A few weeks ago Paul got me on the invite list to the launch party for Chris Anderson’s new book about The Long Tail. If you don’t know much about the long tail check out the free pedf here. One thing that was in Anderson’s presentation at the party but I haven’t seen anywhere else, including that pdf, is a graph showing album sales for #1 albums over the past few years (or maybe decades). The point is, the opening-week highest-selling album of all time is Justin Timberlake’s solo album in 2002 i believe, and no album has come close since then, and the volume for hit albums has seen a steady decline. Anyone know if this graph is available elsewhere on the web?
In general the party was a blast, free food and drink, nice people, great music. A couple days before the party I just happened to be corresponding with Ben Hammersley and I mentioned to him that I had just moved to NYC, and if he was ever in town we should get a drink. He replied back and said that he was in fact in NYC and we should get a drink the next night! I told him I was pretty booked the rest of the week, but that he should try to score a ticket to the Wired party if he knew anyone. A few hours later he replied back and said that he had done just that.
Why am I telling you all this? Because as fate would have it, Ben and I were the only two folks quoted in the article about the party on CNET’s media blog! And boy is my quote a dandy. I won’t ruin it for you, go read it.
It’s good to see that all that reading of Marx finally paid off for you.