Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

There’s a story in the New York Times today about new turntables which easily convert vinyl records into MP3 files. People who have hung onto their vinyl collections will probably continue to keep them as a collection, but by turning them into MP3 files they can actually easily enjoy them, and shuffle them into the rest of their digital music libraries. Of course, the same thing could happen to books some day. People will buy inexpensive home scanners which will scan and convert all of their hardback and paperback books into electronic files. Or you could even do this with new books, the same way that people buy CDs but instantly rip them to MP3s and never listen to the physical CD again (I have done this dozens of times). For instance, someone heading off on a trip will buy three big books, scan them into digital files, and then go on vacation with the digital files of the three books loaded into their Tablet PC or laptop or iPhone or whatever. Meanwhile, the big, bulky printed books are sitting at home on a shelf as part of their collection. At this point, books truly will be just the “souvenir” that authors like Seth Godin describe them to be today.

NY Times: The Turntables That Transform Vinyl