As demand shifts from offline retailers with limited shelf space to online channels with much larger assortments, the sales distribution is not getting fatter in the tail.

No one disputes that online businesses offer much more variety than their analog counterparts.

I spend way too much time watching television, going to sports games, going to movies. It struck me that there's an awful lot of data in the public domain for these sectors. The movie industry publishes weekly sales numbers - not many industries do.

Most large media firms make outsized investments to acquire and market a small number of titles with strong hit potential, and bank on their sales to make up for middling performance in the rest of their catalogs.

For the first case I did with Octone, 360 deals were not at all being talked about. And then for the follow-up case, it was the focus. I wanted to see how things were changing and what the new challenges were.

Jay Z is building a range of businesses just on the strength of his brand. Lady Gaga has formed really interesting partnerships. Justin Bieber and his manager Scooter Braun are investing in a number of different companies and also promoting them in many ways.