the birth of a new media monopoly

a few years ago, seth godin wrote an article about copyright, the internet and the media industry. i ended up reading it today when he wrote about how right he turned to be about the future of the media industry.

a few things about his article beg highlighting:

• the media industry, unlike most other industries, thrives off monopolies.


• a big part of their monopolies hinged on their monopoly of the distribution media.


• the internet has virtually ended their monopoly.


• they're trying to tackle this 'problem' by putting the genie back in the bottle, i.e. enforcing copyright laws.


• there's no way they can succeed at putting the genie into the bottle...atleast, not for good.


• the history of the media industry has proven that free media has always proven to be a boon, if used correctly. it was true with radio, it was true with tv, and now if used correctly it can be true with the internet too.


• media companies and moguls are trying to solve the problem by throwing more lawyers at it.


• media companies could get a better solution by letting go of the crumbling monopoly over distribution, and instead embrace the internet to create a new monopoly: a monopoly over knowledge. specifically, knowledge about potential customers


• knowledge could be used to virtually eliminate their marketing costs, or atleast the majority of it. it could be used to give artists a feel of what the audience wants, rather than the traditional approach of making media and then finding the audience for it.

seth also describes a way for media companies to embrace the internet and *still* make money. over to him.