The concept of the 'Long Tail' (LT) has suddenly become commonplace across the networks. The Long Tail can be simplistically described as the mass of product that is suddenly available to the mass of consumers due to the effect of computer power and computer networks. For example, in music it used to be almost impossible for musicians and bands who didn't have contracts with major record labels to get their albums made and distributed. Now, the combination of access to cheap reproduction technology (including no-cost download systems), distribution via networks, online payment systems and, crucially, an efficient word of mouth recommendation structure, more and more 'unknown' music is selling to more and more consumers. Record companies shriek that they are being ripped off, when it is more likely that consumers have gone elsewhere to find music that really appeals to them.
As we become more and more confident with the networks and we learn to use tools, such as blogs and their associated management systems, that give us constant interaction, the Long Tail of almost any area becomes evident and valuable. There is also an element of trust and belief. The first wave of recommendation sites were almost universally distrusted. Why would you believe someone who had a vested interest in recommending things?
Now we've all moved on. We have gotten to know how networks of sites work, and to recognise authority, even without using tools such as Technorati. Chris Anderson at The Long Tail on how Blogs are becoming key players in the LT recommendation game.
Blogs are shaping up to be an equally powerful source of influential recommendations. There are independent enthusiast sites such as PVRblog and Horticultural (an organic gardening blog), commercial blogs such as Gizmodo and Joystiq, and then the random recommendations of whichever blogger you happen to read for any reason (there does seem to be a natural connection between mavens, who know a lot and like to share their knowledge, and blogging). What they may lack in polish and scope, they more than make up in credibility: their readers know that there is a real person there that they can trust.
So the Long Tail is when massive inventory can be made available to the mass of consumers at minimal additional cost or effort. It's about routing around bottlenecks and opening up supply to meet the demand. Most industries have some form of artificial bottleneck, created over time by the industry itself, the better to manage and assure profit. The art world is notorious for this, from the creation and support of a 'superstar' system, to management of access to magazines, galleries, art schools, agents, curators, museums, public venues and auction houses. The glamorous world of contemporary art, with its round of international festivals, prizes, exhibitions, collectors and top galleries, carries a huge Long Tail. For every artist who makes a living through the gallery system, there are hundreds or even thousands who carry on making art alongside other ways of making a living.
Historically this Long Tail of art either suffered in silence or attempted to make some return on their investment by selling through local galleries. However, local galleries, by their very nature, will never reach a sizable potential customer base. And a global customer base which must by definition be fairly huge, can never find the artists that move them and in whose work they may want to invest. Thus, a classic Long Tail exists, swinging behind the small body that is contemorary art.
It's not really that all the artists who currently struggle with a day job or a teaching job and who make art on the side, who still dream of 'making it', will suddenly be able to quit their jobs and move full time into the studio. It's that there exists a huge Long Tail of art and artists, and there are countless opportunities to start to convert this tail into sales, into collectors. A support system for the contemporary art Long Tail is building by the week.
Since I have been blogging my art regularly I have noticed a lot more artist blogs arriving on a regular basis. The more artists that blog, the more regular reading there is for the non-artist public. The more popular blogs are, the more likely people are to read artists blogs. The more artists and curators and gallery workers and museum staff and writers and teachers blog, the more power the movement will have against the usual art press. No Artforum can cover more than a tiny subset of the global exhibition scene. This have historically given them vast power, a power that is guarded and welcomed by the equally bottlenecked gallery system.
A global system of public writing about local art scenes, multiple reports of high end art events, individual artists, collectors and general public all blogging away, will create an alternative ecosystem to the established art industry. This has obviously been happening for years to some degree, with online galleries, individual sales sites and collective endeavours springing up. But the critical underpinnings of these endeavours has not been there - and it is hard for consumers to find, let alone believe in, these outlets without a thriving media that is intimately related to and interested in these projects.
Now we can see that the combination of blogging and online galleries may give rise to a new ecosystem of art. The Long Tail of art may be about to be exposed.
