What 19 Year-Olds Say About Content - Steve Rosenbaum - MediaBizBlogger
There's been lots of talk lately about the future of the newspaper, the downside of 'free' as price point for online content, and what the future holds for both content makers and distributors alike. I have to say, my media habits are pretty much in the early adopter camp. But I found myself wondering about the behavior of young people, college students, in terms of media sources and business models. So I decided to go to the source, and do some first-person research with one particular 19 year-old that I know well. He's a freshman in college, and may or may not be more absorbed in thinking about media than the average young person. In any case, I found his take on media sources and pricing surprising - and thought I'd share the discussion I had with my son Max with the blogosphere.
STEVE: First, can you describe your 'media mix' -- how much news, vs. music, vs. movies TV etc. do you watch/read?
MAX: OK - well, tons of news. I have the Huffington Post set as my homepage and routinely surf cnn.com and blogs, plus I read a hard copy of the NYT in the d-hall. Music, I hear about from friends and download from torrentbay - I've usually got a song I just heard about a good 5 minutes later. Movies, same. I download off pirate bay and occasionally borrow from the college library. Really though if I hear about a movie or want to find one, I look to torrents. For TV, I'll watch on Hulu or download if it isn't on there - but I find having that much television available makes me only want to watch a show or two consistently. It's easier to ignore the spam/crap.
STEVE: Where does 'digg' fit into that?
MAX: Digg is what I go to when I've read the breaking news for the day and want a little more variety. It's basically my version of a magazine.
STEVE: That's interesting, where do friends play a part, links from Facebook, any twitter or other 'social network' links from friends?
MAX: Most of the friend/media interchange happens on the ground level -- me hearing about interesting shows or music and telling people about things I like, but I find YouTube acts like a very easy platform for sharing ideas/trends -- if you want to tell someone about something, you go to YouTube and show them a video. Facebook can play into it in auxiliary ways, but the primary interchange still happens face to face (on campus).
STEVE: OK, so is it possible for a marketing campaign with advertisements to get you interested in a show, or a movie, or a band?
MAX: Yeah, but it's really a matter of trust. Do I trust the source?
STEVE: Ah, that's interesting. What sources do you trust?
MAX: Trust has to do with the relevancy of the content -- if it's either interesting or funny or important. I don't want to be "ripped off" for my time.
STEVE: Do you pay for anything, and how do you decide what to pay for and what not to?
MAX: No I do not.
STEVE: iTunes?
MAX: Nope
STEVE: iPhone apps?
MAX: Like 2, maybe
STEVE: Is there ever a band or an artist that you'd give $1 to just because they're indie and cool?
MAX: Maybe in a system I know is right, but right now it'd kind of feel like dropping it down a bottomless pit.
STEVE: Let's talk about stealing.
MAX: Haha ok.
STEVE: It seems like when you grew up, everything was free (ad supported). Now the ads don't work, but you and your friends think that free is almost like a political statement
MAX: Oh yes we do in fact
STEVE: Well, music used to cost something (records, CDs, etc.), then mp3s came along. Movies you used to pay for (tickets), now pirate bay. When you are not in college, and you have a job and make money, will you still not pay for content because it should be "free?" Is it economics or politics?
MAX: It's both. Because they're connected. If the politics don't work, the economics won't work. Right now the politics are broken, and there's a gap, so we're filling it til the politics are fixed. It's our duty to steal the music. We're dumping tea in Boston Harbor. Young people don't like the idea of a "music industry" and they don't feel connected to it.
STEVE: So, if Flaming Lips had a way for you to pay them $5 for a group of songs (rather than pay a record label) would that feel more honest (or more appropriate)? Paying the artist rather than the MAN?
MAX: To reiterate, we're not pirates. We have a sense of propriety, we just aren't going to put up with the bullshit. Frankly, I'd hand them more than 5 bucks if I were putting the money directly in their hands. Raidiohead released their album In Rainbows for free on the Internet with the option to pay. Most didn't, but one man paid a thousand dollars. Now If I have 100 dollars for music and 5 favorite bands, each one could get 20 dollars for their newest albums.
STEVE: Last topic. Newspapers....
MAX: Sorry, journalism and dead trees are going to need to get a divorce.
STEVE: Right - but what happens to the Huffington Post if the NY Times goes broke?
MAX: That's why I said journalism. Preserve the institution, but frankly the format was diagnosed with a deadly illness a decade ago -- it's time the newspapers started taking the Internet seriously.
You read the Times both ways -- it's just news. For better or worse, the NYT is now a for-profit business like any music company or movie studio -- they're just distributors -- so you tell me: how does the New York Times reconnect itself to the concept of journalism, which has moved on to the blogosphere these days?
It's all about trust. The Internet is only a scary place if you look at it that way. It's a series of nodes that represent people. The closer my news is to a person, the more comfortable I feel about it. I'm willing to accept bias and spin, as long as it's not deceptive and deceitful. I read the Huffington Post because their admitted bias matches mine. Journalism is about people, first and foremost.
STEVE: Play futurist for a sec - it's 2015 (or so). When you wake up - where do you go, what do you read/watch, whom do you trust?
MAX: Assuming the global financial system still exists, I live off my iPhone, or whatever. What Apple got right was the simplicity of the device. It's tiny, square, and the interface's dexterity is unparalleled. This creates a trifecta in my life of convenience and connectivity - so right now I see myself using my iPhone as an ID, as a surfing device, or really just about anything. I don't need a million devices -- I only need one or two. Maybe I have a home base or something, but really I want my media to be with me all the time and in a tiny form. I'm not saying big screens won't still exist, what I'm saying is the only permanent force in this market and this industry is people. The human/device/media interaction is the key to it all.
--
In conclusion, if this is any indication as to how young people plan to consume content as they grow up, we sure better sort out some ad supported solutions sooner rather than later. Because it's pretty clear that there isn't a whole lot of enthusiasm for PPV or VOD, or other pay for micro content solutions -- at least from this one person's perspective.
Steven Rosenbaum is the CEO and Co-Founder of Magnify.net - a fast-growing video publishing platform that powers more than 50,000 web sites, media companies, and content entrepreneurs to aggregate and curate web video from a wide variety of web sources. Currently Magnify.net publishes over 50,000 channels of Curated-Consumer Video, and is working closely with a wide variety of media makers, communities, and publishers in evolving their content offerings to include content created by, sorted and reviewed by community members. Rosenbaum is a serial entrepreneur, Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker, and well know innovator in the field of user-generated media production. Rosenbaum Directed and Executive Produced the critically acclaimed 7 Days In September, and his MTV Series Unfiltered is widely regarding as the first commercial use of Consumer Generated Video in US mass media. Steve can be contacted at steve@magnify.net
