We’re in the middle of a huge and unusual shift.
The magazine publisher acted like the best sales were newsstand sales, even though the profit came from subscriptions and most people simply visited the website.
Book publishers and editors seem to focus on selling copies on paper, sold in independent bookstores. They spend as little time as they can on audiobooks.
The actors, producers and directors count the sales of tickets and popcorn. Watching the superclip on YouTube doesn’t count, and Netflix is okay, but mostly because it gives them another chance at the theater.
Record labels still focus on radio airplay and vinyl or CD sales. Streaming just isn’t the same when it comes to hits.
And the New York Times now generates more time on-site and profit from word games than they do from news. You wouldn’t know that from their staffing or the conversations they have.
Bestseller lists capture our attention, but which lists? To what end?
The Long Tail plus always-on streaming can’t help but transform the culture. Muhammad Ali was the last “most famous person in the world” and that record probably won’t be broken.
As each cultural industry begins to be run by people who grew up as digital natives, they’ll change how they keep score, which will shift what they make.
To see it all shift this way, everywhere all at once, is a bit like a complete solar eclipse. It’s rare and we won’t see a shift like this happen again soon.
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