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Transforming Gutenberg Grounded EconomicsDate: December 14, 2009 Nearly alll CD stores are dead and the compact disc format is continuing to vanish.
Now I'm having a fun time watching how the digital age is disrupting the publishing industry.
The $9.99 e-book is disrupting traditional business models. Some publishers would rather lose a sale of a traditional book than sell an e-book. Some publishers are making the decision to delay the release of e-books in a dramatic stand over releasing hard-cover and e-books at the same time:
Here is what one industry analyst thinks:
What does this have to do with choral music, you may ask . . .
Well, I think that a transformation of the Gutenberg-based choral music publishing business is quite overdue. It's coming, music publishing.
Are you ready?
John Howell on December 14, 2009 14:37
Philip:
Just one clarification. It should read "Petrucci-based choral music publishing business." Johannes Gutenberg never published a single piece of music. Ottaviano Petrucci, in Venice, brought out "Odhecaton," the first part-music ever printed from movable type, in 1501, under a Privilege that gave him a 20-year monopoly on the printing of part music and lute tablature.
Of course I don't agree with your premise, either. I like the feel of having a real book in my hands, and I actually hate having to read something on screen. But then I don't "tweet" or "friend," either!
All the best,
John
philip copeland on December 14, 2009 14:48
No, I meant what I said. All printing, including Petrucci, is based on Gutenberg's printing press, right?
So, my logic flows like this:
philip
on December 14, 2009 18:42
I suppose that a transformation of the other guy's business
always seems overdue from the point of view of someone who isn't
trying to make a living at it. And it's certainly tempting to "have
a fun time watching" the disruption as long as you don't have a dog
in the fight. For people like my wife, until recently Assistant to
the Publisher at a small book publishing firm, these disruptions
equal something a good deal less amusing, like being out of a
job.
However charming all of this turmoil may be from the
sidelines, I cannot agree that the music publishing business is
hard on the heels of the book guys. For one thing, the book
business (at least the high dollar segments which support the rest)
thrives on interchangeable products: if your potboiler of choice
isn't available in your preferred format, then the option of buying
something else for your entertainment, or nothing at all, is a
viable option. But when you're looking for a specific work of
nonfiction or an assigned textbook, the casual options of
entertainment reading simply do not arise; you'll buy the offered
format at the offered price, however inconvenient or costly.
Similarly, how many conductors, having decided on a particular
title for a concert program or a lesson plan, will actually change
their minds and their plans simply because a downloadable edition
isn't available? A few may, but I don't see this as a factor likely
to drive the buying decisions of a substantial portion of the
market. Ask me again in five more years.
Another point of disparity between books and music (at least
choral music) is the business model. A choral music buyer requires
multiple copies. A book buyer almost never does. Until technology
provides a reliable means of controlling the reprint capabilities
of a digital file, the temptation to abuse will remain a deterrent
to publishers against providing downloadable formats. The
solutions, such as they are, which are used by e-book publishers
are not workable in a business model which presupposes that every
sale is for multiple copies.
I agree that a change is coming for music publishing (although
that's a bit like saying that "tomorrow is coming," since tomorrow
is pretty much
always
coming) but I won't see it as overdue so long as
technology has not yet solved some of the remaining problems, the
ones which don't face the book publishers.
Bottom line: I don't believe the e-book phenomenon has much to
do with choral music. The parallel is tempting, but strained.
Data is not information.
Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Daniel E. Gawthrop
Composer & Music Publisher
on December 14, 2009 21:53
Dan,
I have a fun time watching because I'm excited by the changes - I view it as progress. I'm anxiously waiting for some brave publisher to change the game. It might be in five years - I hope it will. I want internet choral music publishing to make EVERYTHING available. I want to see everything that Dan Gawthrop has ever written.
My message to the industry goes like this:
Music publishing needs to get away from the outdated economics of paper and postage.
They need to:
I wish that all choral conductors would rise up and demand a new business model that incorporates the internet as a publishing tool.
