] Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top
] of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the
] millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the
] bitstream.

Probably required skimming for people interested in things like MemeStreams.

This article underlines why Apple's "99 cents a song" model will go the way of the 8 track. Micropayments only make sense to accountants.

The price of the content that you want will be low, because you won't want the lowest common denominator "pop" information. You'll want the niche stuff with low demand. As price approaches zero the cost of music begins to look a bit like cellphone airtime. It will varry greatly depending on what new tracks you are checking out and how popular they are. Customers in this world will demand some way to make costs predictable, as they do with other metered services. And so the flat rate music service wins.

Wired 12.10: The Long Tail