"The Long Tail" is a very interesting concept, partly about how companies can profit by selling to the many thousands of people who want marginal things, rather than just the millions who want the most popular things (as I understand it, but I may be less clear on it than I think).
This fits in with the "Good Enough" philosophy because a lot of things which are "good enough" for me (or you) aren't going to be big hits, necessarily. Think cheap pickup truck versus SUV, or seeing "The Spanish Prisoner" instead of "Spider Man". There's still money to be made with the items that aren't "hits", because they're good enough for a lot of people, or because there are enough people in that niche market to make some money.
One niche market that I'm looking to be served is in video or television content. For two examples: I'd like to be able to legally buy all the epsiodesof Max Headroom, and I'd like to be able to legally buy copies of several different commercials from over the years. I've not yet found any legal way to purchase these that's affordable. Those are niche markets, because Max Headroom wasn't a commercial success and because most people don't want to watch commercials anyway. Yet, if the people that owned that content made it possible to buy, I'd wager there are lots of other people that might purchase some of it.
PS: Here's a LazyWeb request: if you know of legal sources for the above, let me know by posting a comment here.
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