Long Tail concept and 'Customer in charge' environment

What is the Long Tail Concept?

The Long Tail Concept is a concept created by Chris Anderson which gathers the low-cost, pulled and specialized strategies of hybrid retailers (such as Amazon) and pure digital retailers (such as ITunes) in opposition to expensive, pushed and "hit-focus" strategies of physical retailers such as Fnac.

The Long Tail concept is actually a synonym of Niche concept and is based on the idea that items with low demand or sale volume can be, if put all together, as/more important as/than Hits.

The Long Tail concept can be highly developped through Internet if we take under consideration the fact that a demand exists for every product even an unknown one. Regarding the fact that digital retail means "no manufacturing costs and hardly any distribution fee", retailers only have to make the miss items accessible for everyone.

ITunes can be the perfect example for the strategy. Thanks to its Genius application, its playlists gathering famous songs, and unknown ones and the celebrity playlists, consumers can discover new music through recommandations which go along with their tastes and what they want.

Does the Long Tail concept fit in the customer in charge environment?

I think the Long Tail concept fits in the customer in charge environment. Through recommandations based on what they like and what are their purchase habits, customers can discover new products, decide to buy it or not, and become critics of it (talk about it to friends, send comments about it, etc..).