ObLinks points to this Slashdot comment, which talks about the music industry approach of constantly trying to build the next Biggest Thing Ever, and contrasts it with the "Muffler Man" approach of diversifying and addressing lots of niches.

Of course, this doesn't just apply to the music industry. I've posted before about the insanity of television style mass-market content deals contrasted with the idea of addressing lots of smaller niches: content providers are starting to notice this.

Doesn't this fit in with how as a society we're starting to see the limitations of centralising power and concentrating on high-volume, one-size-fits-all stuff?. The same principle applies to politics (look at decentralised grassroots efforts in the US election campaigns of certain candidates today), Internet applications (P2P vs client/server), and expertise in general (mass amateurisation).