Monday, March 02, 2009

Will books go the way of digital music

Kindle... I keep hearing about kindle. If kindle gets mainstream adoption the way that digital music has, what will be the implications on the publishing industry? The music industry completely mishandled the transformation of music IP to the digital medium. By fighting it, they missed the opportunity to help shape it and thus profit from it. I realize that the overall revenues for music have decreased, but that is something that could not be stopped as new technology left value for the creation and distribution of the physical medium minimal. While I do not believe that consumers will brace digital books with the same enthusiasm as people like the experience of holding a paper book, it would seem that a transition to digital books at some level is inevitable. In that case, it would seem that the major publishing companies should be embracing products such as kindle and using the music companies as an example of what not to do.

No comments: