Change is perhaps the only constant. And resistance to it is about as useful as an expired passport.
The world is changing / has changed more in the last 10 years than anyone thought possible. True, we are still not living on the moon, not traveling by teleportation, and don’t have devices not much bigger than a credit card which connect us to everyone and everything instantly, putting at our finger tips more information and more entertainment than most people collected in their entire lives not a decade ago. Oh wait, we do have the last thing, it’s called an iPhone.
There is not a single thing that exists that doesn’t have at least one upside and one downside. Technology is no different. Right now, musicians and writers – and those who represent them, promote them, and distribute their art — are trying to find some middle ground on which to walk between these sides. Because the upside to technology is that these artists can reach infinitely more people than ever before. The downside is that most of these people being reached want their art for free. As well as their news.
It has been widely reiterated that “information wants to be free.” Apparently less widely known is the accompanying statement, “information wants to be expensive.” If all information is free, then pretty soon, there won’t be any new information. At least none that is worth observing or absorbing. Furthermore, there won’t be any reliable – not to mention instantaneous, real-time — vehicle to get it to anyone.
Or we will live in a world where only the independently wealthy will be able to produce information, music, novels, news. But that doesn’t seem very likely, especially since Madoff stole a lot of those people’s money already.
But I digress. My point is that eventually we will find the middle road. Musicians, along with the music industry, will stumble upon the model that works best for everyone. Writers, readers, agents, distributors and the rest of the publishing industry with do the same. One thing appears certain, when the meeting of the five families is called, technology is going to have a seat at the table, maybe even the head.
What then, is a writer to do in the meantime? Format those manuscripts for ebooks. That’s what. Starting today, Waking Up at Rembrandt’s is available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=waking+up+at+rembrandt (And in case you had to ask, there’s a Kindle app for the iPhone.) Go ahead, download away.
Change is good. Because the other option…
Namaste,
TQ
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