英国新闻听力 长尾文化

经常会有作家用犀利的观点准确地描述周围的世界，使得我们在谈话中都会提到这个观点，这个观点也就变成了语言的一部分。那么，下面就是所谓的最新的"长尾文化"。长尾文化这个词由克里斯·安德森首创。

注释：

1.snappy adj. 精练的，简洁的 

2.blockbuster n.一鸣惊人的事物，非常成功的书（或电影） 

3.spontaneous adj. 自发的，自然产生的 

4.album n. 集邮本，照相簿，音乐专辑 

5.jukebox n. 自动唱片点唱机 

6.metaphor¹ n. 隐喻，暗喻，比喻说话 

7.cricket n. [运动]板球

The Long Tail Culture

THE HOST: Now every so often there goes along a writer with an idea which is so snappily expressed and so accurately² descriptive of the world around us that we all start using it in conversation, it becomes part of language. Well, get ready for what claims to be the latest: 'The long tail'. And long tail culture is a term coined by Chris Anderson. He is the editor of the very influential³ technology magazine Wired and the idea refers to a trend in culture that he claims in happening right now and is going to spell big trouble for the big cultural block-buster. I spoke⁴ to Chris Anderson on the line from the BBC office studio in New York and asked him to explain himself. What is long tail culture?

CHRIS ANDERSON: 'Well, broadly the big picture is this is a book about life after the block-buster. It's what happens to our culture and economy as we shift from mass markets to millions of niches⁵. And the long tail specifically refers to the long tail of the demand curve. A small number of products sell a lot and a large number sell a little each. Typically in retail⁶ and most markets you only have room for a limited number of things and thus obviously you just stock the hits. But increasingly in markets most of them online we have infinite shelf space we can stock everything.

THE HOST: The reason I find this very interesting is that what I tend to buy on the internet is things that I couldn't find anywhere else, things that are really only of interest to me. No one else is going to want a book on 18th Century church French architecture but I can find it. And that is absolutely as long tail as you could go. But what I am interested in is what's going to happen to the blockbuster? Because all of us, everyone who is listening to this are responsible for the blockbuster. We create that phenomenon. So what's going to happen to the big Hollywood movie, the everyone-has-to-read-it book? What's the future of the blockbuster?

CHRIS ANDERSON: That's a great question and you know I live in both worlds. By day I am the editor of mainstream⁷ American magazine called Wired, I work for Conde Nast, the biggest magazine publisher and by night I am a blogger and I write a book about niches. I think what you are going to find is that there are two kinds of hits, two kinds of blockbusters. There are the ones that are created by the blockbustering machinery⁸ and that would be you and me. And then there are those that spontaneous arise from below. In the past we have only had room for the first. The only way to get a movie into the theatres is via the studios, the only way to get an album into the stores is via the major labels. Now we are seeing the rise of the grassroots hits, the ones that are burbling up from myspace online or utube, a video site, the blogs that become as popular as the major newspapers and these grassroots organic hits are the new fast-rising hits. They win. Some of the traditional top-down heavily marketed hits I think will lose because it's so easy for people to discern whether they are really good or just marketed very well.

THE HOST: What was it that put you onto the long tail?

CHRIS ANDERSON: It was talking to a company that had a digital jukebox this was like a jukebox that had a broadband connection and a hard drive. Rather than holding 100 albums or 100 singles it would have 10,000, 20,000, 30, 000. They asked me what percentage of the top 10,000 did I think sold at least once a month. I thought it was 20% but in fact it was 98%. Virtually everything they put out there found some demand. They didn't necessarily sell a lot more than once a month but everything sold. I realised you know that when you could offer everything, there is more demand for those low sellers because there are so many of them. And if you add up all those 1s and 2s you get a market that rivals the hits.

THE HOST: So the non-hits in a sense add up more than the hits?

