Kassia Krozser

Ah, another day, another “the Internet is killing culture” article. What about someone writing an article about the fact that the so-called critics are out-of-touch and lazy? While I feel for all the people who are losing their jobs, I cannot help but think that so many of these critics brought it upon themselves.

Petitions and protests are not going to change the facts on the ground. Very few of see a future where there will be print coverage of the arts. The fact that there isn’t huge public outcry about these losses suggests that, well, you weren’t as valued by the public you purported to serve. Did you ever think that those online voices are filling the gaps you’ve ignored?

Here is what I’ve learned about arts critics over these past years:
[Read more…] about I’m So Bored With the Petitions

I grew up in one those towns with a tiny little newspaper, The Lompoc Record, where Scott Ostler, before he was the Scott Ostler, commented on my athletic talent, saying “I buttressed the defense”. As it was likely I was sitting the bench — as I did throughout my softball career — I have to say that was as an accurate a statement as any made by a sports journalist. For big city perspective on the news, we also subscribed, on Sundays, to the Santa Barbara News Press.

Trust me, when you grow in Lompoc, Santa Barbara seems like a teeming metropolis.

Throughout my life, I have been a faithful newspaper subscriber. Note that word: subscriber. Over the past ten years, our household recycled more unread paper copies of the Los Angeles Times than read copies. It wasn’t that news suddenly became less important, it was the actual printed version of the paper that became, well, stale. Even though we stopped received the print edition some time ago, we continue to subscribe to the Kindle edition.
[Read more…] about What Ever Happened To: Newspapers, or On The Death of Newspapers, and Why Don’t We Care More?

On a day like today, I am reminded how much I like clouds. Though it’s a little steamy here in SoCal, we’re also seeing a few drops of much-needed rain. It’s been so long, many of us had nearly forgotten what it sounds like, waking to a thunderstorm.

Clouds are really hot right now in the tech world. I don’t pretend to understand all ins and outs of cloud computing, but get that there’s tremendous potential for sharing and flexibility when it comes to content and information. I also get that there are more than a few red flags when it comes to “the cloud.”

Recently, a consortium lead by Sony announced a project called “Open Market.” Do not be fooled by the word “open”; this is a DRM scheme, plain and simple. The plan is simple (and not that new). You buy content, and then you get to access said content on a series of devices registered to your “domain.” In theory, this means, all house laptops, desktops, cell phones, devices-to-be-named-later. There is some sharing and the concept of interoperability.
[Read more…] about The One That He Likes, Or It’s Cloudy in Pasadena

To the best of my knowledge, the sky has been falling since the sky was created. We have been in the Decline of Western Civilization since before the Roman Empire fell. And I know the following to be true: radio will kill books, movies will kill radio, television will kill movies, the Internet will kill television, and the Youth Are Out of Control.

Also, home taping will kill music. Mark my words.

That’s a direct-ish quote from the music industry in the early 1980s (before we had such miracles as CDs or DVDs or Kindles). Music, as most of us know, still exists. Which is nice because if it didn’t, what would I be listening to right now? Silence, instead of Ornette Coleman. Sure, I could hum, but that would be like making music, and home taping came oh-so-close to taking away even that simple pleasure.
[Read more…] about The End is Nigh, and Other Myths

So let’s recap: if iTunes is not currently the largest music retailer in the world, then it is well on the way to becoming so. Outlets for physical music product are shrinking. Consumers are increasingly looking to online sources for new music, for variety, convenience, and price. So yeah, it makes sense that artists would steer clear of iTunes.

At least that’s what the Wall Street Journal thinks.

Citing limited examples — the Beatles, AC/DC, Kid Rock — the WSJ looks at the singles versus whole album market, and seems to decide that long-form is the way to go. First, facts, because they’re important. Record labels and artists make more money when consumer buy entire albums. Singles don’t add up the way they used to. While legal music purchases are increasing, overall revenue is decreasing. Another fact: when we talk about “saving” the music business, we’re not talking about saving the artists, we’re talking about saving the labels.

Back in the day, singles were the way the music industry worked. While a few bands, such as the aforementioned Beatles, created works that enticed consumers to buy long-playing discs (as they were once known), singles really ruled the charts and revenue streams. Then came CDs and this magical moment where consumers replaced their vinyl collections with harder, more portable plastic. For a while, CD sales were trending upward. Then the music industry decided to kill itself, and CD sales suffered.
[Read more…] about What iTunes Really Says About Music

These past weeks have seen more bad news for newspapers, and even more since I began drafting this piece. What’s interesting is that the people reporting this disaster, the people who are inevitably on the worst end of this bad news, cannot be blamed for the failure of their business. It’s not like the reporters and staff writers and editorialists have failed at their jobs. The failure of newspapers in America, particularly, is the failure of management to recognize upcoming threats, to confuse print media with online media, and just plain bad management.

In the 1990s, two forces emerged, both of which were direct threats to the newspaper business. The first, of course, was Craigslist. Maybe it was “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free” exemplified, but I think it was more. I think Craigslist exposed more than financial holes in the classified advertising model: it exposed business holes. Moving online meant time lags were limited; it meant that anyone, without a subscription, could buy or sell items or service; it meant community feedback — a concept refined by eBay.
[Read more…] about The Decline of Newspapers, Again

So I woke up Friday morning eager to begin the fun task of researching ebooks for the iPhone. I was thwarted early on thanks to the multitudes who chose to update their software at the exact same time I did. Couldn’t they wait until I was finished?

Yeah, went through Friday without a cell phone. Felt oddly freeing. Woke Saturday even more determined. Successfully updated my iPhone. Found and downloaded the Fictionwise ereader app. See my post at Booksquare for the sordid details. Actually, I skipped one detail. I abandoned the Fictionwise experiment when it became apparent that the site didn’t have a lick of information about how to gets books to my phone. By the time I got back on track, there was shopping to do, places to see. Later, I thought.

So later comes and I had an action plan (thanks to more dedicated souls who found the correct information at Fictionwise’s sister site, eReader), but the unexpected happens: the Kindle fairy lands in Pasadena. I am now the proud owner of a new Kindle. Yes!
[Read more…] about Freadom: Reading in the Digital Age