Generally regarded as better than dead
To start with the obvious: The future of entertainment media is one big huge, fat, bold and italicized question mark. Music downloads (both legal and illegal) are slowly killing off music stores and CDs, and it seems unlikely that albums as we know them will be around for much longer. Movie theaters still seem to be doing well, but Netflix and downloaded movies are becoming more popular and so is illegally downloading movies.
So what's going to happen? A lot of people seem to forget that every time a current industry dies, another one takes its place, and is usually a lot more successful, but the question is, how is entertainment going to change with the change in technology?
Here's my theory: live music and theater will become much more popular, and I see this for two reasons:
- The industries need to make money. Illegal downloads are starting to bite into movie and music sales, and it's hard to see it happening with any less regularity. Recordings and movies will stick around, obviously, but I see there being more marketing efforts being put into live music and theater because the money-making is absolute. Every single person who wants to see the show has to pay, and something like that will become ever more attractive for industry.
- People need to be snobs. I read a reference recently to an article that posited that the wide and quick availability of downloadable music meant that the effort was gone, more people are familiar with artists who formerly would have been called "obscure" and there was less of a chance for people to impress with their knowledge of obscure music. So the snob appeal of seeing a live show--of being able to say "I was there and you weren't"--will increase ever more. So you have the new hotshit hyped band's album? Yeah, so do all the yuppies who read about it online and downloaded it 30 seconds later. But did they take the time to go to a sketchy part of town to see the show? No? You win
9 comments:
crud, does this mean I now have to start going to Bonnaroo and smell bad for a weekend just to be cool?
Yup.
Wait...I mean no. It's easy to think of "going to see live music" as just going to loud, smoky clubs or huge arenas or festivals, but I really see it as being more like it was in the pre-rock era, where seeing amazing jazz performances in clubs or going to see a swing band and dancing or even getting sheet music and singing with other people was as common a form of entertainment as listening to a recording.
Wouldn't this just lead to live bootlegging? Some dude with a hidden wireless camera, broadcasting live to the web?
Just wait until cloning technology takes off and you can have your own personal copy of a band playing live at your house.
You're thinking of what it would be like to have a mini-Belle and mini-Sebastian in your living room right now, admit it.
That's all fine and good except for a major flaw in one half of reason number 1:
There's no money in theatre.
There. I said it.
But maybe there will be? It's true that movies are always going to make more money because they can be repeated over and over. And it's also true that most smaller theater companies struggle mightily to break even.
But big Broadway musicals have become huge business recently, and my (admittedly guessed-at) theory is that the popularity of such things will (dare I say it?) trickle down to smaller theaters, and as live experiences regain popularity and as industry people start to see the value in a product that can't be duplicated, smaller theater companies will start to thrive.
I think you're right as far as the consumer interest part of it, but you can't get away from the fact that live performances multiply their costs with each show, while movies/recordings can keep generating revenue with only small incremental costs.
I also think that people want things on their own schedules (on-demand tv, tivo, etc.) and don't want to leave their houses except for really cool places where there's no chance of some idiot behind them talking loudly and interfering with their enjoyment. Maybe the trend will move towards people having their own performance spaces at home, and groups of people organizing private concerts/plays for their select groups of friends.
I wonder if anyone's ever tried to run a pirate theatre...duplicating a play or musical being performed nearby but using less expensive actors, sets, etc.? I mean in a sense you already have this with music via cover bands. It's kind of the live equivalent of what's been happening to recordings.
"Pirate" theatre productions do occur from time to time, but usually on college campuses and for no money. There's a good reason that a pirate theatre industry would never flourish: music and film pirates rarely, if ever, have anything to do with the people who made the product in the first place. Theatre artists, on the other hand, would be stabbing their own kind in the back. Say what you want about us, but that kind of thing just couldn't proliferate.
We can say what we want about theater artists?! Sweet! I'm gonna say that you're all a bunch of ill-mannered, three-toothed, ostrich-fucking, mercury-drinking, fruit-hatted, telescope-swallowing jerks.
Hey, everybody! Join in! We can say what we want about theater artists now! The ban's been lifted! Woo-hoo!
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