Lot's to good stuff about about the Long Tail (the article, turned manifesto, turned book, turned iconoclast) by Chris Anderson has lots to say about the "unfortunate 5 million" out there that make up "bulk" of internet traffic and one of his favorite industry - music. Well, I've got an example of Long Tail success for you from YouTube...
There is a musician by the name of Terra Naomi that is one of the most popular artists you never heard of. Her self produced music videos get over thousands of hits (one has had over 100K hits) meaning she is a very popular on YouTube. Now, for the music industry (and artists/songwriters) the internet has totally changed the rules of the game. Sure, there are still the major acts - but smaller bands, that wouldn't have an audience beyond a college town, now can allow the internet to carry their music around the world (but I digress of my point)...
The fact that Terra Naomi has decided to let the internet carry her music is only part of the story - what I believe is interesting, is that she created a video showing people HOW to play her song. Going through cords, words, transitions, the whole bit - and there are about 100 variations of one of her songs on YouTube - think about that. There are at least one hundred people willing to take the time to learn how to play her song - this is not U2 or Rush or Britney or Usher - this is an unknown artist in SoCal!!
Now, she has a CD on sale, been featured on several websites, gotten her songs on iTunes, been on a few TV shows, etc. and so on. This is an internet success story and she is the poster child of the new music industry. But of course, once she gets signed with a major label, the YouTube stuff will have to stop - she'll probably have to stop blogging and take down her web site. I guess success does have a high price to pay.
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I'd say that this is an example of how one can tap into what is now being offered to go from the small part of the tail to a much larger part.
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