“The Downfall of the Media Cartell”

Fascinating Barlowian look at the future of mass media by Jack Rooney:

This report outlines the relationship between the major media producers and independent artists and considers the problem media consolidation has on the current economic state of the entertainment and media industry in the United States. The report finds that heavy consolidation of the media industry is responsible for the major economic hardships the industry is currently experiencing because of its size and structure, which makes it slow to adapt to changing technologies and market conditions that have recently emerged in the marketplace. The report finds the industry will adapt and rebound quickly with open market competition arising from the work of independent artists who produce, manufacture, and sell media product outside of and in competition with the major media studio producers. The report argues against further media consolidation in the broadcast television, film, terrestrial radio, newspaper, satellite, and traditional magazine, book, and wire service industries.

….13. Streaming Media – the Future

Streaming media stations (and I also believe eventually terrestrial broadcast stations) will rise up that play music and show films from artists who are less restrictive with their licensing and more liberal in granting broadcast permissions and waivers and stations will pay whatever the market will bear based on real-time public demand for the work of a particular artist.

The stations, media resellers, and the public will embrace these new models because the standards imposed by other models using the contrived, artificial cartel guidelines will be too limiting and too restrictive, not worth the hassle.

14. Conclusion: The Victory of the People – Freedom to Choose.

With the rise of the independent artist will come a new renaissance expressed in a flowing of art, music, and ideas. The artists will prosper. Media industry workers will prosper. The people will be the true beneficiary. The term “unsigned” artist will become a meaningless slur, as it is generally meant today to imply inferior; it will take on a new meaning that spells freedom, and the cartel will become just an interesting footnote in the annals of music history, swept away by billions and billions of songs.

I don’t know about the cartel becoming a “footnote,” but I do see leverage shifting to artists and consumers unless the government allows the copyright industry, the cartel, to stifle this expression.