Re:The coming societal singularity (Score 1)

Change is coming, but not a singularity... on the contrary, we're about to burst a 100-year bubble. On the "other side", after the bubble bursts, modern technology will take society back in time 100 or 200 years... but this time with a modern twist!

You can't fight Napster, and you can't fight ALDs, so if you can't control distribution, then you have to control how your work is released in the first place.

• Artists will charge premium ticket prices to attend their concert tour's opening night. If opening night isn't sold out, the tour will be canceled.

  (This probably won't actually happen all that often, but it might. But no matter what, high pre-payments for concerts will become mandatory.)

• Artists will charge a minimum amount before actually releasing a work. If an artist like Metallica or Stephen King doesn't get a minimum "donation" first, they won't release their work at all.

  They might release one song or one chapter at a time---until the full price is paid---and they might release a free teaser or a partial sample here and there, but if they can't get residuals, then they'll want to get their money up front.

But here's the "modern twist": In the old days, Kings hired musicians, Bishops hired chorus masters, rich patrons commissioned special works, and theater owners requested paid performances. More recently, producers got to decide which movies, albums or books got published... and we all know how many dumb decisions have been made about books/ movies/ records which were or weren't made!

From now on, people will get to decide what gets published, and the free market will clean up what the past 100 years has dirtied. Lesser-known artists will command smaller prices, popular artists will command higher prices, and the free market will finally rule the industry.

(If we could only apply this model to professional sports. :-)
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J.V. Hovig