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> So there's multiple competing options he can already use? What on earth is the problem here? The problem is scale: "... if you don’t sell on Audible, you sac

> So there's multiple competing options he can already use? What on earth is the problem here? The problem is scale: "... if you don’t sell on Audible, you sacrifice about 95% of that income. That’s a decision I’ve made, and it means that publishers are no longer willing to pay for my audiobook rights (who can blame them?). According to my agent, living my principles this way has cost me enough to have paid off my mortgage and maybe funding my retirement. I’ve tried a lot of tactics to get around Audible; selling through the indies (libro.fm, downpour.com, etc), through Google Play, and through my own shop (craphound.com/shop). I appreciate the support there but it’s a tiny fraction of what I’m giving up ..." https://craphound.com/news/2020/09/08/my-first-ever-kickstarter-the-audiobook-for-attack-surface-the-third-little-brother-book/ https://craphound.com/news/2020/09/08/my-first-ever-kickstar...

chrisseaton 6y ago
> if you don’t sell on Audible, you sacrifice about 95% of that income Can we rephrase that as: > if you don’t sell in the way that 95% of customers want to buy, you sacrifice about 95% of that income Then it seems obvious what the problem is?
- deleted 6y ago
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- webmaven 6y ago
  > > if you don’t sell on Audible, you sacrifice about 95% of that income > Can we rephrase that as: > > if you don’t sell in the way that 95% of customers want to buy, you sacrifice about 95% of that income > Then it seems obvious what the problem is? Yes. The problem is that the distribution channel that owns 95% of the market (by most definitions a monopoly) is forcing publishers to use DRM even if they (or the authors) don't want it, locking in users to the distribution channel's platform. Now, sometimes lock-in is a side effect of some feature or attribute that is at least ostensibly user-focused (eg. network effects: you're locked into a social network because all your friends are there, and getting your personal data out doesn't help with that), but DRM doesn't fit into that bucket. All else being equal, no user actually prefers content that they can enjoy in limited ways, for less time, on fewer of their devices, with less forward compatibility and future-proofing, etc. During the '90s the cargo-cult argument that DRM was necessary to convince content owners worried about piracy to allow their albums/movies/books to be distributed in new digital formats and channels in the first place could still be made with a straight face, but that isn't really the case any longer.

chrisseaton 6y ago

> if you don’t sell on Audible, you sacrifice about 95% of that income Can we rephrase that as: > if you don’t sell in the way that 95% of customers want to buy, you sacrifice about 95% of that income Then it seems obvious what the problem is?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
webmaven 6y ago
> > if you don’t sell on Audible, you sacrifice about 95% of that income > Can we rephrase that as: > > if you don’t sell in the way that 95% of customers want to buy, you sacrifice about 95% of that income > Then it seems obvious what the problem is? Yes. The problem is that the distribution channel that owns 95% of the market (by most definitions a monopoly) is forcing publishers to use DRM even if they (or the authors) don't want it, locking in users to the distribution channel's platform. Now, sometimes lock-in is a side effect of some feature or attribute that is at least ostensibly user-focused (eg. network effects: you're locked into a social network because all your friends are there, and getting your personal data out doesn't help with that), but DRM doesn't fit into that bucket. All else being equal, no user actually prefers content that they can enjoy in limited ways, for less time, on fewer of their devices, with less forward compatibility and future-proofing, etc. During the '90s the cargo-cult argument that DRM was necessary to convince content owners worried about piracy to allow their albums/movies/books to be distributed in new digital formats and channels in the first place could still be made with a straight face, but that isn't really the case any longer.