Music... that industry had more time and harvested more experience on the internet / file sharing paradigm. They kind of adjusted (not that well, as such industries are big enough not to do swift actions) and now you can buy each song for less than 1 U$S. There are also other selling schemas being tested, including the "pay a fixed monthly fee and download all you want".
Now: what is more costly on the creative / human side ? creating a music theme or writing a novel ? I would say that it depends, but there are instances, surely, in which both actions could be leveled. I know a novelist might be writing for months. On the other hand, musicians often work together, and also burn many man-hours.
Anyway ... books on the internet are still on an early stage. We wonīt see the pay a fixed fee, download all you want (I donīt think it would be a good idea for books), but maybe authors will grow accustomed to publish their own books by themselves on specialized websites, that would take a big bite (10% 15%) of the book cost (but no the other way around as now happens with current publishers, who LEAVE to the author 10% or LESS).
to sum up, Music industry is already (perhaps badly) adapting.
Movies industry is also adapting: As I understand there is an official website (sadly enough available only for northamerican users) that allows you to download first rate movies, for a cost similar to a ticket movie).
Speaking of wich, other situation to throw in is the "sadly enough only for northamerican people". This means that the system is adapting to a worldwide phenomena as internet, in a local manner.
SO happens with Kindle. Amazon is having a hell time to coordinate and enable its magic to work "internationally".
We are not there yet folks. This will take lots of years. All I know is that the same book you but at -say U$S 10- down here, where probably publishing costs are LOWER- may cost U$S 20 because of publisher "fees".
I know that publishing houses that got branches in different countries, have different pricelists.
I Know that amazon allows to circunvent such thing: I buy in amazon, send those books to a friendīs house or a "private p.o. box" that then sends them to me down here, and on the bulk (3 or 4 books) I save money.
I know that publishers are not at all happy with such thing. They cannot easily stop amazon. But to other internet books sellers, which can be bullied in an easier way, they (the publishers) Monitor them, their sales, their websites, in search of "global pricing policies" and censors them.
This last paragraph I can vouch to it: I designed at least two literature selling websites. One is big enough for the "inconsistencies on selling worldwide from one country" to be a concern.
Is this OK ? I dont know. IT certainly feels awkward and / or weird!
I feel like the publishers want to force a "no loss for us" policy. If we people have a new way of spend less on the same book... well... they dont like that, they "unite" crossing country boundaries, and they try to force you to leave your money on the LOCAL branch, because it would report them more earnings.
You see... for a start internet is global. The establishment "mob" is local.
Regards,
Enrique.
|