5 ms·

Publishers do not manufacture content; they buy licenses to reproduce content created by artists (authors, musicians, whatever) and sell copies of it to retail

by cstross 15y ago

Publishers do not manufacture content; they buy licenses to reproduce content created by artists (authors, musicians, whatever) and sell copies of it to retail customers. These licenses are often encumbered with legal restrictions because the creators (via their agents) can get more money by subdividing the rights. This isn't specific to music. I can speak from personal experience about novels. A common form of encumbrance is territorial rights; for example, when I sell the rights to publish my novels to my publishers, I only sell them the right to publish in a specific language, and in specified territories. I can't get more money from a publisher by offering them world English language rights rather than, by splitting US/Canadian and UK/rest of world rights and selling them to different local publishers. (In fact, if I sell world rights to a US publisher, they won't sell the ebooks around the world -- they'll merely re-sell UK rights to a British publisher, who will maintain the territorial split. Because there are still no truly global publishers, despite individual members of the Big Six trying to operate on a global scale.) So I split the rights and sell them separately. As noted by, well, just about everyone, this makes little or no sense in the internet age. Unfortunately trying to get book contracts re-drafted so that e-book rights are global and non-exclusive is, shall we say, an exercise in pain (we're talking about getting publishing house lawyers involved: do I need to say any more?). So that's why it persists in ebooks, and it's pretty much the same story with other forms of content. That's why this goes on. It'll probably continue for a few more years before truly global distributors show up and the existing system collapses under its own weight.

sounds 15y ago
Pedantic quote from the article: "Tell me (and Barassi) why this sort of thing happens. If your answer includes words like 'licensing,' 'rights' or any other explanation of the convoluted system that the labels themselves set up to prevent people from purchasing their music, your answer, while 'technically correct,' is completely wrong." In other words, who cares? The artists (as a general body) do not care even the slightest if I live in a foreign country. The customers don't care what country the artist was in when they created their work. That leaves the middlemen - who are increasingly irrelevant precisely because they are providing no value to either side.
- cstross 15y ago
  Trust me, the instant I think "the middlemen" add no value to either side, I'll drop them like a hot potato. The trouble is, they do add value, from my perspective. But they also add headaches. There is a cost/benefit trade-off here, for artists to evaluate. (Which is why I felt the need to respond to this idiotic article, my gut reaction to which was actually along the lines of "oh no, not this tired old shit again". For values of "tired old shit" that equate to Techcrunch, not BRAT, who at least knows what he's talking about, unlike the TC journalist who's using him to make a point while disingenuously refusing to engage with the real nature of the problem.)
  - mdda 15y ago
    Could you give some examples of the value added by middlemen? And the headaches?
    - dsr_ 15y ago
      He wrote at length about it here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/common-misconceptions-about-pu-1.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/common-m...
    - commieneko 15y ago
      What middlemen in any transaction usually provide is a pre-existing customer base and fulfillment. In the past you could arrange to purchase your novels, magazines, newspapers, whatever, directly from the creators, with each setting up a long distance financial arrangement ... or you could go into the local bookstore and buy it there. In some cases, such as film or broadcast, the middleman is providing the venue. Not every creator can afford their own broadcast tower and transmitter and few people own their own 35mm projector. Of course, now times are changing, and many people do own the modern digital equivalent of all those things, and many authors do have their own distribution and marketing channels. Middlemen still provide a pre-existing financial arrangement. As a consumer I don't really want to set up a credit card account with every fly-by-night operation on the internet that I might want to purchase from. So places like Apple and Amazon and Paypal still have a place. And in the international marketplace, especially in media sales, local licensors often provide the value of localization. Subtitles, dubbing, translation, etc. It's only been 10 - 15 years since significant numbers of people have been able to purchase stuff online, and there are still issues with bandwidth for some media. The world is changing and adapting to the new normal. Congratulations, you are living through an important period of history. Expect some bumps, inconvenience and inefficiencies while humanity readjusts to a couple of thousand years of dealing with physical media.
aristus 15y ago
It shows up in the tools. I had to enable every. single. little. country. in the iTunes publisher tool separately. It took about 3 minutes per country, times something like 25 countries. There was no "this is global" checkbox. (As an aside, the smoothest publishing tool is pubit owned by Barnes & Noble. Go figure.)
tlb 15y ago
As well as getting more money, they can get advance money. This is important for movies. They can raise a chunk of the production budget by pre-selling distribution rights to Europe and Asia &c. In order to have something concrete to sell, they need strict DVD region coding and country restrictions on the internet. Distribution rights for your country are worth investing in because you know you can make money if the movie is popular. A percentage of net profits is not worth investing in, because you have no control over what they are netted of. Global distributors alone won't solve this -- the funding mechanisms need to change too.
- easp 15y ago
  Do they typically sell the foreign distribution rights, or an option on those rights. It is an important distinction with respect to business model. If it is an option, then the foreign distributors can wait to see how the film does domestically before deciding whether to go all-in, which also works against doing a simultaneous global release.
guard-of-terra 15y ago
But they have to understand that, by trying to get more money by inflicting pain on their customers by herding them into per-region pens, they thereby gave up all their moral rights to bitch about piracy, ever? In any non-home country, anyway?
hrktb 15y ago
There is a world of difference between splitting rights between countries and actively fighting people trying to buy your goods from some other country. E.g. the kindle store is mostly US only, but you can use any international credit card to buy them. I think this kind of attitude is good enough for now, until a true global shift.

