On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 1:23 PM, John Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi, Kim. I can easily see both sides of the equation. At some point > in the process of creativity and distribution (or perhaps better of > availability), it's necessary for SOMEONE to exercise good judgement. > Pre-internet, that decision-making was in the hands of a few, who > were essentially working full time or on contract for large > corporations. In the recording industry it was record company > executives, A & R people, and recording producers. In the publishing > industry it was again company executives, plus editorial staffs and > individual editors. In the entertainment industry it was a shared > responsibility among producer/promoters, booking agents, and personal > managers. And part of the result was the recording and movie > industries' creative bookkeeping, which guaranteed that the artists > doing the work saw very little of the money their work generated. > > "Democratization" bypasses that layer of decision making, and also > bypasses the maintaining of high quality professional standards that > those decision makers could enforce. Anyone with adequate > creativity, cybersmarts, and several thousand dollars worth of > equipment and software can now put forward their personal product, > either following high standards or totally unaware that such things > exist and, so to speak, "run it up the flagpole to see if anybody > salutes." Through the Internet we are not only ALLOWED to make our > own decisions about what we find attractive and worthwhile, we are > REQUIRED to do so. We have met the enemy, and he is us! > > And Sturgeon's Law has never been repealed: "90% of everything is crap." > But wouldn't you say that is true for what the big boys did as well? Big boys meaning large media outlets, such a record labels, book publishers, etc. There were a few things that sold really well, that allowed those businesses to work, while the other 90 percent didn't make them all that much money. This special talked about all the Internet start ups-- in 1999, about 200 IPOs were offered, but only a few survived, and everyone was talking about the death of the idea of the Intenet when the bubble burst. But life was really changed after all of this, and new innovations sprang out of the dot com bust, e.g. facebook, and myspace and The Google. > Just another corollary to democratization: > We have to become our own publicists and business managers instead of > putting that time and energy into creativity. I have a lot of luck with some of my web pages and I do try to figure ways to advertise even there, the Internets help in a big way by speeding up the process. I couldn't imagine writing to people by snail mail with weeks between replies! > > > And 90% of everything is STILL crap! > > you're right, Kim, it's very exciting to be > living at this particular time in history, at least for those with > the flexibility to adapt and innovate. > > I am not a keyboard player, and I do not have a music degree, I'm pretty much "self taught" and I can only do because of the advent of the PC and the software (and really the Internet--I couldn't imagine making the friends and contacts I have without it). It may sound corny but the reality is: technology has allowed me to particpate in something I could only have dreamed of ten years ago. Thanks so much! Kim _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
