Editing Long tail (section)

==Criticisms==
A 2008 study by [[Anita Elberse]], professor of business administration at [[Harvard Business School]], calls the long tail theory into question, citing sales data which shows that the Web magnifies the importance of blockbuster hits.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Elberse|first=Anita|title=Should You Invest in the Long Tail?|url=http://hbr.org/2008/07/should-you-invest-in-the-long-tail/ar/1|magazine=Harvard Business Review|date=July 2008}}</ref> On his blog, Chris Anderson responded to the study, praising Elberse and the academic rigor with which she explores the issue but drawing a distinction between their respective interpretations of where the "head" and "tail" begin. Elberse defined head and tail using percentages, while Anderson uses absolute numbers.<ref name="andersonblog-elberse">{{cite web|url=http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2008/06/excellent-hbr-p.html|author=Anderson, Chris|publisher=The Long Tail Blog|title=Excellent HBR piece challenging the Long Tail|date=27 June 2008}}</ref>  Similar results were published by [[Serguei Netessine]] and Tom F. Tan, who suggest that head and tail should be defined by percentages rather than absolute numbers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2338|title=Rethinking the Long Tail Theory: How to Define 'Hits' and 'Niches'|publisher=Knowledge@Wharton|date=16 September 2009}}</ref>

Also in 2008, a sales analysis of an unnamed UK digital music service by economist [[Will Page]] and high-tech entrepreneur Andrew Bud found that sales exhibited a [[log-normal distribution]] rather than a power law; they reported that 80% of the music tracks available sold no copies at all over a one-year period. Anderson responded by stating that the study's findings are difficult to assess without access to its data.<ref>{{cite web|last=Anderson|first=Chris|title=More Long Tail debate: mobile music no, search yes|url=http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2008/11/more-long-tail.html|publisher=The Long Tail|access-date=25 December 2011|date=8 November 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Foster|first=Patrick|title=Long Tail theory contradicted as study reveals 10m digital music tracks unsold|url=https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/long-tail-theory-contradicted-as-study-reveals-10m-digital-music-tracks-unsold-cl0sqrbwl2b|publisher=Times Online|date=22 December 2008|newspaper=[[The Times]]}}</ref>