There’s a great post over at Scott Karp’s blog tonight about the recent 20% drop in music CD sales this year over last. He asks the question, Is content still a business? Will the “content kings” survive?
It got me to thinking, since obviously our business is closely tied to content such as audio and video, and I thought I’d give you my perspective on his question here.
Believe it or not, there was a time in human history when there was no such thing as a content king. Music, prose, poetry, these were artfully created and consumed by appreciative patrons in small localities. Reach, as we define it now in terms of Alexa and Google, was not even conceiveable then. An audience was made up of those within earshot, or those within a home or tavern. The entertainers often were as familiar as family to those listening, but this did not cheapen the experience. In fact, in many ways, the connectedness that existed in the context of the local community served to enhance the content as it was delivered and consumed.
Somewhere along the way content creation became more and more technical and skilled, as new forms of media developed around emerging technologies such as print, radio, cinema and television. The enormous cost associated with generating these kinds of content meant that, of necessity, those deemed to be the best and brightest among us (by what criteria?) were given a chance to provide the content we all consumed, and it was always assumed that what was offered was the best to be had. It was a fairly short journey from there to the centralization and conglomeratization of content, and Content Kings, having assumed the thrones they built for themselves, settled in for a long reign, insulated from seige attempts by the scarcity of their offerings.
Enter the Internet, a new democratized distribution mechanism fueled by technologies that made searching for and finding (and repurposing and pirating) content relatively easy. The kings of the realm were caught sleeping when this nimble stranger entered the land, and before any official edicts could be pronounced to slow or stop the spread of “user-generated” content, the revolution had begun and ended, with the kings of media dethroned. (Shhh… some of them don’t know it yet.)
The commoditization of content, the ease with which it can be created and distributed worldwide, has upset the royal apple cart for good.
But what does this mean for the future of content itself?
Well, for one thing, we no longer assume that because some big company creates something that it’s going to be good content. And we know that small, independent artists turn out great - and oftentimes better- content. And we know that finding good content, even in the overwhelming haystack that is the web, is usually preferable to being told what is good and what is worthy of my discretionary income by some company whose only aim is to push content and boost profits. We know that finding a community of people who enjoy similar content is getting easier and easier online. And we are finally getting the chance again to meet, get to know, and actually dialogue with those content creators who provide us our entertainment.
In short, the future will look something like the past, only much more technologically equipped.
The business of content is no longer content, but in building the content- and people-centric communities in which content can be inspired, created, consumed, discussed and lived.
Perhaps if the king had invited us to the castle more often…