Published Choral Music is content.
This content yearns to be free of its paper bonds.
The change is coming.
philip copeland
acda technology chair and a guy that wants the status quo to enter the new century
on December 15, 2009 12:14
Philip,
I have a fun time watching because I'm excited by the changes - I view it as progress.
All change is not progress. Lots of these changes may alter the very visible aspects of a situation without resulting in any meaningful benefit. The current system, worked out over an extended period, is not without its flaws and its frustrations but it is far from a failure. Some of the remaining problems are being addressed even as we speak.
I'm anxiously waiting for some brave publisher to change the game.
I regret to have to point out that merely entering the field as a publisher already requires a bravery which more rational heads would probably classify as suicidal foolishness. To ask these over-extended under-capitalized overworked underpaid folks to leap from the cliff in the manner you suggest, at once insults the bravery they already exhibit in your behalf and asks them, on top of that, to assume risks which no sane business person would consider. Lots of folks have already lost everything in the attempt. There's a reason why the old saw goes, "Question: How do you make a small fortune in music publishing? Answer: Start with a large fortune..."
I want internet choral music publishing to make EVERYTHING available. I want to see everything that Dan Gawthrop has ever written.
But Philip, I've already solved this problem and it didn't require an internet distribution system. With the advent of digital print-on-demand technology, which my little publishing firm Dunstan House has been using for a number of years, I already have available for immediate sale every score that I care to offer to the public. This happens without the necessity of investing hundreds or thousands of dollars in an initial print run of each new piece and then watching the copies sit on the shelf for extended periods, during which time I must pay to have them stored, insured and cover an annual inventory tax. Do you know the primary reason why choral octavos go out of print? It's because, under the former offset-printing business model, the inventory tax gradually exceeded the printing cost on an item that sold only modestly, and after a few years it was cheaper to destroy back stock than continue to hold on to it in the hopes of future sales.
This is an example of what I mentioned above about the problems with the current system being addressed. POP need never happen again, and the internet had absolutely nothing to do with it!
Music publishing needs to get away from the outdated economics of paper and postage.
Great. You've stated the problem clearly, but you've proposed no solution. It is not, I assure you, as easy as declaring war on the enemy. Many battles remain to be fought and along the way some of them will be lost. Victory cannot be declared today. Besides, until our singers all come equipped with Kindle-like readers for their scores, paper will continue to be an essential part of our rehearsals. Simply off-loading the printing from the publisher (who is equipped to do it relatively inexpensively) to the conductor (whose cost-per-copy, I promise you, is much higher) is not a solution, merely a stopgap. Why bother?
They need to:
Lovely goals.
Not one of them is yet adequately addressed by any known internet technology.
I wish that all choral conductors would rise up and demand a new business model that incorporates the internet as a publishing tool.
Rising up and demanding it won't create it. You seem to be operating on the assumption that all of these challenges could be met by tomorrow at 9:00am at the latest if only the Neanderthal troglodytes of the music publishing business would just set aside their outmoded reactionary thinking and habits and get with the program.
The fact is that most of us in the industry are every bit as eager to get on with it as you are, but the technological solutions to the intractable problems simply don't yet exist. Perhaps a solution will be found next week, next year, or not for another couple of decades, but until such systems are reliably in place, "rising up and demanding" something will be a pointless exercise in heightened frustration for all of us and to absolutely zero benefit to any. Please, spare us all your calls for a revolution until something better is actually in sight (at which point no revolution will be needed because the industry will fall all over itself grabbing it and implementing it).
Published Choral Music is content.
This content yearns to be free of its paper bonds.
Philip, you've been hanging around too many of your undergraduates! ;-)
I'm afraid this anthropomorphic sentiment is pretty much content-free...
The change is coming.
On this, at least, we can agree, but I'm afraid that the timetable may not move along nearly as quickly as you would prefer. Then again, I'd be delighted to be proven wrong!
Many thanks for an interesting discussion,
Dan Gawthrop
Composer & Publisher
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