“The idea that niche markets were the key to the future for internet sellers was described as one of the most important economic models of the 21st century when it was spelt out by Chris Anderson in his book The Long Tail in 2006.” A new study reports “that for the online singles market, 80 per cent of all revenue came from about 52,000 tracks. For albums, the figures were even more stark: of the 1.23million available, only 173,000 were ever bought, meaning 85 per cent did not sell a single copy all year.”