You know they way you can smell it in the air before a storm. That somethings coming? That it's inevitable? It's almost tangible that feeling.
I can see it right now in the media industry (film/music/tv etc). I can feel it coming. I mean this isn't earth shattering to anyone, or anything new. It's just fascinating to see it coming. That and watching the existing old media companies run around like headless chicken, trying to screw the horse before they actually flog it to death.
It dawned on me this week when watching Rocketboom. Rocketboom is a three minute daily videoblog based in New York City. We cover and create a wide range of information and commentary from top news stories to quirky internet culture. [more]
. Rocketboom is a bit like The Daily Show Well except it's not as good, and she isn't as funny, and it's 10 times shorter. Although I'd probaly do Amanda Congdon, and not John Stuart, even though I have developed a worrying love for John Stewart.
The point is, I realised that talent is going to be discovered via the net. And not just discovered, but eventually sourced. People are writing books, creating radio shows, making TV shows, movies, flash movies, games. You name it, people are doing it online. Off hand I can't think of anyone who has made it big, purely as a result of the net, but it will happen.
Their are plenty of musicians out there that are fantastic, but can't get a record deal because formulaic pop is easy to churn out than discovering decent talent (Simon Cowell has a lot to answer for). Plenty of authors who can't get a publishing deal. Etc etc. In the past this created ASAS (another starving artist syndrome). These days, there are just as many starving artists, but their is also far more opportunity for those artists to self publicise. They can exert some control over their destiny. Sure the net is not going to help everyone, but it gives every unknown an equal baseline, that's a rung higher on the ladder than before. And the velocity good content finds it's way around the net, leads me to think that really good content will always be successful.
Watch for the next Spielberg to come from some movie he made him/herself and put online. The next U2 to never sign to a label. And the next JK Rowling to be my mate Dan. The next journalists are already bloggers. Or is that bloggers are already the next journalists.
For this shift, watch what happens with iTunes Music Store. It's almost powerful enough for it to dictate terms. Not quite yet, and the whole "variable pricing" will be quite telling. And although Jobs may lose that battle, I think he will win the war.
Steve Jobs to Studios: I Got the Power! I would like to start by noting that I was also considering the following titles for this missive:
- Steve Jobs to Suppliers: I Buried the Competition!
- Steve Jobs to Phone Companies: Can you see my Middle Finger now?
- Steve Jobs: Welcome to my Monopsony.
I reckon, that the when the time is right. When Jobs reckons he can do it and the labels can't pull out of IMS. When someone finds some online talent that is unsigned (as I was talking above). Jobs will sell the unsigned artists music via IMS without them having a record label. I guess IMS is the record label then. Jobs has done this before with Disney and Pixar. He's not afraid of pissing off people. In fact I think he enjoys it. Watch IMS. Because one day it will sell an unsigned artists music directly to the public in a deal that is more favourable to both the artist and Apple. And that will be the day the music record companies dies.
And the record companies will die. Make no mistake. The record companies (and the same applies to the movie industry) are running an unstable model. It is simply not possible for the record companies to stay around in the form they are on. Change or die. You will not have record lables in the future they way they are today. So effectively they will die.
And none of this change even talks about the change in disturbing the net brings about. Old media is handling the change in distribution so badly it beggars belief. They top one idiotic move with another. Reloading the gun each time to shoot the other foot. Sony's been a prime example this past few weeks, with the revelations relating to Sony's DRM systems, which show jaw-dropping contempt for their customers, for copyright law, for fair trading and for the public interest.. They're not even trying to move forward, but just getting more and more defensive. A sure sign time are changing and you're not.
The printing press changed the landscape for books. No, not for books, for writing, for authors and for knowledge. From what little I know about it, there were massive detractors and those responsible for books up then heralded it as the end.
Records & Radio changed the landscape for music. From what little I know about it, there were massive detractors and it was heralded as the end for music. Tapes and Video recorders were all heralded as the end at some point too.
The next shift in media is starting, the landscape is changing. And it's fascinating to watch.
1. nrgza
It’s not the main thrust of your post here, more of an aside, but journalists are not bloggers. Bloggers don’t produce journalism.
Objectivity, accountability, motive, et al all factor in.
Otherwise, interesting observations! I’m going to go back and read the part after the journo-blogger bit with real attention now. :)
2. Adrian
Actually some bloggers do produce journalist. Bloggers can be objective and accountable the same way journalists aren’t always.
I was actually going to say look for a journalist to be hired who was a blogger, but this has already happened I think. The point I was trying to make that in some cases bloggers are filling the space journalists traditionally filled solely.
3. nrgza
Yes, some bloggers do produce journalisM.
