Quote:
Originally Posted by cjr72
We've seen this movie before in other industries, most recently Kodak in the face of digital photography. When there's technological upheaval in an industry the established players would rather dig in their heels and close their eyes to reality . . . .
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Kodak largely invented digital photography (although others would have it they had not). Kodak sold a lot of digital cameras, even though other companies were traditionally stronger in the camera business. There is nothing they could do about the fact that digital cameras don't needed film and developing.
Digital cameras are closer to film cameras than film and developing are to computers. That's why a company like Nikon could transition to digital a bit easier than Kodak (although Nikon closed its Japanese factories just like Kodak closed theirs in New York State).
Eyes open to reality does not mean you can save your company. It may just mean you can see the disaster coming sooner.
One way the popular music industry has adjusted to low prices for recorded music is to charge much more for live performances. This is not just for concert musicians. A broadway musical ticket today can cost dozens of times more than an Amazon MP6 album download! I guess the equivalent for authors would be selling tie-in gear and going on lecture tours, but I think potential there is much less than it was for music.