CHRIS ANDERSON: Exactly and when the cost of offering them is essentially⁹ zero, which is the case with digital products, it's just a case of entering into a database, it costs you nothing to have them quote unquote 'on the shelf'. So you can have 2 million tracks as you have on itunes or 10 million tracks, there is probably 60 million songs out there and yet the average store would only have about 50,000. The vast iceberg¹⁰ under the water of culture all that content that has been out there but hasn't made sense in traditional retail channels is now available to us.

THE HOST: And give me another example, a kind of current one that you have now spotted¹¹ as you have observed the new landscape with your new metaphor of the long tail.

CHRIS ANDERSON: Sure. Well the metaphor started in the entertainment industry with the DVDs, music and books. And that's where the data was most obvious. But as I have done more work on it I have found long tails everywhere. You can think of the long tail television. Television is a broadcast model and you tend to focus on places where the audience is the largest. But think of the global market for cricket outside of the traditional cricket markets, the cricket diaspora, if you will. You know here in the United States it is very hard to see cricket on TV but if you think of video being distributed over the internet all those distributed cricket fans who aren't well-served by their local television broadcaster can watch cricket.

THE HOST: Ah ha! I see. And that tots up into an aggregated¹² big and important market.

CHRIS ANDERSON: Exactly it is the long tail cricket demand. You can think of this in any other product. Recently Anheuser-Busch X, America's largest beer distributor created a division called Long Tail Libations. What's the long-tail beer? It's microbrews. Here in the US we have been dominated by the Papst Blue Ribbons and the Budweisers. Now again just because of technology making supply chains more efficient you can have 40 or 400 beers in the space where you used to have just 4. And there is demand for regional beer, for craft beer, for microbrews.

THE HOST: Chris Anderson of Wired magazine. Well I think like any theory theories supported by beer and cricket.

长尾文化

主持人：经常会有作家用犀利的观点准确地描述周围的世界，使得我们在谈话中都会提到这个观点，这个观点也就变成了语言的一部分。那么，下面就是所谓的最新的"长尾文化"。长尾文化这个词由克里斯·安德森首创。克里斯·安德森是技术类杂志《连线》的主编，该杂志颇有影响。长尾文化指的是克里斯认为的当下流行于文化中的一种趋势，这种趋势将会给文化领域中的畅销品带来很大影响。我现在通过英国广播公司驻纽约的工作室连线安德森，邀请他解释一下他的理论。什么是长尾文化呢？

克里斯·安德森："总的说来，这个大画面是一本热卖品背后的生活的书，讲的是我们从大众市场到上百万的产品市场的转变过程给我们的文化和经济所带来的影响。在这里，长尾文化特指需求曲线中的一种状态。也就是说，少数商品非常畅销而大多数商品销售量很小，尤其是在零售和批发市场。由于空间的限制，你只能选择有限的商品。因此，你显然只能储备必需品。但随着市场逐渐转移到互联网上，我们就有无限的空间来存储任何东西。"

主持人：我发现这种现象有趣是因为我想在网上购买的东西是我在其他地方买不到的、真正只让我感兴趣的商品。没有人想买一本关于18世纪法国教堂建筑的书，但我就能找到。而这正是长尾文化所要表达的意思。但我感兴趣的是畅销商品以后会怎样发展。因为我们所有人，收音机前的听众们，对此都有"责任"。是我们造就了这种现象。因此，好莱坞大片会怎样？人人必读的畅销书会怎样呢？畅销品的明天又会怎样？

克里斯·安德森：这个问题问得好，你知道我生活在两个世界中，白天我是美国主流杂志《连线》的主编，我为美国最大的杂志出版社--贡德·纳斯出版有限公司工作。晚上，我撰写博客和一本关于产品市场的书。我想你会发现这里有两种流行观点，两种不同的流行现象。一种是由畅销书出版商炒作的，你和我都会参与其中。另一种是自发的，从底层发展起来的。在过去，我们只有第一种方式。要在电影院上映新片就只能通过工作室，要在商店销售专辑你只能贴上标签。现在，我们看到的是通过"我的网络空间"或是音像网站utube的草根文化的兴起，看到博客变得和主流报纸一样普及，而这些有机的草根文化是一种发展迅速的新兴文化。他们赢了。我认为一些管理传统的市场热卖品将会处于劣势，因为人们可以很容易的分辨出这些畅销品是否真的很好或者只是销售的很好而已。

