Remember those times when record label companies, artists, and business executives made decisions based on what was mainstream in society?  Me neither.  Today, thanks to the capabilities of Amazon, Netflix, and iTunes, mainstream media is not the most sought after media by the world’s market.

Some facts and figures portray this phenomenon.  More than half of Amazon’s sales come from book titles that are not in the New York Times Bestseller.  All of Netflix’s material, from documentaries to foreign films to indie movies, have thousands of viewers and renters, and thus collectively possess more audience members than any of the top-listed movies within the service.  iTunes is easy to describe; most iTunes users download albums and songs from varying genres, artists, and ages than from the top bulletin list.

Why is this happening?  It’s simple: information technology.  Since the economics has changed behind the entertainment industry as described, there is no such thing as a hit or miss in entertainment terms.  Everything that makes it to popular distribution entities will receive a satisfactory sized audience.  It is time for the concepts of supply and demand to adapt to the patterns of the statistics presented by such services.  And for any artist out there: do not worry, hits do not matter anymore.