Hollywood: The Next Record Industry?
I just came across this post on media theorist Douglas Rushkoff’s blog comparing the music industry’s actions with the CD in the 90s with Hollywood’s treatment of its writers today.
Rushkoff writes, “The record industry saw the advent of digital media storage (CD’s) as a chance to commoditize their product. They would charge more to consumers (even though CD’s cost less than records to produce) and pay musicians less. It looked rosey for a moment. CD sales spiked shortly after their invention, as boomer-age consumers replaced their record collections with CDs. This motivated major media conglomerates to absorb the attractive balance sheets of the record industry. The labels became divisions of conglomerates, where Wall Street analysis replaced any regard for talent or quality. They didn’t realize that the sales spike was simply the replacement of old product, and didn’t think to develop new talent. They wouldn’t even have known how.” Adding, “Today, faced with similar opportunities for innovation, media development, and content distribution, the AMPTP is choosing instead to find ways to cut its creative community out of the revenue stream. In their current media campaign against striking writers (and going so far as to cancel series, or lie to the press and public about which side is actually refusing to attend the negotiations), the AMPTP is already spending more than complete capitulation to the writers’ original demands would have cost them over the next several decades.” It’s an interesting connection. Read the whole post here.