A widening of choices doesn’t necessarily lead to cultural fragmentation and a defection from mainstream fare; sometimes it has the opposite effect, as befuddled consumers congregate around the same things…. Blockbusters and niche products will continue to coexist, because they’re flip sides of the same phenomenon, something economists call “increasing returns,” whereby the big get bigger and the rest fight for the scraps.

Further, claims Cassidy, just a few online businesses have dominance (e.g., Amazon, eBay, Google).

On the other hand, Cassidy ignores the fact that dominant online businesses are often distribution channels for such niches; in other words, the short head will more and more thrive on the long tail, and vice versa. Whether the entertainment industry will be “radically” transformed is unclear, but certainly niches are flourishing, and new ones are taking hold, with no appreciable impact to the “dominators.” It’s easy to argue, in fact, that niches inform and inspire those dominant markets—YouTube, anyone?

Taking a full step back, we also realize that we individual consumers do not fall exclusively into all-or-nothing, Top 40 vs. underground-bootleg, Quarter Pounder vs. Amy’s Organic Enchiladas buckets. We are a constant swirl of composites. This doesn’t explode the 80/20 revenue model; it demonstrates how we are all, at various intervals, either in the 80 or the 20, depending on what we’re experiencing, purchasing, thinking. We are, in short, riding the head, or grabbing on to the tail.

This makes everyone a moving target, and the way to earn their attention is to show them something shiny that holds their interest just long enough for you to get your message across. How do you hit them? It has to depend on their needs in the moment. Show a cheesy diaper commercial during The Office that brags about leak resistance, and Jay’s riveted. But he’s also going to stop in his tracks if he spots a postcard concerning an upcoming Sergio Leone film festival.

Cassidy’s article begins with an excellent musical analogy, discussing the most popular albums in American history. So, we all own (or at least know) Led Zeppelin IV, Back in Black, and The Wall. But move down the individual CD towers from there, and you find everything from Donizetti to Dolphy, the New York Dolls to New Order—and today, they all still draw downloads. The head remains the head, but Cassidy argues that the tail is getting longer, and exponentially so.