Digital renaissance : what data and economics tell us about the future of popular culture / Joel Waldfogel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Waldfogel, Joel, author.

Series:

Gale eBooks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture.

Cultural property--Protection.

Cultural property.

Cultural industries--Technological innovations.

Cultural industries.

Genre:

Nonfiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 307 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

Text in English.

Summary:

How digital technology is upending the traditional creative industries-and why that might be a good thingThe digital revolution poses a mortal threat to the major creative industries-music, publishing, television, and the movies. The ease with which digital files can be copied and distributed has unleashed a wave of piracy with disastrous effects on revenue. Cheap, easy self-publishing is eroding the position of these gatekeepers and guardians of culture. Does this revolution herald the collapse of culture, as some commentators claim? Far from it. In Digital Renaissance, Joel Waldfogel argues that digital technology is enabling a new golden age of popular culture, a veritable digital renaissance.By reducing the costs of production, distribution, and promotion, digital technology is democratizing access to the cultural marketplace. More books, songs, television shows, and movies are being produced than ever before. Nor does this mean a tidal wave of derivative, poorly produced kitsch; analyzing decades of production and sales data, as well as bestseller and best-of lists, Waldfogel finds that the new digital model is just as successful at producing high-quality, successful work as the old industry model, and in many cases more so. The vaunted gatekeeper role of the creative industries proves to have been largely mythical. The high costs of production have stifled creativity in industries that require ever-bigger blockbusters to cover the losses on ever-more-expensive failures.Are we drowning in a tide of cultural silt, or living in a golden age for culture? The answers in Digital Renaissance may surprise you.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1. The Creative Industries: RISKY, EXPENSIVE, AND WORTH PRESERVING

PART I: A Tour of some Major Cultural Industries: MUSIC, MOVIES, TELEVISION SHOWS, BOOKS, AND PHOTOGRAPHY

2. Digitization in Music: ROCK ON?

3.Digitization in Movies: HOLLYWOOD ENDING?

4. Digitization in Television: HAS THE VAST WASTELAND BLOSSOMED?

5. Digitization in Books: FIFTY SHADES OF DRECK?

6. Digitization Further Afield: PHOTOGRAPHY, TRAVEL AGENTS, AND BEYOND

7. The value of the digital Renaissance: THE LONG TAIL AND A WHOLE LOT MORE

PART II: Coming Attractions: FARM TEAM, BUNDLING, PIRATES, VIKInGS, AND TROLLS

8. The digital Farm system, and the Promise of Bundling

9. A Tale of Two Intellectual Property Regimes: LESSONS FROM HOLLYWOOD AND BOLLYWOOD

10. Digitization, the French, and the Return of the vikings

11. Bridge Trolls: THE POSSIBLE THREAT OF TECHNOLOGICAL GATEKEEPERS

12. Crisis or Renaissance?

NOTES

REFERENCES

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780691185439

0691185433

OCLC:

1051770802