The Big Tail rules

If there was one overarching theme that came out of last week's Web 2.0 conference, it was the forming consensus in techland that the Long Tail -- the millions of bloggers and alternative media sources at the tail end of the mediasphere -- matters in aggregate more than the major publishers, even as big media continues to dominate in circulation, Web traffic and mass-market metrics.

What I didn't know (because I'm weeks behind on my magazine reading) is that Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson has a brilliant look at this phenomenon in an article in the October issue titled, The Long Tail, subtitled: Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

It's prescient, groundbreaking and important, so go read it.