Jazz Odyssey

Here’s a great article from today’s New York Times discussing the entertainment business paradigm shifts catalyzed by time-shifting, convergent devices and the era of self-publishing. The article lays out three primary fears of the established media businesses:

¶Business-model anxiety. Will paid download services like Apple’s iTunes, not to mention TiVo’s and their ad-defying fast-forward buttons, undercut TV networks’ huge advertising revenue? Or will video from advertising-supported Web sites become so rich that people will drop their cable and satellite subscriptions altogether? Or will they just steal what they want by using file-sharing software like Bit Torrent?

¶Control anxiety. Since the invention of the high-speed printing press, mass media have been created for the masses, not by them. The rise of Weblogs has given everyone a printing press and even the opportunity to get income from ads that Google will happily sell. Now we can all be D.J.’s and film directors, distributing our podcasts and movies online without groveling before a studio executive. The career prospects for hit makers, gatekeepers and even fact checkers may well be in doubt.

When the asteroid MP3 hit the planet Music Industry, it didn’t make labels extinct, but the resulting dust cloud of file sharing combined with technological advances that allow more freedom in the consumption of media continue to threaten the business model. Television, the cable industry and Hollywood face similar threats to their business models but have clearly learned from the music industry’s major mistake: when change is inevitable, do the research and fund the experiments but above all, change quickly.

Read the full article here…