Superstars and the long tail: The impact of technology on market structure in media industries

Helen Weeds

Information Economics and Policy, 2012, vol. 24, issue 1, 60-68

Abstract: Technological change has transformed creative media industries. Digitization lowers the costs of recording, storage, reproduction and distribution, while computer-based editing facilitates quality enhancement and special effects. Digital technology has altered the distribution of sales in ways that remain poorly understood: while some commentators have highlighted the growth of the “long tail”, others find digitization has raised the importance of “superstars”. This paper develops a theoretical model of differentiated goods with endogenous quality to investigate the impact of digitization on the distribution of firms. It finds that supply-side factors can generate superstars and long tail outcomes, and that coexistence of both phenomena can be explained by either a fall in fixed costs for basic products or a decline in market size.

Keywords: Digital media; Creative industries; Superstars; Long tail (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L11 L15 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Superstars and the Long Tail: The impact of technology on market structure in media industries (2011)
Working Paper: Superstars and the Long Tail: The impact of technology on market structure in media industries (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:24:y:2012:i:1:p:60-68

DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2012.01.008

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