Epub, ibook, mp3, aac - Birth of Competition or Death of Creativity

I’ve been a part-time musician and avid book fan since I was about eleven years old. My most defining book moment was reading the omnibus edition of Lord of the Rings (and appendices) over 5 days when I was 11 years old. I’ve been addicted to the written word ever since and will read almost anything, or at the very least give anything a go. In terms of music I got my first bass guitar when I was 12, played a couple of European gigs around 19, recorded a 7” ep, a 4 track CD and many, many gigs.

So on to the subject of my blog today, with the advent of digital files for audio and ebooks, have we as the consumer killed creativity or set it free from the shackles of big industry.

I’ve got a pretty good understanding of copyright law (in the UK) and how it protects (to a degree) the creator of any artistic work, this includes music, art and literature. This allows the owner of the copyright to exploit that copyright for financial gain should they wish to and represents their effort and inspiration in creating it in the first place. For example J.M Barrie, the author of Peter Pan gifted the copyright to Great Ormond Street Hospital and they received royalties for any use of this copyright (this has since expired and then got revived by UK Government as “almost” a perpetual copyright).

All this sets the grounding for who owns creative works however the distribution of the works is tricky to control. Traditionally it has been printed (literature), cut into vinyl or magnetically copied onto tape (music) or copied by printing or painting (art). Now with the advent of computers and the internet this has changed. It is a simple matter of loading a music cd into a pc and importing the music into any music management software and you have created a copy. This can then be copied to cd, flash drive, loaded onto mp3 players, phones tablets etc and listened to wherever. Now I wouldn’t have an issue with this if it was restricted to the hardware you own that you have loaded it onto however you can quite easily share that music with anyone you know. With filesharing sites you can even share it with people you don’t know.

On the plus side home computers and software have progressed to the point where any musician can, with a little effort record a perfectly acceptable piece of music, market it through their own website, social networking sites and retailers such as iTunes and Amazon. This has given the independent, unsigned musician an outlet for their creativity. This has made record companies very nervous as previously they offered contracts in return for recording the music, mastering it, producing the recording, marketing the album and selling it to records stores and on the internet in return for the ownership of the copyright. The artist would receive royalties on sales.

So why is this an issue? In the paragraph above pay particular attention to producing as I feel this is a vital service. Producing involves telling musicians when they have collectively disappeared up their own arses. Guiding the creation so the results are worth listening to. There is a wealth of “average” music out there because of a lack of oversight. Record companies did provide a valuable service in refining what was “average” into “exceptional”. Now many muscians would argue why should pen pushers be telling me what to play. Because those pen pushers understand the buying habits of the audience, and lets be clear, that’s what the musicians want - MONEY. If they didn’t then they wouldn’t be signing record contracts. So now we have a wide variety of music available online, published by the creators, marketed by the creators and 100% of the income going to the creator.

Is this a good thing?

My thoughts on this are complex as I am one of those creators. I can write and record, publish it online and set my own prices etc but who is overseeing my creation, pointing out the weaknesses, guiding my efforts into the areas that will refine my product (yes product) so the audience can gain maximum enjoyment and want to share my name with their friends. Oh hang I said share. I’m distributing it electronically so they’ll share it without my knowledge, untraceable so I get no income from that sharing. Now yes when we recorded onto magnetic media (cassettes) you could share with your friends however this would have been around 10 people and the quality would have been questionable. Now we’re looking at thousands of downloads from filesharing, instant emails, online file stores etc where this can be distributed instantly around the world.

Ok, so the music is being shared, I can’t control it however its mine, an expression of my soul, a smorgasboard (always wanted to use that word) of creativity. I remember listening to a new album many, many, many times and finding different things in each song, my favourite tracks jumping back and forth like a demented bunny on speed. It was an experience and you valued the album, something you become proud of and wore like a favourite piece of clothing. Big problem now. Digital file so you can just click through tracks. It may sound weird but you don’t have to work for the good songs. Listening to the “fillers” and then getting to that one track that lifted you up was something special. You enjoyed it more. Not anymore. Click, listen, close.

Now I’ve waffled on about music but in the title I mention electronic books. I foresee ebooks going the same route as music - self publishing, death of the industry, no artistic guidance and a general devaluing of the experience of reading and more importantly acquiring written works.

The digital age, in my opinion has made creativity disposable. We now consume and through away our creativity and value it less. I know that my title for this little rant implies a discussion with tow potential answers however in my rather grumpy, late thirties view the music industry has changed for the worse with less genuinely good music out there because a) the consumer listens differently, b) because the record industry is no longer guiding the creation of music and c)it is really easy to acquire music.

I do hope this doesn’t happen to literature.

Have a good one.

Ste