3 ms·

Three interesting things here: 1) Revenue from recording IS dropping. Some of that is people consuming it differently (hence the uptick in mobile / internet),

Three interesting things here: 1) Revenue from recording IS dropping. Some of that is people consuming it differently (hence the uptick in mobile / internet), some may be piracy, some may be disinterest / people preferring to spend money elsewhere. 2) How the music industry has closed the gap - the biggest increase is in money from concerts, which makes sense - if the record companies are scared, rightly or wrongly, of piracy, focus on something you can't pirate - the live experience. 3) What does this mean for books, movies and other media in the move to digital? In particular books don't have a concert equivalent to pick up the slack. Yes authors tour but they're not going to make money out of it the way a band does. Will they see a similar drop off and if so how will they fill it?

ScottWhigham 13y ago
For #2, the 360 deal (and its variants) arose to mitigate this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360_deal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360_deal For #3, I think we consume books/movies so differently that what happens in the music industry has no effect on other mediums. The biggest change since 1983, for example, is that people today have the opportunity to hear any and every song they want all day, every day without having to pay. Sure, you might need to listen to a commercial every once in a while (Spotify, Youtube, Pandora, etc) but that's okay - you aren't a "pirate" if you use those services so it's cool. And you can go about your daily life while doing so - you can listen to 8+ hours of music at work today if you want and still get your work done. That didn't happen back in 1983 - if you got to listen to music, you'd share that music with everyone else in the office and it would either be muzak (!) or a radio station. You didn't get to have these deep niches and deep preferences that Spotify/et al allow. Movies though - that requires your full attention. Can you read a book while you code? Can you watch a movie while you do your company's books? It's just too different.
- Tyrannosaurs 13y ago
  Not saying that the music industry impacts the other industries, just that there are parallels in the move to a digital world and these may be things that will apply. But yes, there are differences, but there will be similarities too.

ScottWhigham 13y ago

For #2, the 360 deal (and its variants) arose to mitigate this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360_deal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360_deal For #3, I think we consume books/movies so differently that what happens in the music industry has no effect on other mediums. The biggest change since 1983, for example, is that people today have the opportunity to hear any and every song they want all day, every day without having to pay. Sure, you might need to listen to a commercial every once in a while (Spotify, Youtube, Pandora, etc) but that's okay - you aren't a "pirate" if you use those services so it's cool. And you can go about your daily life while doing so - you can listen to 8+ hours of music at work today if you want and still get your work done. That didn't happen back in 1983 - if you got to listen to music, you'd share that music with everyone else in the office and it would either be muzak (!) or a radio station. You didn't get to have these deep niches and deep preferences that Spotify/et al allow. Movies though - that requires your full attention. Can you read a book while you code? Can you watch a movie while you do your company's books? It's just too different.

Tyrannosaurs 13y ago
Not saying that the music industry impacts the other industries, just that there are parallels in the move to a digital world and these may be things that will apply. But yes, there are differences, but there will be similarities too.