Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

Interesting article today in USA Today which talks about how more and more big-time record labels are selling content as restriction-free MP3s that come without any kind of Digital Rights Management. If this policy starts to catch on, it would be a real about-face for the music industry, which has long insisted on wrapping content in as much DRM as possible (in fact, Sony got so paranoid about it that they produced CDs earlier this year that were so restrictive on the part of the user that they actually contained spyware, tracking the user’s every move and reporting it back to Sony). So if this takes off in the music business, maybe trade publishers would follow suit, and issue novels and non-fiction text in a DRM-less format which anyone could read anywhere on any device. If that happened, the Attention Economy would have finally arrived. As it is now, we’re still very much in the DRM economy.

Major labels to offer unrestricted MP3s

Newsweek this week has an interesting story which touches upon the idea of the “attention economy,” with more and more people getting used to enjoying their entertainment when they want it, instead of watching it when the networks put it on the air. (Of course, the next step after “when” is “how” they want it, something publishers have not yet really had to grapple with).

Excerpt: “Broadcast television’s prime time as we know it is fading. Since the industry’s formative years in the 1950s, the powerful medium has revolved around initially four but now three nocturnal hours, from 8 to 11 o’clock. Mass audiences would settle in for appointment entertainment.”

Newsweek: Why Prime Time’s Now Your Time

Apple today introduced iTV, a “media transfer box” that allows people to watch computer content downloaded from iTunes–such as movies and TV shows–on their televisions. If I were a maker of DVD players, or owned a chain of movie theaters, this would make me a little nervous. The unit goes on sale in January, and will cost around $299.

USA Today: Apple broadens iTunes use with PC-to-TV device

Amazon today jumped in the waters of the “Attention Economy” by announcing a new service called AmazonUnbox. The program will of course compete with iTunes, and according to the New York Times will “sell most movies for $7.99 to $14.99 and most television programs for $1.99 (the same price as Apple). Users can also rent movies for a 24-hour period for $3.99.” Of course the prices are still high for movie downloads ($14.99, which is more expensive than seeing it in a theater), and the file sizes are still very large (according to an estimate in the NY Times story, it could take up to seven hours to download a film), but for shorter fare like TV shows, this could really take off. Plus, when tied to a Tablet PC or UMPC device, it makes even more sense.

Read NY Times: New Service From Amazon Offers Downloadable Films