Future generations of e-book readers

[Kumabjorn]

A couple of days ago I went to the post office in order to exchange my drivers license, the office was closed so I had to wait almost an hour before it opened. About 20 min. before it opened a lady came in with her daughter who was approximately 16 or 18 years old. I was sitting there reading on my Kindle. After a little while she started to ask me if this was one of those famous tablet computers.

I told her it wasn't, it was a dedicated book reader. Something she had never heard about but she was clearly intrigued, she wanted to buy something similar for her daughter as a Christmas gift. The daughter did not look happy, she obviously wanted an iPad. Her main protest was that she couldn't watch movies on the Kindle. To this the mother objected that she hardly could afford to buy all the movies she wanted to watch on an iPad. "There are lots of free movies mother", was her reply.

This got me thinking, the generation that she belongs to is obviously of the mindset that media is freely available for no cost. The mother and I sort of shared a look and a slight nod both sayings simultaneously "there is no such thing as free media". So the daughter began talking about how many free MP3 songs she had downloaded just last week. Hence, it seems to me that we are raising a generation that thinks there is no need to pay for any kind of media. In my mind, the price we have paid for all the free MP3 songs out there is that the good songwriters turn to other endeavors such as writing film music or musicals rather than writing songs to be recorded and distributed on media.

Movies hasn't been available for download for as long as MP3 songs, so the changes hasn't been as far-reaching yet. Take the new HBO serious Luck, it stars Dustin Hoffman who as far as I know have never appeared in a TV series before. So is this perhaps the future for movies? They will all be made for cable channels?

This leads me to the question of what will happen to books in the future. If her generation expects books to be free in the future, who will write them? I believe it was Samuel Johnson who said "only a blockhead writes, except for money". Does that imply that in the future only blockheads will write?

I suspect that teen will grow out of the alleged activities once she is older. Maybe she will see the consequences of her actions, or maybe she will find it more convenient to buy the genuine article. After all, these activities are not new to her generation.

Oh, and there is a lot of legal free media out there. That goes for books, music, and video. A big part of the reason why people can give away stuff these days is because it costs very little to produce. (You can even obtain free software to write books, compose music, and produce video.)

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

This leads me to the question of what will happen to books in the future. If her generation expects books to be free in the future, who will write them? I believe it was Samuel Johnson who said "only a blockhead writes, except for money". Does that imply that in the future only blockheads will write?

Must... refrain... from... pointing towards... Smashwords*...

To be fair, there are plenty of free promotional giveaways of stuff every week and one can amass quite a collection of entirely legitimate officially-published offerings (I've got like 2000+ publisher promo giveaways in my Kindle archives obtained over the past year-and-a-half just from frequenting the Deals forum, and several hundred MP3s and first episodes of TV shows just from the iTunes "free song of the week" stuff).

Though I'll admit I don't think that was what the daughter was really talking about.

In any case, it looks like stuff is just moving to smaller and more specialized niche audiences anyway as the market fragments and people are more inclined to go to what specifically appeals to them, rather than stay with what's mass-marketed with a broadly general money-making "appeal".

Sure, there's plenty of the latest NYT bestseller on the darknet, but far fewer of more obscure niche offerings which people would have to seriously hunt for or just break down and pay up to get a decent-quality copy.

And Baen for instance seems to being doing pretty well with the sustaining sales and anecdotally say they've got low piracy rates because their e-books are priced and offered at such reasonable terms that the pirates just don't bother because they see no challenge to it.

* Alternatively, the Pit of Voles!

[Quexos]

This debate is not new. I think the way media is consumed is changing dramatically and content providers need to adapt or vanish. This is the way thing are, whether we like it or not.

[Greg Anos]

I read here that there were 316,000 new titles published in 2010. At 1,000 books a year, which is almost 3 a day, it'd take 316 years to read them all.

I don't figure I'll live that long....

And that's the problem for all creators today. There's so much out there for the customers to choose from. Why should they choose yours?

[Ceuse]

Basicly as one of the "young generation who thinks media is free" so im going to write my poor english thoughts :


Music : Basicly i think Music (in mp3 form) Should be free and im not willing to pay for any music in pure digital form, as an artist/band you should make your money through tours and live concerts.
If im a fan of some band and realy love the music i would (and have) went out and bought the original cd. but im more paying for the cover and artwork then the music itself since i got it in mp3 form anyway.
the main mistake the music industrie makes is that every download is a lost buy. no its not. i only buy the cds i truly love and listen to over and over. the rest in the pre digital days i probably would only record it from radio.

