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As someone who works in scientific engineering, there seems to be a "different way of working" in the "creative" world. Publishing houses have come into existence for books, music and film, and they all work by finding content creators (authors, musicians, actors etc) and taking a risk on them by paying for work which does not yet exist, and then publishing what results. I suppose that this is the commercial development of the old system of The Wealthy adopting artists and having works created for them.
However, in the rest of the commercial world, a person or company has a (hopefully) good idea, develops it, and then if it is good enough they can sell it. That idea might be a type of food, a gadget or a machine, but if it is not good enough then the person or company might go bust. Sure, there is still investment up front, whichi might be from a venture capitalist, a bank, or friends and family, but the creator takes on the risk.
The Internet has removed the need for publishing houses in many ways. You no longer need to cut and press a vinyl disc to distribute music, you no longer need to print ink onto paper for books, and perhaps most importantly, neither MP3 files, nor eBooks need to use distribution companies who handle the logistics of spreading tens of thousands of physical items to thousands fo retail locations.
There will always be authors and musicians who want to have the safety of a publishing house, and since they are being paid an advance on their work the publishing house will want to milk them for every penny, and any electronic versions will be laden with ineffective DRM if available at all.
However, I believe that there is a second group of creators, which is growing day by day, who are willing to self finance, accept the financial risk themselves, and will use the Internet to distribute their work.
Regardless of how many people there are out there who will happily "steal" "pirate" copies of music or books, there will always be people who are happy, willing, and even eager to pay a content creator for good art. This new group of self supported artists will benefit from these supporters of the arts, and will get 50-100% of the revenue from their work being sold, as opposed to the 2-10% typical when work is sold through publishing houses.
Eventually the publishing houses may find themselves in the minority, but I doubt it will be in the near future.
Ramble over. Sorry for posting a rambling brain dump as my first post on the boards. I shall try to be more constructive in the future...
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