Robert B. Levine (author of “Free Ride”) and I have a Twitter Debate:
Lately I have had two debates with author Robert Levine who wrote the book “Free Ride: How Technology Companies are Killing the Culture Business.”
First, I hate the title of that book. Culture business? Who deems that culture and business even go hand-in-hand. To me they are oxymoronic terms. Culture is pure. The absence of business. Things that are as far away from capitalism as possible. Second is Levine thinks only multi-national corporations have the ability to generate culture. He’s also stuck in the 90s talking about how digital killed record stores, is killing bookstores, etc. Personally, I could have been him but I realized via 2002 that digital was the great enabler. It allowed lots of content, both good and bad, to have its day in the sun. It also took away the tastemaker or the gatekeeper from being important as a centerpiece of breaking culture and gave that back to the people and a meritocratic method.
Levine has talked much about how HBO should NOT change its business model. And that if their business dips that they can change quickly to adapt. Yet Levine ignores the facts reported today by Yahoo that HBO, even if it wanted to deliver its programming ala carte to users on tablets and smartphones, doesn’t have the technical ability nor the know how. This to me is showing that the network is mired in the cable TV era and when it comes time to actually monetize programming via digital delivery it may be too late and they may fail. They are showing that they also don’t have the right personnel. They have probably invested heavily in digital marketers but not in digital distributors or thinkers. This is an area they should invest in now like AMC has in order to ebb into the future with a nice flow.
Here’s some excerpts of my chat with Levine. After reading, my question is where do you stand? Will HBO be extinct because they have the inability to adapt? Is TV the next industry to be disrupted just like books and newspapers and music before it? What will it take for networks to alter their model? Who will disrupt it first and be rewarded? The point I haven’t made to Levine yet but will is that businesses that wait it out lose in the digital era. Those that disrupt the flow and embrace change win because they set the new path. Thus, by HBO stalling on delivering programming (including the highly pirated “Game of Thrones”) they lose the ability to monetize any of their content at a later time. It’s just like music was with the early Napster era. By the time the industry was ready to catch on and sell single mp3s ala carte it was too late. People were adapted to pirating and it took Steve Jobs and iTunes to step in and alter the industry. But it didn’t have to be that way. A Motola or Doug Morris could have been savvy and smart. But now they are seen simply as rotting dinosaurs that have little to no say anymore on how people consume music. How did it get this way? Apathy and monopoly and greed are the easiest ways to lose in a constantly evolving and fast moving business environment. And a “wait and see” attitude is the equivalent of death. People FTW, Levine and his HBO argument zero.
Robert B. Levine (author of “Free Ride”) and I have a Twitter Debate:
Lately I have had two debates with author Robert Levine who wrote the book “Free Ride: How Technology Companies are Killing the Culture Business.”
First, I hate the title of that book. Culture business? Who deems that culture and business even go hand-in-hand. To me they are oxymoronic terms. Culture is pure. The absence of business. Things that are as far away from capitalism as possible. Second is Levine thinks only multi-national corporations have the ability to generate culture. He’s also stuck in the 90s talking about how digital killed record stores, is killing bookstores, etc. Personally, I could have been him but I realized via 2002 that digital was the great enabler. It allowed lots of content, both good and bad, to have its day in the sun. It also took away the tastemaker or the gatekeeper from being important as a centerpiece of breaking culture and gave that back to the people and a meritocratic method.
Levine has talked much about how HBO should NOT change its business model. And that if their business dips that they can change quickly to adapt. Yet Levine ignores the facts reported today by Yahoo that HBO, even if it wanted to deliver its programming ala carte to users on tablets and smartphones, doesn’t have the technical ability nor the know how. This to me is showing that the network is mired in the cable TV era and when it comes time to actually monetize programming via digital delivery it may be too late and they may fail. They are showing that they also don’t have the right personnel. They have probably invested heavily in digital marketers but not in digital distributors or thinkers. This is an area they should invest in now like AMC has in order to ebb into the future with a nice flow.
Here’s some excerpts of my chat with Levine. After reading, my question is where do you stand? Will HBO be extinct because they have the inability to adapt? Is TV the next industry to be disrupted just like books and newspapers and music before it? What will it take for networks to alter their model? Who will disrupt it first and be rewarded? The point I haven’t made to Levine yet but will is that businesses that wait it out lose in the digital era. Those that disrupt the flow and embrace change win because they set the new path. Thus, by HBO stalling on delivering programming (including the highly pirated “Game of Thrones”) they lose the ability to monetize any of their content at a later time. It’s just like music was with the early Napster era. By the time the industry was ready to catch on and sell single mp3s ala carte it was too late. People were adapted to pirating and it took Steve Jobs and iTunes to step in and alter the industry. But it didn’t have to be that way. A Motola or Doug Morris could have been savvy and smart. But now they are seen simply as rotting dinosaurs that have little to no say anymore on how people consume music. How did it get this way? Apathy and monopoly and greed are the easiest ways to lose in a constantly evolving and fast moving business environment. And a “wait and see” attitude is the equivalent of death. People FTW, Levine and his HBO argument zero.
Notes:
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