Daily Digest for September 2nd, 2010
All the News Affecting Rights, Royalties, Royalty Software, or Rights Management for September 2, 2010:
Steve Jobs, in another black turtleneck appearance, announces big book downloads by iTunes users, plus why “print publishing will never die,” and, the value of a book.
Apple Users Download 35 Million Books; iTunes Goes Social
Why Print Publishing Will Never Die
Apple Users Download 35 Million Books; iTunes Goes Social
In a news conference yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that iTunes users had downloaded 35 million books.
eBookNewser covered the event as Jobs unveiled iTunes 10–adding social networking functions to the online store. .
Here’s more from their coverage: “The new iTunes is all about discovery and includes a new tool called ‘Ping,’ which operates like a social network, where users can share content and comments with their friends.”
Why Print Publishing Will Never Die
Mark Barret’s post, Why Print Publishing Will Never Die, is one of the most shared and commented on blog posts in the publishing world this week. He writes
“Yes, print publishing will shrink as e-books and e-readers continue to take market share, but that’s all to the good, and not just because of the trees it will save. Most books do not contain information that needs to be preserved in physical form. If print publishing becomes a smaller market aimed at collectibles or high-end artisanal products, books themselves will still retain the utility they have always had. (To whatever extent physical books are vulnerable to flood and fire, it’s also true that a physical book exists independent of electronic hardware failures or battery capacity.)
Publishing is a flawed business, but books are not flawed devices. Print publishing will never die because even today a book is still a completely functional delivery system for the content it contains.”
A Question of Value
Another story with legs is Tuesday’s piece by Kassia Krozser on Booksquare.com. She writes:
“What is a book worth? Well, there’s list price created by the publisher. That seems to be the value referenced by publishers. Then there’s the price consumers actually pay. That gets more complicated, of course. You have to break it down to various levels including the price for the first sale and the price for the second sale. Library patrons pay a different price; we call that “property tax”.
Oh, and then there are the books acquired for free.
This is what I think about when I hear publishers talking about this, that, or the other devaluing the price of content. And by devaluing content, they really mean consumers paying far less than publishers would like. This is absolutely a valid concern.”
