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Tomorrow's Artists; the power of new distribution channels
Submitted by Shock and Awe on 21 November 2006 - 8:41pm.
I was talking to an Econ major friend of mine about the future of internet art from a business perspective and she pointed me to an article from the NY Times by Hal Varian, Why Old Media and Tom Cruise Should Worry About Cheaper Technology. In the article Varian states that old media execs have missed the boat by focusing so much on piracy. What the should really be worried about is the "falling cost of producing and distributing digital content."
The salaries of megastars such as Cruise are forms of "economic rent" and their dollar amount is determined by "scarcity." There's only one Tom Cruise and consumer demand for him is high. But, as Varian points out, more and more free time of consumers is spent watching free content on the net, "there are only 24 hours in a day. The more time young people spend watching Lonelygirl15, the less time they will have to watch Mr. Cruise."
Varian foresees a "flowering of creative, inexpensive and compelling semiproffesional content available via the internet" that will dominate increasing amounts of people's attention. He cautions that the majority of this content will be bad, and the age of the megastar isn't over, but control of distribution will no longer be monopolized by major studios and these "new distribution channels will provide outlets for tomorrow's artists." This will lead to more variety of content for the consumer and allow a wider range of talent to flourish, just as "printing and binding technology led to cheaper books, which, in turn, meant more authors."
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Commodification, technology
Yeah! This is a major point. Over and over, expense and marketing dynamics determine art. The landscape has changed in ways that empower small operations and may do so even more.
This is a big deal. This changes ideology and the ways ideology are passed along.
I wonder if Varian isn't a
I wonder if Varian isn't a bit off base, however. Just look at the Onyx project--the really "high art" stuff on the internet is still going to cost money. And twenty four bucks at that! (sorry, cheap college student response.) There will always be free stuff that's free for a reason--but I'm not sure what sort of incentive an artist has to make themselves available without compensation. Advertisements? Hmm... What sort of art would that end up being? The NYT main page...?