(no subject)
The always fascinating agent Nathen Bransford blogged today about Free Ebooks. He asks if free content is inevitable and how it will work for authors, if at all? One commented, RW, made an excellent point, which I wanted to bring up:
"Alternative" revenue streams has in many cases meant a very old-fashioned revenue stream--performing concerts. In the top-down, big distribution company era, performing was a loss-leading promotional tool to sell records. It was bad for fans of live music and bad for smaller bands and thus bad for the overall artistic environment. The long-tail era is starting to mean the reverse--MP3s and CDs are promoting the work of live musicians who make their money by performing. Which has been good for fans, for the small bands. The overall musical experience has been much improved I think. It's bad for Warner Brothers and it's bad for their top acts maybe, but the tops don't more money as much as the world needs more music and smaller acts need a chance to do their thing.
The analogy to writing and publishing isn't perfectly clear, but I think what this tells us is that thinking creatively for alternative revenue streams is the only way to go.
A crumb of food for thought--Mark Twain and Charles Dickens didn't get rich in publishing. They got rich touring and speaking. That doesn't suit every writer's situation, but it is was once a viable alternative revenue stream. Maybe it will be again."
I really can't comment much on this except to say I agree entirely. I've never seen as much buzz around live music and support for indie and up-and-coming bands as I have since myspace and the free music brainwave. I'm buying less CDs, this much is true, but we go to more live shows. We're also more likely to buy an album at a show. And a t-shirt.
As we say, no one knows exactly how free media will work for authors, but we need to investigate more alternative revenue streams if we want to keep going in this business.