Journalism in its very nature relies on the fact that the writer is accountable in all terms of accuracy of fact, of any form of libel, and being free from being skewed by opinion.
Blogging is much better for being exempt to the same requirements. The only one who polices it is the author themselves. Or spelling freak readers like me.
It is important to realise the distinction. The only form of journ that bloggers will ever feasibly produce is feature writing or comment.
4. Adrian
Journalism in its very nature relies on the fact that the writer is accountable in all terms of accuracy of fact, of any form of libel, and being free from being skewed by opinion.
Have you ever read the Daily Mail?
Bloggers are just as liable as a newspaper. Do laws apply specifically to news papers and not bloggers? People read the newspapers on the trust that they are objective and free of opinion. There is no reasons a blogger shouldn’t be able to build up that level of trust any differently to a established news media.
It is important to realise the distinction.
I do realise the distinction. There is no reason however that bloggers shouldn’t be able to cross over.
The only form of journ that bloggers will ever feasibly produce is feature writing or comment.
I disagree. I see no reason a group of bloggers shouldn’t be able to set up a news blogging site, that is as much pure news as any traditional medium. Why should bloggers not be able to be to do anything but commentary. Why should a traditional media source not employee bloggers for their ability to report the news as well as write editorial.
And whilst the wikipedia is not a perfect example and not pure blogging, it’s close enough to show that blogger-types can be objective and produce good content that is not just commentary.
5. Gordon
Been changing for a while. Have you just noticed?
These things creep, and the signs you note have all been there for the past couple of years… particularly that whole journalism/blogging thing.
Ohh and whilst she’s only one book at the moment, Belle de Jour might be an early example (not quite HUGE but as I said… it’s all about creep…)
wanders off to play some Radiohead…
6. Adrian
Oh I noticed. But I don’t think it has actualyl been changing. I think it’s been the smell in the air before the storm. I think the real change is yet to come.
I’m still not conviced Belle is a) Female b) A Call Girl
But the point is wall made. And she isn’t the first blogger to offered a book deal AFAIK.
7. nrgza
Bloggers are not as liable as newspapers - newspapers display their reports as fact. And have large Murdoch types with plenty of dosh to hand over when sued successfully. If nothing else, the enormous payouts related to titles who make libellous or defamatory statements are often deterrent enough. The statements made on blogs do not have to conform to fact.
I studied journalism in the sense of it being a responsible, accountable practice of purveying information. Should my information be incorrect on my blog, I am under no pressure to issue a retraction, if I don’t want to.
Blogs are diverse in that yes, one can set up a news blogging site, one can employ bloggers to transmit information to a news site - these things are happening now. As it’s a relatively new medium, no one can really say, ‘a blog is this or that’ but can only go on what blogs have become, what they have been used for. Most blogs, including yours, contain information based on a little fact mixed with a little personal belief. This is what feature writing is all about, my friend, and why I say this is the type of journ blogs approximate.
I don’t think that wikipedia applies here - it isn’t a blog, neither is it journ. It’s a good example of collaboration online. It may be factual information but it is an encyclopedia.
And I’m not saying that bloggers can’t become journalists or vice versa. Hell, I’ve been both in my little lifetime. I’m just saying that when they blog, they are not producing journalism in the pure sense. Thus the blogs=journ statement is incorrect.
8. Ian
So the only difference between a a blogger portraying their work as fact and a news site portraying their work as fact is that the news site is run by a large corporation (who are obviously completely objective).
It’s would appear that it’s no longer about what is true but more about who can be more successfully sued.
Oh my God, we’re such an libel driven society. Take me out to the ball game.
9. Adrian
Whilst I think we are getting a bit off topic here, I never actually said that all bloggers are journalists. But that expect bloggers to start becoming journalists as well. Maybe I should have included the word some there. A blogger can be a journalist, and whilst I am not, their is nothing stopping another blogger being a journalist, regardless of where they write.
And although I think that journalists should be accountable, and when taught journalism this is what you are told, the reality is that journalists can write things that are untrue as much as anyone else, and they do.
10. Destructor
I think it’s dangerous to start making distinctions between the press and bloggers, particularly legal ones. The media is, after all, a private enterprise. They’re larger so there are more people to correct them, and so have more accountability, but only as afforded by the public- not the law. This is as it should be. There can be no doubting that blogs have uncovered stories, broken stories, researched stories, that regular media have not. This makes them a form of journalism. It doesn’t make ALL blogs journalism, in fact it’s a tiny minority ( of journalism. It doesn’t make ALL blogs journalism, in fact it’s a tiny minority (
11. matthew
I saw this and thought I may as well post it here, it seems web journos are now eligible for the pulitzer prize. It doesn’t include bloggers though… not yet anyway.