They’re killing the book business…
The old guard – the ones married to paper and indie bookstores, the publishers afraid of big bad Amazon – have achieved their goal; they’ve killed the e-book.
That’s right, e-book sales are down by 21.8%.
The entire book business has declined by 2.7%. This is what happens when Luddites living in the past refuse to enter the future. This is what would be happening in music if the insane artists screaming about streaming were able to get their way.
Alas, music is far ahead of the book business. With everything available for one low price, with streaming burgeoning, sales are up by 8.1%.
Daniel Ek single-handedly saved the music business.
And for that he is Public Enemy Number One.
What has happened to our country? Is everyone so afraid of moving backward, losing what little they have, that they refuse to enter the future and cling to the past? Is this about income inequality, where there’s always an enemy and change is anathema? Or is this just fat cat Baby Boomer businessmen who are riding out their contracts and want to receive their bonuses and are holding back the future.
But not in the music business…
Universal Music might be home to Taylor Swift, but it’s Lucian Grainge who’s spearheaded Spotify, who decried Swift’s anti-Apple, anti-free-tier comments. There’s no one as ignorant as an artist, never forget that. And I’d worry they’d be offended, then again, I’d have to ignore the venom directed at myself every single day online.
We’ve come so far in the music business. The means of production are in the hands of the proletariat, distribution is nearly free. Yet somehow the vocal minority which controls the airwaves cannot stop bitching.
Probably, you wouldn’t have been able to play in the old system. You would have never gotten a deal, never mind get your indie album into the record store. Never mind coming up with the money to record to begin with.
And if you made a record, good luck getting it on the radio; gatekeepers ruled.
Streaming playlists are the new gatekeepers but they’re much broader in scope than radio playlists. That’s the dirty little secret of the major label world. Everybody pays fealty to radio, even though it means so much less and is out of touch with today’s times.
The future’s so bright you gotta wear shades. Continue reading →