evidence that music is undergoing major change. And what's changing it is a principle referred to in economics as the "long tail."

Simply put, the "long tail" is the idea, first advanced by author Chris Anderson in a 2004 article that appeared in Wired magazine, that collective demand for more obscure, less popular niche products is equal to or even greater than the demand for one or two top sellers, largely because new technology allows those products to be marketed and distributed to the relatively few people demanding them.

In music, this could better be referred to as the MySpace effect-the idea that while a few top sellers will always dominate the music industry, mediums such as college and satellite radio, small record labels, and the internet make it so that talented but less commercially viable acts like The Glaciers will always be consumed by someone, somewhere. Independent music festivals like the College Music Journal (CMJ) Music Marathon, a five-day festival and convention that features over 1,000 bands (including The Glaciers) playing at over 50 venues throughout the city, also give less popular bands a valuable performance opportunity.

It is a principle that ensures quantity as well as quality, and the

CMJ festival was itself a "long tail" of sorts: at the same time

The Glaciers played for a couple dozen people at the Knitting Factory's much-maligned Old Office; jazz giants Medeski, Martin, and Wood headlined the first night of the festival for a nearly sold-out Hammerstein Ballroom. Now that the internet and other sources have allowed music to operate on a "long tail," artists will be able to find their niches and fans will be able to find artists that suit their tastes-in other words, larger acts like Medeski, Martin, and Wood needn't crowd out smaller ones like The Glaciers. And because commercial success is such a long-shot for bands like The Glaciers, the musical "long tail" has little or no profit motive-a fact that invests power in music fans rather than large record companies.

This wholesale democratization of music will have vast ramifications for artists and fans alike. For artists, it will enable an unprecedented level of artistic exchange and perhaps result in the kind of outburst of creativity and innovation that typically accompanies cultural or technological breakthroughs-this would qualify as both. And for fans, it means that music as a whole will become less of an autocracy and more of a meritocracy, a development that will put decisions over which bands enjoy popularity and success squarely in their hands for virtually the first time ever.

"If music is good people will hook onto it" says Glaicers lead singer Jackie Linge. It was not long ago that this statement would have seemed laughably naive. That it is today a demonstrable truth is proof of the democratizing impact of new technology. And although the "long tail" was first used to explain the phenomenal success of companies with inventories as large and as varied as Netflix or Amazon.com, it now explains why music could be in for a renaissance.