Quote:
Originally Posted by mcl
Except that, right now, sales of P and N are additive, because sales of N are not in any way hindered by sales of P. Publishers just like to claim they are when justifying patently stupid behavior.
At all other times, publishers are happy to admit that sales of P are miniscule and have no real impact.
And since we were talking about /right now/, not some nebulous time in the future, the point stands.
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I believe that one of the factors in diminishing music sales is that the market has different things to spend the 'entertainment' part of their disposable income on. Money spent is not spent on music but on mobile phones, ringtones, games, apps, dvd, blu-ray etc.. The spending budget is not infinitely flexible.
If this is the case it is important where the people buying e-books will come from. If it is purely existing readers, it is unlikely that the total amount spent will increase a lot. If non-typical readers end up buying a significant part of ebooks, the market might grow, but in that case it is likely (I can imagine) only in best-seller country. But at the same time this larger market is probably more vulnerable to competition with non-book purchases.
So, if you look at is in this way, again uncertainty about the future of the market means the publishing companies have to be careful if they want to survive in any way.