Napster – DaneCobain.com

Title: The Long Tail

Author: Chris Anderson

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count: 244

Rating: 4/5

This book was a bit of a weird read because it was written far enough ago now that a bunch of its references and case studies are out of date. For example, it was talking about Blockbuster and Napster, which are hardly relevant in 2020.

But still, the ideas in this book are super important and have influenced a whole generation of businessmen and marketers, and so even though bits of it felt out of date, it was still very much worth reading. True, if you’re already familiar with the overall concept of the long tail then there’s nothing much here to learn about, but if you’re not then I’d suggest giving this a read to make sure that you are.

I mean, with that said, there’s also a whole heap of research and case studies here for you to learn from, although again, you should remember that some of them are out of date. Honestly, this is such a seminal book that the chances are that there’s an updated edition knocking around, so maybe have a look to check that out before buying a used copy, like I did.

But overall, I would of course recommend it if you’re the entrepreneurial type. If not, there’s not much point, although it could give you a greater insight into the way things actually work.

Learn more about The Long Tail.

Seth Godin – Unleashing the Ideavirus | Review

Title: Unleashing the Ideavirus

Author: Seth Godin

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 240

Rating: 3*/5

Seth Godin – Unleashing the Ideavirus

I was a little disappointed by this one. I’ve been a pretty big Seth Godin fan for a while now, but this particular book feels a lot more dated than others, thanks partly due to its references to Napster, AOL and Yahoo! being revolutionary. Still, at least it does show that Godin was ahead of the times and on trend even way back when, and some of the ideas here are still applicable in terms of working with “sneezers” – which we now call “influencers“.

I can’t give this one anything lower than a three out of five because I’m pretty sure I would have found this useful if I’d read it five years ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t, and while I would recommend reading some of Godin’s books, this isn’t where I’d start.

In terms of the central concept, it’s basically about how sometimes, as a species, something catches on like a cold and is “sneezed” from one person to another. It’s certainly a believable theory, especially because Godin backs it up with some fairly solid examples. The companies that he mentions might not be relevant anymore, but they certainly were back in their heyday.

And hey, come on. If nothing else, you’ll get a pretty good idea of how far we’ve really come along in the last ten years.