Comments on: Enter Shikari (or lessons from the record industry #8506) http://thedigitalist.net/2009/08/enter-shikari-or-lessons-from-the-record-industry-8506/ a blog by the digital team at Pan Macmillan Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:58:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Michael Bhaskar http://thedigitalist.net/2009/08/enter-shikari-or-lessons-from-the-record-industry-8506/comment-page-1/#comment-4990 Michael Bhaskar Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:12:47 +0000 http://thedigitalist.net/?p=684#comment-4990 Julie. Thanks for your comment. On your first point I agree that there is a lower barrier to entry, and therefore there is greater competition. However this makes it more clear when a writer breaks out. With this band I was trying convey that they did something more than usual, in this instance set up a record label. A few days ago we linked to Project 1968 - this is taking writing and doing something new. Just because it is hard to stand out doesn't mean people won't, and means those that do are even more valuable. Secondly, yes, the Friday project did go bust. But I don't think this was to do with the concept, which has now been aped by pretty much every publisher but was more to do with internal problems at the house. They are now back up and running at HarperCollins. Julie. Thanks for your comment. On your first point I agree that there is a lower barrier to entry, and therefore there is greater competition. However this makes it more clear when a writer breaks out. With this band I was trying convey that they did something more than usual, in this instance set up a record label. A few days ago we linked to Project 1968 – this is taking writing and doing something new. Just because it is hard to stand out doesn’t mean people won’t, and means those that do are even more valuable.

Secondly, yes, the Friday project did go bust. But I don’t think this was to do with the concept, which has now been aped by pretty much every publisher but was more to do with internal problems at the house. They are now back up and running at HarperCollins.

]]> By: Julie http://thedigitalist.net/2009/08/enter-shikari-or-lessons-from-the-record-industry-8506/comment-page-1/#comment-4984 Julie Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:06:33 +0000 http://thedigitalist.net/?p=684#comment-4984 I'm being very basic here, but I thought I should point out: 1) It is true that the music industry can be compared to the publishing industry in the way that new artists (be them called musicians or writers) have more possibilities of reaching audiences, and be discovered and known. However, technically speaking, it is much easier to write an 50-page story (I would only need a word processor for this) than to record a song. So, given that there is already HUGE competition when it comes to unsolicited manuscripts competition becomes imposible on the Internet. I wonder how publishers focused on finding new authors on the web manage to find their gold among the trash (let's face it almost everyone can write, but very few people are writers). 2) Friday Project went into liquidation. Isn't it an indicator that something is WRONG in thei business model??? Just wondering... I’m being very basic here, but I thought I should point out:

1) It is true that the music industry can be compared to the publishing industry in the way that new artists (be them called musicians or writers) have more possibilities of reaching audiences, and be discovered and known. However, technically speaking, it is much easier to write an 50-page story (I would only need a word processor for this) than to record a song. So, given that there is already HUGE competition when it comes to unsolicited manuscripts competition becomes imposible on the Internet. I wonder how publishers focused on finding new authors on the web manage to find their gold among the trash (let’s face it almost everyone can write, but very few people are writers).

2) Friday Project went into liquidation. Isn’t it an indicator that something is WRONG in thei business model???

Just wondering…

]]>