What follows might be trivial by now, but it is always good to put a word on it. I'm speaking about media content in general: books, music, website articles, soon videos, and so on.
Here is what the "Long Tail" is now evolving into (see Period #2 if you're unfamiliar):
Period #1 – Pre-Internet era
Limited published content, for at least these reasons:
- fewer creators because complexity to create (e.g. access to a recording studio is expensive in the pre-home-studio era)
- curation done by editing/publishing companies is a heavy barrier for creators
- physical limitations: storage isn't infinite in book/music shops, worldwide access to content is complex because requires physical shipping
Period #2 – The Long Tail 2000-2022
The Long Tail concept has been popularized by Chris Anderson (2004, 2006). Notable aspects:
- easier means of creation (e.g. affordable home studios)
- no more physical limitation : nearly infinite digital storage for online platforms, easy worldwide access without physical shipping (internet)
Consequence: at this period in time, it was possible for a human producing original content (that arrived in the long tail) to exist as creator, to get its content read/listened to, by other humans. This also led to economic viability of niche products for (some) creators.
Period #3 – Content Overflow 2022-?
- illimited creation by bots (AI-generated websites for SEO purposes, AI-generated music on Deezer)
- curation-less "automated" platforms/search-engines become less relevant:
- on tech discussion channels, everyone complains about Google's decreasing capacity to find relevant results (flood of SEO-content)
- if no change, Spotify might become similarly uninteresting. See also Deezer Says 10,000+ AI Tracks Are Being Uploaded Daily.
Consequence for small creators: Humans creating content, but which are not in the top celebrities, will have increasing difficulties to get their content read/listened to by other humans, because they will be in the same too-long tail than AI-generated content.
Possible outcomes
-
human small creators not able anymore to get an audience? (can't compete with flood of AGI)
-
decrease of interest for curation-less platforms (Google, Spotify, ...) and rise of human-curated platforms (Reddit + new ones)?
- or, alternatively, 90% of people don't really care and will indistinguishably consume AI-generated or human-generated content on big platforms (acceptation of lower standards), so no major change for platforms
About me: I am Joseph Basquin, maths PhD. I create products such as SamplerBox, YellowNoiseAudio, Jeux d'orgues, this blogging engine...
I do freelancing: Software product design / Python / R&D / Automation / Embedded / Audio / Data / UX / MVP. Send me an email.