It's bad news...for the publishers, that is. Under the present system, an new or not well known author, at least in the SF&F field, may make a $1,000 to $5,000 advance on their novel...and many of those books don't make back the money spent on them. That's how tight the margins are in the book field.
Now if the author set it up for download, and 50,000 downloads happen, and only 10% donate a dollar to the author, he is in the same boat, without any obligations to a publisher.
What we are going to loose is the editorial direction that publishers give the field. If you buy a book from TOR, you know you are going to get a well written book. If you buy a book from BAEN, it's bound to have a military or right wing slant on it.
And then there is still the thrill of getting the writer/artist to sign their work at conventions...so at very least, there is bound to be at least a boutique market for printed books.
Of course, if we didn't use trees to print on, but some weed or something, printing costs wouldn't be so astronomical...but that would only delay the inevitable...
Most artists do not do music to make money. They do it because they like to play music.
This is an important thing to remember, because of most of them could have a reasonable income, say equiv to $30,000 a year, most would be ecstatic to get that and be able to play music full time. They don't need millions dollars, they just want a living wage which will enable them to do what most people want to do...hang out with friends, get married, have kids, etc. Most musicians are just everyday people.
So rather than rig the system so that it only works when the artist is selling in the millions of dollars, we need to re-jig it so that artists make a living wage. That some will do better is a given...I maintain that given a model like this we would have more good music, less filler, and more people would hear good music. Music is part of life, even if you are not a musician.
Of course, if we set it up so that the musicians get paid a living wage, so, too will people within the record companies. We don't need CEOs who get a million dollar bonus every time they blow their nose! And I ask you, do you really think that anyone can really be worth HALF A BILLION DOLLARS as the CEO of a company? Over a lifetime, never mind as a yearly wage? I don't either. But this is a different conversation...
It's the same scam that the you hear the that the movie studios play. No movie has ever made money until the people who worked on it sue the studio...then the studio "proves" that the film actually lost lots of money, and technically the "talent" owes the studio money because of the advances they were paid!
The logical outcome of all of these rights grabs and other copyright insanity is that the only way you can put out an "original" song is to get a random number generator and use that to create the notes to a song!
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(as Farrell McGovern)
It's bad news...for the publishers, that is. Under the present system, an new or not well known author, at least in the SF&F field, may make a $1,000 to $5,000 advance on their novel...and many of those books don't make back the money spent on them. That's how tight the margins are in the book field.
Now if the author set it up for download, and 50,000 downloads happen, and only 10% donate a dollar to the author, he is in the same boat, without any obligations to a publisher.
What we are going to loose is the editorial direction that publishers give the field. If you buy a book from TOR, you know you are going to get a well written book. If you buy a book from BAEN, it's bound to have a military or right wing slant on it.
And then there is still the thrill of getting the writer/artist to sign their work at conventions...so at very least, there is bound to be at least a boutique market for printed books.
Of course, if we didn't use trees to print on, but some weed or something, printing costs wouldn't be so astronomical...but that would only delay the inevitable...
ttyl
Cart before the horse? (as Farrell McGovern)
Most artists do not do music to make money. They do it because they like to play music.
This is an important thing to remember, because of most of them could have a reasonable income, say equiv to $30,000 a year, most would be ecstatic to get that and be able to play music full time. They don't need millions dollars, they just want a living wage which will enable them to do what most people want to do...hang out with friends, get married, have kids, etc. Most musicians are just everyday people.
So rather than rig the system so that it only works when the artist is selling in the millions of dollars, we need to re-jig it so that artists make a living wage. That some will do better is a given...I maintain that given a model like this we would have more good music, less filler, and more people would hear good music. Music is part of life, even if you are not a musician.
Of course, if we set it up so that the musicians get paid a living wage, so, too will people within the record companies. We don't need CEOs who get a million dollar bonus every time they blow their nose! And I ask you, do you really think that anyone can really be worth HALF A BILLION DOLLARS as the CEO of a company? Over a lifetime, never mind as a yearly wage? I don't either. But this is a different conversation...
ttyl
Farrell
(as Farrell McGovern)
It's the same scam that the you hear the that the movie studios play. No movie has ever made money until the people who worked on it sue the studio...then the studio "proves" that the film actually lost lots of money, and technically the "talent" owes the studio money because of the advances they were paid!
(as Farrell McGovern)
Great idea, as long as you also extend the "Safe harbour" to foreign service providers as well.
Then again, the US government has a tradition of ignoring international treaties when it's not convenient for them...why stop now?
...logical out come.... (as Farrell McGovern)
The logical outcome of all of these rights grabs and other copyright insanity is that the only way you can put out an "original" song is to get a random number generator and use that to create the notes to a song!
Sheesh!