If anyone doubts the scale of change taking place as the world
reorganises itself from broadcast media to networked media they only need to look at the music business' recent history. First, Napster, Kazaa and Grokster reorganised the industry's entire distribution system using P2P networks. But instead of embracing the technology that huge swathes of its customers had turned to, the music industry ran to its lawyers and temporarily stopped the flood through an edict passed down from the United States Supreme Court. Which was followed up with a totally unsuccessful war on its own customers, now seen by at least one major as pointless. Then Apple, a technology company, swooped down into the wreckage, picked up the pieces and created a whole new shiny distribution infrastructure that proceeded to sell a couple of billion downloads - over which the studios had zero control. Whoops! And now Prince, Radiohead and Madonna decide they don't even need labels anymore because they can distribute their own products and the business has changed so greatly that all the money is...
...in live events and merchandise. But let's remember it all began because one young man had problems downloading the music he wanted. As the Doc says, “In networked environments, the demand side supplies itself.” Modern marketeers should call it the Fanning Effect and make an appointment to explain it to their chairmen. Alternatively, arrange the meeting and I'll do it.
Meanwhile, BitTorrent world continues to grow and Google et al expand their missions to reorganise the world's $550bn media markets...
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