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Where music has gone movies and books will follow

Music, movies and books are all digital goods and to me it is obvious that ultimately they will all be delivered in digital form.  Music has got there first because the technological requirements are lowest – movies have been more difficult due to file size and books more difficult still because no one has made a compelling enough reader yet.  But these problems will be solved, and people’s attachment to books will go the same way as their attachment to vinyl and become a fond memory.

Personally I can’t wait until I have a great eReader and I don’t have to bother with the inconvenience of physical books.

And I guess Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow and many other great marketing books was thinking something similar when he said:

Books are souvenirs that hold ideas. Ideas are free. If no one knows about your idea, you fail. If your idea doesn’t spread, you fail. If your idea spreads but no one wants to own the souvenir edition, you fail.

which I found on Techdirt.

October 10th, 2008 | Category: Music, Video
  • Guest
    "the inconvenience of physical books" Philistine thou art..
  • Hi Nic - there is a lot of recent research that suggests that paper is quite important in allowing people to focus and concentrate. Think about how you print something out when you really want to pay attention to it instead of reading online. Even with higher resolution e-readers may not deliver the same value as paper does.
  • nic
    Thanks James - I agree the eReaders don't cut it yet - but one day they will.
  • Not philistine. People told stories by word of mouth and then by hand via manuscripts etc and then through the printed word and now digitally. The words matter and not the delivery mechanism.

    However, I do find repulsive the marketing guru's assertion that a book (whether digital or not) is a souvenir that holds ideas. God help us if that's what writing's all about these days.
  • nic
    James - I think Seth's saying that the physical book is the souvenir rather than thw writing itself.
  • Books are on the way with google books. Scanning should be over in two years. Ebooks offer another way to work and I do agree... it will come. Probably a lot faster for movies due to smaller index and easy way to trasnlate. Books will take more time (especially for the novel, less for business books).

    But it's on the way that's for sure.
  • I would argue photographs are digital goods that reached a level of creation and distribution digitally far faster than music.

    The bigger question around digital goods is how they can and will be disaggregated and recombined in short and long form mediums...
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