Like too many mornings in the past six or eight months, I woke up at 5:00am this morning. No, I didn’t have to, I just did. I’m not sure if my body is changing as I get older or what. I really don’t mind, as long as I don’t drag butt all day because I’m too tired. The extra time waking up too early gives me is quiet time that I often take advantage of to do some web design, research, or class prep. This morning it was Option 3.
When my eyes were about to fall out, I decided to take a break and catch up on some Macworld info. I started watching a video of Chris Breen’s interview of Andy Ihnatko, two of my favorite Mac pundits.
During the conversation, about halfway through the 15 minute video, the two were talking about Andy’s presentation at the show. He had lived without physical media — books, DVDs, comic books, etc. — for all of 2009 as an experiment. Chris asked Andy’s opinion on why Apple’s decision years ago to begin selling digital music at a standard price of 99-cents was praised, while Amazon’s attempt to do the same with book publishers was marred with people complaining that they were ripping off the authors, etc.
Here’s my take. The music industry is viewed, rightly or wrongly, as a handful of big corporations that control everything and rip of the artists. They exist primarily as a delivery vehicle for the music and add very little value to the final product. People hate middlemen. They want to buy direct from the source, as if the music will sound fresher or something.
In addition, people tend to think of the superstars when they discuss music distribution. So what if Bon Jovi loses out on 30 cents per track? Individuals got behind Apple’s “fight” to standardize the pricing because it didn’t affect people that they know.
The book industry, however, is thought to be more open. Lots of people know someone or may even have a cousin that has written a book. Heck, it’s even a cliche dream to write one’s own book toward the end of life so that later generations will learn from one’s mistakes and enjoy the stories of good and bad things that happened. So the book author is thought of as a neighbor, friend, or family member and people can identify with him or her much better than a musician, in general.
As a result, individuals are less forgiving about arrangements that may lower the amount of money an author receives for his or her work. Any “big business” that comes along and wants a piece of the pie, or in Amazon’s case, wants the size of the pie to be standardized, is seen as evil.
Now, I personally don’t believe that, to be honest. That’s just my theory to explain the difference in attitudes. I think that Amazon AND Apple had valid reasons for trying to get these deals done and, as long as the agreements are made, I’m cool with it.
