InteracTiVoty: "There Won't Be Another King of Pop" - Evan Young - MediaBizBlogger

By the time this post is published the passing of Michael Jackson will be old news on the timescale of celebrity news Some industryrelated stories have discussed how in the brave new world of YouTube Facebook and the decline of traditional media it will be impossible to create a star like Michael Jackson or the Beatles again The days of half the nation watching the Ed Sullivan Show or the final episode of MASH are over Audiences are too diffuse the news and media cycle are frighteningly fast and fickle the new economies of distribution don39t provide the right incentives to develop artists etc There will be new stars of course and new phenomena but the cultural landscape will be quite differentI was immediately interested in this metastory as the death of Michael Jackson threw many of the changes in the television industry and media in general into sharp relief But the question I asked myself was quotAre these changes necessarily badquotIn the days of fewer bigger hits and more constrained distribution models most of the value accrued to a few If you were a small music act your best chance for distribution was a major label record deal It was difficult to get but once you had one the machinery of promotion and distribution was unmatched for its time Today anyone can put out their own album You can submit it to iTunes or another retailer You can easily press your own CD or vinyl if you want You can put up your own website and use social networks to promote yourself Traditional labels and radio still have their role to play but there are a lot of other avenues for those who want to get their music out to a wide audience It39s harder to be a massive star but musicians looking for a break or control over their own destiny have more opportunities than beforeThis same scenario is playing out in the world of television and online video From the Big 3 networks to 100 channels on analog cable to 500 channels plus VOD on digital cable to millions of choices on the Internet there are many more opportunities for new producers and programmers to distribute a show And the metrics for success are different True it doesn39t hurt to be 1 in your timeslot and for your desired demographic But there are more ways to reach your audience than just through that first broadcast or the broadcast syndication model DVD revenues for TV shows while declining now are an additional revenue stream that is barely 10 years old Online viewing and promotion while still somewhat nascent are a powerful way to engage and interact with the audience The creators of Gunsmoke didn39t have DVD or even VHS home video as an option to them Michael Landon in either his Little House on the Prairie or Highway to Heaven days never had to do blog posts or film special outtakes for the web or the DVD BTSThe loss of the entrenched few is the gain of many others When we look at Susan Boyle or the Filipino prisoners doing the quotThrillerquot dance moves it39s easy to say quotWell that39s a flash in the panquot and lament the disposable nature of our cultural tropes But it39s a flash in the pan that would not have been possible to experience on a mass scale 50 years ago New media have not yet established any stars of lasting permanence But it39s really too early to tellIn the end sustained success for a musician show or artist is based on how long one can be relevant to the audience in combination with the patrons or sponsor in modern terms Previously those opportunities were very limited Michelangelo had the Medicis Tchaikovsky had Nadezhda von Meck Guiding Light had Procter ampamp Gamble The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts had Texaco In some cases the distributor can be effectively the patron NBC paid dearly to keep successive seasons of Friends on the air HBO did likewise for The Sopranos The viewers were the beneficiaries of that patronage We see that happening today in ways that some view as insidious necessary or benign Survivor contestants battle for a bag of Doritos Liz Lemon drinks a lot of Snapple PBS takes money from a variety of foundations It has always been rare that an artist or show survives on the audience alone for any sustained period of timeMy general feeling is that this change is for the better because these opportunities for success are now open to more artistsprograms on the one hand and advertisersnetworkspatrons on the other If I have a new TV show or even a new idea for a TV show I don39t have just three networks to pitch it to I39ve got 500 I can even put it out myself on YouTube and generate some advance coverage and fan excitement to position myself better for a larger deal I39ve got a lot more advertisers who I can think about partnering with if that39s the route I want to go I can work directly with AmazonCreateSpace if I want to selfpublish and sell my content Or I can publish my TV show to TiVo on broadband and people can set Season Passamp8482 for it and watch it on their TVs and I don39t even need to have a TV network dealTo get back to Michael Jackson briefly there has been some lament that there will never be as big a star again Perhaps that39s true inasmuch as he was a star of our time But then again Shakespeare39s Mozart39s and Leonardo da Vinci39s works all surpassed their lifetimes and well into the 21st century and none of them had MTV or YouTube working for them We39ll only know the true extent of Michael Jackson39s impact a couple more generations from now We can be thankful today for having been graced by his talent but we should be more thankful that our industries are changing to allow other talents to be discovered and supported in a multitude of ways In the end we are all enriched culturally or otherwise for there being more choices not lessEvan Young is Director of Broadband Services at TiVo IncRead all Evanamp8217s MediaBizBlogger commentaries at InteracTiVoty MediaBizBlogger

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InteracTiVoty: "There Won't Be Another King of Pop" - Evan Young - MediaBizBlogger

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