主持人：你怎么会想起长尾理论的？

克里斯·安德森：这要提到一家拥有一台数字化自动点唱机的公司。自动点唱机接入宽带，安装了硬盘驱动器。它不是拥有一百张专辑或一百首单曲，而是拥有一万，两万，三万首歌曲。他们问我排名前一万的专辑每个月的销售比例占多少。我认为能占到20%，但实际上是98%，几乎他们放上去的任何东西都会有人要。每个月只要他们销售一次就能把所有的产品都卖出去。我意识到当你的产品齐全，滞销商品的需求就会增大，因为这里有很多这样的产品。而如果你把所有的滞销品销售量加在一起就可以和畅销品市场匹敌。

主持人：在某种意义上滞销品的联合销售会比畅销品还强劲吗？

克里斯·安德森：确实如此，当你可以几乎是以零成本提供商品时，比如数字产品的提供，你要做的就只要把它存入数据库而已，把商品"放在货架上"对你而言毫不费力。所以你可以像在Itunes上那样拥有200万首歌曲或1000万首歌曲，在那上面可能发行6000万首歌曲，而每个音像店平均只有50000首歌曲。文化海面之下的巨大冰山就潜藏于此，这在传统的零售渠道中毫无意义。但现在，对我们而言就触手可及。

主持人：再给我举个例子，用你自己这个新的长尾文化比喻观察到的新前景来解释一下这种流行的趋势。

克里斯·安德森：好。这个比喻始自娱乐行业，比如DVD，音乐和书籍。在这方面数据显示是显而易见的。但当我做了更多的研究之后，我发现长尾理论现象无处不在。你可以想象一下电视节目中的长尾文化。电视是广播节目一大代表，你会倾向于关注拥有大量观众的地方。但是想一想传统的板球市场之外的全球板球市场--不妨说成是板球的"流浪散居者"。你知道，在美国很难在电视上看到板球节目，但你想一下英特网上的音像节目，所有那些散居全球的无法通过当地的电视满足需要的板球迷就可以通过网络观看板球赛了。

主持人：啊哈！我知道了，这就相当于整合一个重要的市场。

克里斯·安德森：准确地说，这就是板球长尾的需要。你可以由此联想到其它产品。美国最大的啤酒商安海斯-布希新近创立了一个新品牌，叫做长尾酒。什么是长尾啤酒？就是微酿。在美国风行的只有Papst 蓝带啤酒和百威。现在，因为得益于技术上的发展，供应链更高效，从以前只能选择4种啤酒的范围扩大到了40乃至400个品种。还有对于地方啤酒，工艺啤酒，微酿啤酒的需求也一样。

主持人：这是《连线》杂志的克里斯·安德森。我喜欢由啤酒和板球支持的理论。

1 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

2 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

3 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 niches   

壁龛( niche的名词复数 )； 合适的位置[工作等]； （产品的）商机； 生态位（一个生物所占据的生境的最小单位）

参考例句：

• Some larvae extend the galleries to form niches. 许多幼虫将坑道延伸扩大成壁龛。
• In his view differences in adaptation are insufficient to create niches commensurate in number and kind. 按照他的观点，适应的差异不足以在数量上和种类上形成同量的小生境。

6 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

7 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

8 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

11 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

12 aggregated   

a.聚合的，合计的

参考例句：

• He aggregated her to a political party. 他吸收她参加一政党。
• The audiences aggregated a million people. 观众总数达100万人。