MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Generation Gap: publishing and the on-demand culture

fjtorres · 04-23-2014, 07:45 AM

The rush to consume is still there... but only for certain things.
And yes, the drive is social.
But it is very limited: people rush to catch the big summer blockbusters or the scare of the week flicks because the former are event releases and the latter are ephemeral. In both cases, it is a social need to be current that drives the "herd", not a fear of losing access.
But for most products, only true fans really feel the pressure.

The new CAPTAIN AMERICA movie? Yes, you want to catch it soonish to know what the whole "Hail Hydra" meme is about. The closely tied-in AGENTS OF SHIELD TV show? Not so much. You can DVD it, watch it on Hulu or the ABC streaming app, get the DVD set in the summer, or catch it on Netflix in the fall when the movie comes out on disc. So if the social driver isn't there for you there is no rush.

The thing is, the social driver is limited; the biggest "must-see" product of the season isn't even a movie, but a gritty fantasy series on HBO that 90% of the country doesn't care about. Other notable products are a historical drama about medieval "biker gangs", or a period drama about the 1960's or a fluffy farce about nerds. All appealing to narrow slices of the community. The urgency to "get it now" is equally narrow and strictly for fans of that given niche. For everybody else it's a yawner.

The market is so fragmented the very terms "hit" and "bestseller" are nearly meaningless and even "urgent" stuff isn't all that urgent.

04-23-2014, 07:45 AM	#14
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	The rush to consume is still there... but only for certain things. And yes, the drive is social. But it is very limited: people rush to catch the big summer blockbusters or the scare of the week flicks because the former are event releases and the latter are ephemeral. In both cases, it is a social need to be current that drives the "herd", not a fear of losing access. But for most products, only true fans really feel the pressure. The new CAPTAIN AMERICA movie? Yes, you want to catch it soonish to know what the whole "Hail Hydra" meme is about. The closely tied-in AGENTS OF SHIELD TV show? Not so much. You can DVD it, watch it on Hulu or the ABC streaming app, get the DVD set in the summer, or catch it on Netflix in the fall when the movie comes out on disc. So if the social driver isn't there for you there is no rush. The thing is, the social driver is limited; the biggest "must-see" product of the season isn't even a movie, but a gritty fantasy series on HBO that 90% of the country doesn't care about. Other notable products are a historical drama about medieval "biker gangs", or a period drama about the 1960's or a fluffy farce about nerds. All appealing to narrow slices of the community. The urgency to "get it now" is equally narrow and strictly for fans of that given niche. For everybody else it's a yawner. The market is so fragmented the very terms "hit" and "bestseller" are nearly meaningless and even "urgent" stuff isn't all that urgent.