by cstross 15y ago

sounds 15y ago

Pedantic quote from the article: "Tell me (and Barassi) why this sort of thing happens. If your answer includes words like 'licensing,' 'rights' or any other explanation of the convoluted system that the labels themselves set up to prevent people from purchasing their music, your answer, while 'technically correct,' is completely wrong." In other words, who cares? The artists (as a general body) do not care even the slightest if I live in a foreign country. The customers don't care what country the artist was in when they created their work. That leaves the middlemen - who are increasingly irrelevant precisely because they are providing no value to either side.

cstross 15y ago
Trust me, the instant I think "the middlemen" add no value to either side, I'll drop them like a hot potato. The trouble is, they do add value, from my perspective. But they also add headaches. There is a cost/benefit trade-off here, for artists to evaluate. (Which is why I felt the need to respond to this idiotic article, my gut reaction to which was actually along the lines of "oh no, not this tired old shit again". For values of "tired old shit" that equate to Techcrunch, not BRAT, who at least knows what he's talking about, unlike the TC journalist who's using him to make a point while disingenuously refusing to engage with the real nature of the problem.)
- mdda 15y ago
  Could you give some examples of the value added by middlemen? And the headaches?
  - dsr_ 15y ago
    He wrote at length about it here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/common-misconceptions-about-pu-1.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/common-m...
  - commieneko 15y ago
    What middlemen in any transaction usually provide is a pre-existing customer base and fulfillment. In the past you could arrange to purchase your novels, magazines, newspapers, whatever, directly from the creators, with each setting up a long distance financial arrangement ... or you could go into the local bookstore and buy it there. In some cases, such as film or broadcast, the middleman is providing the venue. Not every creator can afford their own broadcast tower and transmitter and few people own their own 35mm projector. Of course, now times are changing, and many people do own the modern digital equivalent of all those things, and many authors do have their own distribution and marketing channels. Middlemen still provide a pre-existing financial arrangement. As a consumer I don't really want to set up a credit card account with every fly-by-night operation on the internet that I might want to purchase from. So places like Apple and Amazon and Paypal still have a place. And in the international marketplace, especially in media sales, local licensors often provide the value of localization. Subtitles, dubbing, translation, etc. It's only been 10 - 15 years since significant numbers of people have been able to purchase stuff online, and there are still issues with bandwidth for some media. The world is changing and adapting to the new normal. Congratulations, you are living through an important period of history. Expect some bumps, inconvenience and inefficiencies while humanity readjusts to a couple of thousand years of dealing with physical media.

aristus 15y ago

It shows up in the tools. I had to enable every. single. little. country. in the iTunes publisher tool separately. It took about 3 minutes per country, times something like 25 countries. There was no "this is global" checkbox. (As an aside, the smoothest publishing tool is pubit owned by Barnes & Noble. Go figure.)

tlb 15y ago

As well as getting more money, they can get advance money. This is important for movies. They can raise a chunk of the production budget by pre-selling distribution rights to Europe and Asia &c. In order to have something concrete to sell, they need strict DVD region coding and country restrictions on the internet. Distribution rights for your country are worth investing in because you know you can make money if the movie is popular. A percentage of net profits is not worth investing in, because you have no control over what they are netted of. Global distributors alone won't solve this -- the funding mechanisms need to change too.

easp 15y ago
Do they typically sell the foreign distribution rights, or an option on those rights. It is an important distinction with respect to business model. If it is an option, then the foreign distributors can wait to see how the film does domestically before deciding whether to go all-in, which also works against doing a simultaneous global release.

guard-of-terra 15y ago

But they have to understand that, by trying to get more money by inflicting pain on their customers by herding them into per-region pens, they thereby gave up all their moral rights to bitch about piracy, ever? In any non-home country, anyway?

hrktb 15y ago

There is a world of difference between splitting rights between countries and actively fighting people trying to buy your goods from some other country. E.g. the kindle store is mostly US only, but you can use any international credit card to buy them. I think this kind of attitude is good enough for now, until a true global shift.