Movies/tv series : basicly the same thing although its a bit harder to justify.
if i go to the cinema to see a move i dont go there because i can only get the movie in high quality there. with a decent tv and a broadband internetconection getting blueray quality movies is no problems at all. if i go to a cinema i pay for the atmosphere, the feeling, the popcorn etc. the extra value i get there makes me pay, not the media itself.
for dvds/blue rays the same is true as for cds. i buy them not because i need it to watch the movie/series. i buy it for its cover, the artwork, the good feeling of having something you realy love standing on the shelf. i usualy still watch the downloaded version even though i own the original.
best example for this is south-park. i started to slowly buy there hole dvd set (seson 1 - 12) just shortly after they started to freely stream them on there homepage.

books : now here it gets realy hard since there is few extra value in a hardcover book exept its pure presence on the shelf. but if i realy love some book ive read (or rereed it over and over) i will surely buy a printed version sooner or later.



the future for media payment is simply : digital version for free. to earn you money you have to either perform/present it in a form which gives it extra value (in a non digital form) so ppl will pay for it and build a fanbase. because having free digital media can also be a huge plus since it makes you known to a broader possible fan base. and if 1000 of ppl download your free digital album. some of them will become fans and go to he next concert or buy the phisical form if its presented in the right way.
the real high investment projects like avatar though will slowly die out in my opinion wich isnt such a bad thing since high budget productions usualy lack in innovation anyway






wow thats a wall of text. sorry for my poor english, im from germany so english is not my nativ language and im hiiighly oversleepy and also got the flue abit (i hope i didnt loose the red line too much.....on reread oh boy i sure did!)

[carpetmojo]

[QUOTE=Ceuse;1884716]...... as an artist/band you should make your money through tours and live concerts.

So you want to tell all musicians to stop doing what they've been doing for a hundred years (ish) and simply do concerts or get on the road.
And suddenly lose a lot of income.
Except it would be that hard for some, because they wouldn't be able to get a venue to perform/tour to, cos it's booked up for the next 100 years by everybody else..
Or, they charge enough for tickets to make up their earnings from recording etc... - and only bankers and politicians will be able to afford to go.

I can think of a few bands/performers (including all those classical types too don't forget) I would pay to see recieve your suggestions ! You would have to do it personally, of course....

[Ceuse]

yeah i would probably get shot by quite a few of them since lil johns first child can't get that personal caribian island for christmass he so badly wanted

yep the big artists/films would loose quite a lot since they basicly get there money mainly through there cds/digital. but honestly : a band which is like national popular would still have a decent life. and alot more smaller/unknown artist get more out of there art.

also the cd sells wouldt completly die if its presented right. it would just be more for the 99% of artist and less for the realy big 1%

also there are alot of venues, just dont think as big as concert halls etc. a town hall will do just fine for anybody even bon jovy to earn enough for a month of rent and food , just not for the privat jet


now folllow up with communist and left wing radical flames im off to my (phisical) bed.
...if i could download a bed made once and just copied i sure as hell would pirate that too

[Serpentine]

If she isn't capable of paying for the media or is not going to pay at the official asking price and is not selling the media for gain - she is not a lost sale. Trees falling in the forest and all that.

[emellaich]

We need a sticky post that lists all of the old posts on this argument. That is, all of the old posts on "it should all be free" versus "you have an obligation to follow the creators wishes".

Then when a new one of these starts, we can say: "See these posts. What do you want to add?"

I have nothing against giving newcomers a chance to state their views, but the point is that some of us have already gone on the record. At this point, we probably aren't going to change each others minds; we are just going to waste a few electrons restating our own opinions.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by emellaich

We need a sticky post that lists all of the old posts on this argument. That is, all of the old posts on "it should all be free" versus "you have an obligation to follow the creators wishes".

Then when a new one of these starts, we can say: "See these posts. What do you want to add?"

I have nothing against giving newcomers a chance to state their views, but the point is that some of us have already gone on the record. At this point, we probably aren't going to change each others minds; we are just going to waste a few electrons restating our own opinions.

Reading other posts is no replacement for debating the topic yourself when it comes to understanding the issues. And I _have_ noticed some moderation in the views of those who have discussed topics here. There is just too much good from letting people work out things for themselves to stop them because others have already done it first.

Also, I've noticed things slowing down on these forums because new topics are getting scarce. If we discourage duplication, it's going to get awful quiet around here. Let's encourage new involvement.

[ebusinesstutor]

Musicians go on tour to promote their music, not to make money. They make more money from the sales of their music than they do from tours. And many artists do not tour, they just create studio albums.

To say this should be free is equivalent to saying no one should pay you for the work you do all day either.

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

Musicians go on tour to promote their music, not to make money. They make more money from the sales of their music than they do from tours. And many artists do not tour, they just create studio albums.

To say this should be free is equivalent to saying no one should pay you for the work you do all day either.

for better or worse the exact opposite is true.

U2's most recent tour netted 3/4 of a billion dollars. i'd bet my life that their music sales weren't 1/100th of that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._concert_tours

thats probably more than the entire music industry made on album sales last year.

[Kumabjorn]

My intention was not to rekindle a debate between free vs. paid. What I am curious about is what will happen when a generation that believes the norm to be free media has taken over, particularly as it relates to books and writing. I don't think we are going to change that generation's view regarding free media. Hence, there will come a day when free media becomes the norm. So my simple question is if you can't make money writing, who will write?

[Fbone]

I think we are talking about 2 different types of musicians. One is established mega star and the other a newcomer who tours for free and sells CDs at the door.