Interesting People mailing list archives
more on Technology Rewrites the Book
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 12:14:48 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Thomas Lord <lord () emf net> Date: July 25, 2006 12:01:37 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: ip () v2 listbox com Subject: Re: [IP] more on Technology Rewrites the Book So, I've been working on starting Yet Another Independent Record Label. I've had occasion to explore the wholesale market for on-demand CD/DVD production. I looked at production for all scales (one-offs, of which we want no inventory, through hundreds-offs where inventory may make sense depending on your distribution channels, up through mass production). I looked at packaging ranging from plain slip-covers through fancy multi-CD cases with full color artwork and multi-page booklets. I looked at order fulfillment options ranging from on-street to in-store to mail-order. I'm still cranking numbers so I won't (and probably publicly wouldn't) offer a detailed report but the executive summary is interesting: The market is /just now/ -- as we speak -- hitting the sweet spot of on-demand production, at all scales, in all form-factors, for all modes of delivery. By "sweet spot" I mean that the marginal cost of production even at the lowest point of the long tail ("we sold exactly one") is (just barely) lower than where you can price a recording, almost regardless of content. By "just now" I mean this is occurring within the past couple of years with new developments all the time -- it's a hot market for wholesalers some of whom already have nice models and others of whom are working on interesting new models. The largest obstacle, whether software or another medium, is probably IP stuff. There probably is (and some people are already all over this) an opportunity for technologists to force the IP stuff to evolve. Namely: go into the manufacturing business for kiosks and virtual kiosks. A customer goes to the kiosk or web site, inserts credit, debit, or stored-value card, picks (or designs) a recording from components on a menu -- it's either mailed out or available at the register (because you generally don't want customers assembling jewel cases or even handling freshly printed "discs"). A do-it-your-selfer can already do this. For mail order there are already some turnkey services around (though too many are dubious start-ups and all are priced too high at the very low-end). But... that alone isn't enough. The profit margin at the low end of the long tail exists but is rather pathetic and the marginal cost is dominated, for quite a while to come, by labor costs. It will be quite a long time before it stops being necessary to manage inventory for titles selling as little as a few or several hundred copies. That's no big deal, in theory but it can't be overlooked, either. -t David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message: From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> Date: July 24, 2006 6:59:05 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: lauren () vortex com Subject: Re: [IP] more on Technology Rewrites the Book Dave, Egor, Some "on-demand" DVD burning seems to already be taking hold in mainstream media. In particular, History Channel uses conventional DVD+R disks to create copies of many shows, apparently as they are ordered (and with a guarantee in case of playback incompatibilities, the last time I looked). As I recall, these are bare-bones DVDs -- no chapter titles, no extras, etc. This makes a lot of sense for programs that have relatively low demand, and can't justify the full-blown authoring and pressing that the more "featured" programs receive. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, IOIC - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com - - -Begin forwarded message: From: Egor Kobylkin <egor () kobylkin com> Date: July 24, 2006 5:51:23 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: Technology Rewrites the Book Dave, for your list, if you wish.From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com> Date: July 23, 2006 11:02:15 PM EDT To: undisclosed-recipient:; Subject: Technology Rewrites the Book Technology Rewrites the Book By PETER WAYNER The New York Times July 20, 2006 ... said. "This is as good as any book in a bookstore." ... and Blurb will make a copy just for that buyer.I was confused as to why the CD's or DVD's are not made completely on demand? They have way lot less polygraphy on them, and they are intrincically digital. But then I thought, there must be much less titles of them in the top 80% of sales, than there will be of the books. So by keeping, say 1000 preprinted titles in stock a small DVD shop with no Internet can be in business. But also because of the higher variety, books should have a higher price/cost ratio to cover the additional costs of the logistics due to lover average volumes, it makes bookstores a more attractive victim to substitution with a print on demand service. On the other hand, one already can have almost any album from a major music studio for 9.99 from iTunes in 5 minutes. So now, when the books can be done on demand economically, when will I be able to go to a shop and let them print for me any CD/DVD in the world in 5 minutes? Curiously yours, Egor ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lauren () pfir org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/ interesting-people/------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lord () emf net To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting- people/
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