Michael Clarke talks about the resurgence of vinyl and what it could mean for book publishers:
What indie rock bands have figured out is that the purchase of music does not have to be an either/or proposition. They don’t make their customers choose between analog or digital. Whenever you buy a record from just about any indie band, it comes with either a CD or with a card that contains a URL and a download code so you can get a digital copy at no additional cost.
Find, organize and share highlights from your eBooks and the Web.
Just came across this via Craig Mod and plan to have a poke around in the next little while.
Looks like Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have been doing some reading of ancient proverbs, perhaps specifically: “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
The Justice Department finally took aim at the monopolistic monolith that threatened to dominate the book industry. So imagine the shock when the bullet aimed at threats to competition went whizzing by Amazon — which not long ago had a 90 percent stranglehold on e-books — and instead, struck five of the six biggest publishers and Apple, a minor player in the realm of books.
In the short term, stopping the agency model that threatened Amazon’s ability to completely own the market will result in lower ebook prices from Amazon. They can sell most of them at a loss until they do own the market. Then what?
Via if:book
When people ask me to speak or write about the future of books, invariably what they want to know about are things like ebooks, digital publishing, book apps, transmedia. These are not the future of books. They are the present of books.
To consider the future of books, we must imagine the future of media. We must imagine the future of the web. And for that we must lift the veil and step into the post-digital.
Charles Stross on why the big six publishers will kill DRM:
It doesn’t matter whether Macmillan wins the price-fixing lawsuit bought by the Department of Justice. The point is, the big six publishers’ Plan B for fighting the emerging Amazon monopsony has failed (insofar as it has been painted as a price-fixing ring, whether or not it was one in fact). This means that they need a Plan C. And the only viable Plan C, for breaking Amazon’s death-grip on the consumers, is to break DRM.
As with plenty of other people around the world, I’m very curious to see how this plays out. Unlike plenty of other people around the world, I don’t think I can predict it. But Stross put forward an interesting scenario.
Pew Internet Project have released a new study on the rise of e-reading. Full report here. Press release here.
Some snippets:
In mid-December 2011, 17% of American adults had reported they read an e-book in the previous year; by February, 2012, the share increased to 21%.
I’d love to see some Australian stats for comparison.
It’s now clear that readers are embracing a new format for books and a significant number are reading more because books can be plucked out of the air.
I’ve heard several accounts of people saying they’re reading more because they always have a book with them now.
E-book readers and tablet computers are finding their place in the rhythms of readers’ lives. But printed books still serve as the physical currency when people want to share the stories they love.
This in reference to stats that show people prefer paper books when reading to kids or sharing with others. There are clearly logistical reasons around this.