What impact does illegal file-sharing have on the results predicted by the long tail theory with regard to product sales? A Wired article reports,
“Consumers are ... driven to seek the same music in legal and illegal markets,” reads the report (.PDF), published Thursday by BigChampagne Media Measurement and music rights organization PRS for Music. “The most swapped files were also the most downloaded on legal music sites, indicating that what’s popular is popular.”
Though the report applies to music rather than books, publishers might anticipate similar sales curves as electronic books gain popularity.
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