Medialoper

We're Not Who You Think We Are

Kassia Krozser

Changing The Economics of Publishing: The SharedBook Model

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Major entertainment media remains, shall we say, smug in the knowledge that the edge they retain over independent producers of content is distribution (also marketing, but that’s another post). It’s a well-earned smugness, make no doubt about it. When it comes to theatrical distribution, until the universe goes digital, it’s a tough thing to get thousands of prints into theaters. For music, well, even as digital downloads grow, physical CDs are still the top sellers.

And books? Well, we all know that physical books remain very popular. And most physical books seem happiest being printed up in mass quantities and shipped to bookstores (or, rather, shipped to warehouses for shipping to bookstores). Economies of scale and all that. The more you print, the theory goes, the cheaper the product.
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Universal, iTunes, and The Problem with Consumers

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Universal Music is reconsidering its deal with iTunes and has decided to remain “at will” rather than resign to a longer term deal. Also, apparently that ninety-nine cents per song thing rankles. You know how that goes.

Various news outlets have reported on this issue, and if it’s a matter of keeping options open, I have to agree that Universal is doing the right thing. I mean, at some point, their deal with SpiralFrog might be lucrative, and there are no guarantees about which service the kids might be using a year from now. It’s better to remain flexible in today’s business environment.
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Make and Craft: A Case Study For Entertainment Companies

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Make Issue 08 coverHere is what happens when you give a blogger free wine. After confessing that I had wheedled and whined until I was the proud recipient of the last display copy of a new publication at a recent trade show (believe me, the wheedling wasn’t pretty; it was effective), I ventured another confession. “I really want to knit the kimono.”

“Me, too,” said the employee of the publisher. She’d expressed no horror at my underhanded tactics, assuring me that had she been there, she would have given me the magazine, too. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “But did you see the size of the needles? They’re tiny! It would take forever.”

“Yeah.” What else could I say? Knitting a kimono would be a challenge, but, well, it would also be a challenge that would take the better part of a year. My current project is already moving into forever territory. I shrugged. “I’m knitting laptop covers for Christmas.”*

And off the conversation went. It turns out that nothing excites a vendor at a trade show like the prospect of knitting laptop covers and using cool, shiny, big buttons to close the snugly cover. The husband wandered over to another table, his attention focused on the Holy Grail of magazines. “It’s the pinball issue!”
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Preparing For The Summer Blockbuster

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If you’re into that sort of thing, this summer is shaking up to be a wild one in Hollywood. While blockbusters galore are filling the screens and record-breaking sales are making the headlines, a revolution is about to emerge. Our sleepy little town is about to enter what I believe will be the most contentious Guild negotiations ever.

This is a fight that has been simmering since, oh, 1981 or so. Back when Betamax and VHS were slugging it out with Laserdiscs. The studios, who were just beginning to see the endless programming possibilities of cable television (satellite being, if not a dream, a fantasy), and you can imagine their confoundment (is that a word?) when they learned just how much people would be willing to spend to own movies.

It would be close to a decade before these selfsame studios really grasped the lucrative nature of television series and consumer ownership.
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A Curious Addiction

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I make no secret of the fact that I’m a news junkie. Probably there’s a support group for my problem, but, you know, I’m not sure that being informed is a real problem. Once upon a time, I thought I was going to be a real journalist when I grew up. I thank MaryBeth Lucas, my journalism teacher at Cabrillo High School, for teaching both great journalism and the fact that straight reporting simply isn’t my thing.

One of the many lessons that sticks with me is that you cannot truly write without bias. Can’t be done. To write without any sort of bias is to write like matzoh. Sure, you can report the facts, the straight, dry facts, but what is news without color? The man on the street interview? The details that set the scene (do you mention the jacaranda or do you note the burned out vehicle three houses down)?
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Goodbye, Dear Television, Goodbye

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Truthfully, I’m not much of a television watcher, but I do like the fact that it’s a passive sort of entertainment*, and for an hour or so day, I like being entertained. I don’t even do it every day. The thing is, as I’ve grown older, I have found that it’s okay to admit that I like television.

I note this because it’s going to be a long, mentally intense summer for me. You probably don’t care, anticipating a long, mentally intense summer of your own. While I am perfectly happy — eager! — to disappear into the world of books and I am very much living online — all day long! — and I still have lots of music in the mix, I have come to enjoy certain television programming and the fact that it’s not available to me over the long, mentally intense summer is irritating.

There is this new show John From Cincinnati that we’re going to to give a shot, despite the weird reviews (is it good, is it bad, do I take it on faith that the creators of Deadwood know what they’re doing?). Otherwise, what?
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They Wanna Bite The Hand That Feeds Them

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: nobody hates the music industry more than the music industry. At every turn over the past decade (perhaps the past century), the powers that be have made wrong choices. Proprietary formats versus MP3? Proprietary. Protect the album versus promote the single? Protect the album. Tell the people what they want versus give the people what they want?

You know the answer to that one.

But this about changing the rule that radio stations shouldn’t pay royalties on the music they play. Historically, radio stations have received a pass when it comes to performance royalties. The logic is that playing songs leads to increased sales. At least that’s how it has worked historically. You hear a song on the radio, you buy the album or single or tape or eight-track or CD or download or whatever. Radio has essentially served as the music industry’s promotional tool.
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An Ode To A Dinosaur: The Upfronts

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Like most Americans, I am following the news of the upfronts with great interest. Oh. Right. Most Americans couldn’t care less about the upfronts. Most Americans don’t know what upfronts are. I even had to explain the concept to a 15-year veteran of the motion picture industry. In his defense, nothing in his job requires knowing the nuances of how television advertising is sold.

He just needed to know that big bucks spent on “spot” advertising were normal.

In many ways, the upfronts are the major networks’ ways of securing lines of credit for new programming. New shows and lineups are presented to the advertisers of the world. Said advertisers are supposed to, somehow, identify the shows that seem like good bets and commit dollars for future commercials. In theory, buying time early is a way to guarantee a good price. In practice, it’s just about impossible to tell in May how things will shake out in September in October.
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Customer Service Through Litigation: The RIAA Institutionalizes Its Business Model

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I admit to being a bit old-fashioned, but in my mind, good customer service rarely involves suing your customers. But, for the past several years, that’s just what the RIAA has done. Nothing creates a warm and fuzzy feeling about an industry faster than threats. Makes you feel wanted.

Illegal downloads are a problem. I maintain — because frankly, the RIAA has offered nothing in the way of hard evidence — that the amount of money being lost is quite a bit less than what the press releases suggest. I believe this simply because every download does not represent a lost sale. In many cases, the songs would have gone unsold, unheard, unnoticed.
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Helpful Advice On Adding Value To Downloadable Media

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I stumbled upon an article that posed an interesting question: why aren’t lyrics included with downloadable music? The article suggests that rights issues (and compensation issues) are simply too complex to allow lyrics to be part of the digital package. I’d suggest something else.

One of the key arguments for digital media is the lack of packaging. No jewel boxes, DVD cases, or junk to manage in your increasingly small household. Of course, this means that the consumer misses out on liner notes and other supporting material included in the physical package. Despite this loss, the major entertainment companies — publishing, music, and motion picture — are trying to approximate the price of physical product in a digital world (publishers, for what it’s worth, take the cake here).

Adding this material to the digital package would not increase costs in any noticeable manner. Consumers would still lose when it comes to what they get for what they pay.
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