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all media is digital

from what i can tell, the long tail, an article is wired, is getting a heavy amount of internet linking. and for good reason. i've read half the article and i'm entranced. it's about the economics of all media going digital. it's about how anything we want we can have, and how it can be profitable. sure, there's a bit of a pie in the sky attitude with that but it's good reading and brilliant background for discussion on the topic.

here's a brief bit of the article:

The Long Tail approach...is to simply dump huge chunks of the archive onto bare-bones DVDs, without any extras or marketing. Call it the Silver Series and charge half the price. Same for independent films. This year, nearly 6,000 movies were submitted to the Sundance Film Festival. Of those, 255 were accepted, and just two dozen have been picked up for distribution; to see the others, you had to be there. Why not release all 255 on DVD each year as part of a discount Sundance Series? In a Long Tail economy, it's more expensive to evaluate than to release. Just do it! (emphasis added)

Comments

Great article - I would think that the next generation of iPods will have some kind ofantenna to pick up radio or streaming media of some kind -be it AM, FM or perhaps satellite, especially now that Howard Stern is headed in that direction. Do you think Serius and XM will eventually try to merge?