Today we face the prospect of drowning in tidal wave self-published
eBooks, YouTube videos, photos, independent music videos and tracks etc which
are loaded onto sites alongside and often more frequently than traditionally
produced works. Historically these self-published works have been regarded by
many as substandard works, looked down upon by the traditional marketplace who
referred to them by the term ‘vanity publishing’. Some would even still argue
that if you can’t get a publisher, producer or third party to publish your
work, then it must be of questionable quality and of little value.
Some claim that by 2020 50% of all eBooks will be self-published. We
would question that and suggest that it is probably a huge understatement and
the figure is more likely to be 75%. However, we have to acknowledge that
establishing what is self-published and what isn’t is likely to become even
harder as digital tools to create, promote and produce quality layouts become
cheaper and easier to use. We also have to accept that there will be a number
of new third parties who will assist the creator to be published and although
these are not necessarily publishers as we knew them, they are effectively
publishers.
Some will point to Anderson’s ‘Long Tail’ economics and say
it doesn't work and the head is getting smaller in number and
larger in slice of the pie and the tail is now just too long and they will be
right MIDiA Consulting have published a new report on the music business titled‘The Death of the Long Tail: The Superstar Music Economy’. The report
states that the total global artist income from recorded music in 2013 was $2.8
billion, down from $3.8 billion in 2000 but up slightly on 2012 and that
artists’ share of total income grew from 14% in 2000 to 17% in 2013. It
claims that 1% of the total artists and works account for 77% of all artist
recorded music income. This reinforced by the ‘Cowell factor’ of manufactured
new stars and the charts, but is music just about charts and recorded music or
should also not take in music publishing, performing rights and royalties and
merchandising. We often just see music through the eyes of the record producers
and not the industry and rarely the musicians.
Others will complain that in the book industry earnings for the mid and
back list are being decimated by the introduction of masses of self-published
material. The earnings will increasingly be different to those enjoyed
yesterday and many will not match the author’s expectations. Michael Kozlowski’s
recently advocated that in order to address this that ‘Indie eBooks Need to beSegregated’. We would strongly disagree with this reactive and somewhat naïve
approach which is aimed at suppressing creativity. Segregation is a false
economics move aimed not at segregating good and bad but at protecting
yesterday’s financial model and its bets from the new offerings.
The world has changed and the true democratisation of creativity is upon
us and this has been enabled by the internet and means that we can all write,
make videos, take pictures, create games and make music. Forget the quality
issue the fact is that this explosion of material is changing the way we now
create, develop, market and value stuff. This genie is not going back in the
lamp and we now have to realise that there will be more not less and that new
consumer values will change all and that the creator rewards will be different.
Some state that the consumer demands quality and that this can only be
achieved through the editorial development process. However there are now many
consumer viewpoints and values and these often clash with these traditional
binary beliefs. Who would have believed that some low quality YouTube videos
would receive the number of viewings they have and gone on to spawn new stars
of their own. Who would have expected the global sensation of ’50 Shades of
Grey’ and it now being adapted to mainstream film? Would we have ever heard
‘Gangnam Style’ without YouTube? Would performers such as Lilly Allen or
the Arctic Monkeys have made it if left to the traditional music
business?
We accept that there are millions who don’t make it in both the
traditional and self-publishing models but that is no reason to not move on and
accept that we are now moving into an era of free expression, creativity and
democratisation.
