Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

In my observations and meditations concerning the publishing industry and the music industry I think I may be glimpsing a little vision of what is to come. It's pretty obvious what an impact the web has had on these industries. The advent of the internet and its ancillary technologies has turned both the publishing and music businesses on their ears. Everything has changed, not just the method of distribution but also the methods of production and consumption and compensation. Everybody is asking, 'When is this maelstrom of change going to stabilize so we can get back to making money?'

The answer to that question is probably 'never,' the rate of cultural and technological change doesn't show signs of slowing, but I think I can predict what the next hill will look like in this mountain range.

All of the formats are in the process of changing. Our idea of what a newspaper or a book or a recording or a magazine looks like and how it is conceived, produced, distributed and consumed will soon be entirely different. In a real sense we can look for a world in which all information is potentially available to all people. The confusion that we witness right now is the result of the squabble over who is going to be able to charge who for it. My prediction is this: The iPad, in its future iterations will be the new proscenium, the new frame, the new page and arena for publishing of all kinds. Because of the confluence of this device and ones that will follow it and the internet and worldwide telecommunications, the next generation of books, records, newspapers, magazines will all be called apps. This is already happening. For a buck on iTunes you can get an audio/text version of Pride and Prejudice. Magazines will soon more resemble cable TV shows and will cost only pennies added onto your phone bill. Likewise newspapers. Already music recordings are being trafficked this way and the record album/ten-cut CD will soon be a thing of the past. Soon everything will be an app. You will buy an appBook by simply touching an icon on the screen of your personal EverythingPad. It will be downloaded to you by satellite from some server in Qatar or Waxahachie and you will be able to read it at your leisure either with or without audio.

Sam Cutler, a former roadie with both the Stones & Grateful Dead, is releasing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" on the multimedia iPhone application. Available for $9.99, it contains Cutler's-narrated audiobook synchronized with the text, video links to two interviews, and more than 30 photos.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id365685513?mt=8

OK, why am I spending this time to remind you of facts that you already know? Nothing I'm saying here can have escaped your own observation. The significance of it is in how we go about our work as creators. When I finished the online version of Cool Calm Collected a few weeks ago, I lamented not being able to produce a hand-held book that was as media-rich as what I could present on the web. That was limited thinking. Books like these, which include audio and visual illumination are already becoming available as apps. There is going to be an increasing and sustained demand for these multi-media apps, and the production of them is bound to be a big business.

Share your thoughts with me on this.

In the future, everyone will be a writer and an artist. All people will also be photographers and graphic designers.

In the future, all people will be stars. Everybody will become a brand name. Each person will be self-branded. They'll all have their own websites and even music videos and shamelessly announce each and every new piece of writing they create and every photo they take and every graphic design they do. They will even email you and send you private messages linking you to their new works begging for applause and any type of attention they can get, but not asking for a penny. Oh, except for when they have published books. All people will be self publishers of books in the future and they will try to sell them to you but nobody will buy them because they can get the content for free online or write one themselves without having to pay for it. In the future, people may be able to sell a book to one of their relatives, but most of their relatives will expect to be given one for free but none of their relatives who receive a free book will actually read it.

In the future, all people's work will be worth nothing because everybody will be working for nothing and all of their work will be freely available on the web.



In the future, everybody will work for free. Please note that I'm a pioneer of working for free.

The future is now.

This is a brilliant analysis of the situation, doreen. I know you are taking it to facetious extreme but I have to say that it is dead on. However, it assumes that there is only mediocrity in the world of thought and literature and music. Hopefully that is not the case. Even if we assume that nobody is going to get paid for their writing because it's free on the web, that doesn't mean that there won't be extraordinary writers who everyone will want to read because their message is interesting or timely or astute or insightful. And those writers or musicians or artists who draw an audience will be able to monetize it in some way.

Today I created an iPhone app which displays all the material in my eBook Cool Calm Collected. It's a trip. Anybody who has an iphone can read it. I could sell it at the Apple App Store. I could do it in installments or all at once or whatever. I think it's the future of publishing. We will see more novels published as serials and writers who have followings will be able to syndicate with apps. This means that a publisher will have to be able to produce a book with lots of bells and whistles like audio and video and other rich graphic content. The competition won't be Tom Wolfe, it will be Tetris and online scrabble and video games. So, books will become multi-media affairs. And just like any book that is published in print, it will cost significant money to produce a good product and promote it. What won't cost is distribution.

Ohhh! That's very cool! BUT.... I forgot to mention... in the future, all iPhone apps will be free. As a matter of fact, they're already free.... because... *drum roll*.... the future is now! heh

In the future, there will be an app to do anything you want to do... for free, btw (not just for the iphone but for your desktop computer, laptop computer, various portable devices or iPad)... that's what Open Source is... and WordPress, etc ... in the future, free Open Source apps will be able to do what expensive apps like Adobe Create Suite apps do... and just as well. (and the future is now!)

And just as always... just as in the past... in the future... those who are better than mediocre at their crafts will have to have to be backed by big industry with big money in order to get their name out there.... Otherwise, their self-promotion abilities will rank them just as far down as those who are promoting their mediocre (or worse) work.

Gotta have a NAME in the future. (just as in the past)... No name? No money. *shrug*

Sometimes the future looks very similar to the past in various respects.

I repeat. What won't cost is distribution. This is what is shaking up the publishing world as we know it. Already distribution costs next to nothing because of Amazon and other online booksellers. With eBooks distribution will be free. But the content won't be free. This should mean that the product will sell based on the merit of its content alone. But that is naive. It will sell based on the merit of its content PLUS the effectiveness of its promotion. This pretty much leaves the role of publisher the same as its always been, to find or produce good content and then sell it to the public. It's just a question of how the production costs and the promotion costs will be divvied up that hasn't been figured out yet. But a successful publisher will more resemble a movie producer. An editor will be more like a movie director. Multi-media will become more than an option, it will be a necessity. I see this as a very exciting time in publishing, full of new possibilities and new jobs for good content providers.

There will always be books and publishers will pay for content with royalties. And there will always be journalists who work for the major publications for pay.

Look for several things to happen because of the shift to virtual books:
1. A shift in the genres that will be published. Many how-to and demonstration manual types of titles. Hands-on, interactive stuff. Cooking books. Good college lecturers. Text-books with interactive tests included.
2. Look for more graphic novels. The comic book will be king again in a way, just without the smeary ink and pulp paper. Cartooning and animation will become so mechanized that any child will be able to do it. Plus and above all, the genre is very friendly to small displays.
3. The short-form music video will become the next poetic killer genre. Pop songs and short message pieces produced like commercials. Video essays. Short drama and sketch comedy. Something you could watch between busses or elevators. These would be very important in brand establishment.

I think you are very right about the importance of brand identity. This is true in any art. The signature sells the painting. You buy the new Paul Simon record because you trust the brand. But I think that the old 'you can't get there unless you are already there' argument is an excuse for failure or not trying. What is happening in publishing because of media Will make it different for writers, but I choose to think it will be a more democratic environment with better chances for the cream to rise to the top than in the past. And yes, a great deal of any artist's success will depend on how well he uses the marketing media.

it's all about the living.....i buy books still.....everybodies readin' 'em on the marc train.....ch....ch...cha...changes.....i loves 'em! ...@ 57 i need not worry 'bout futures...it's all about NOW!...Kapow!!!!!!!

Former Book Designer Says Good Riddance to Print

I can see all the advantages but even so "—if they want my print copy of A Confederacy of Dunces they are going to have to take it from my cold dead hands.

All my favorite newspapers are talking about 'Paywalls'


"The future, live it or live with it" Firesign Theatre.

all the papers at union station a dollar and thin as a dime....they be going down for the count.....people reading freebies...the express and the tribune.....in d.c. and baltimore.swoopin' down on the town.....vultures lookin' for scraps.....cut 'em up with machete's and give 'em to the man.....circlin'....circlin'......on the scent like a pack of hounds....vultures.......i wish u could hear this jam i got going.ST.....