Bookshops close down

You could wonder if it's actually the book or the content someone cares for. I'm inclined to say that it's content. And content can be obtained in a lot of ways, whereas book is just distribution, just like an e-book, a summary you read online or even if someone tells you what a book is about.

Also, I think the book-industry (for lack of a better word) is kinda oversaturated. There's writers in every genre, and not all of them are good, yet even the not so popular books or writers might have a cult following. So, as a store, do you stock new and popular books? Do you stock what people in your area want? And how do you know what they want? And how much room do you have to store it?

Also, in this day and age a store has to compete with the internet in the way that I as a reader (and this actually applies to music and movies as well) do not want to wait another week for my book to come in and make me go to town twice in said week. With the internet e-publiciations are quite easy to get through means of Amazon and sites like that, and then there's the download circuit which well.. obtains em for "free". Or just like movies, pirates books.

With the earlier mentioned saturation online publication is a lot easier as it's actually a matter of a couple of bits and bytes to store the book and to keep a webshop running. You don't even need multiple copies of the book.

So I think for one there is a logistics problem with books as people more and more do not all want to read the same books nor are they willing to order them and wait for it. Second I might even say it's a financial deal where people rather get books cheap(er) or even for free instead of paying for them... and this is exactly the same with record stores and movie stores.

You mentioned an example of clothing... I can only imagine what would happen if stuff like that would be downloadable like a "skin" over some kind of digital piece of cloth composed of nanotechnology... but I think you understand where I'm going with this

Well, if the digital cloth is ever invented (which could be possible, given the invention of polymers), then it will be interesting. Something covers us and it can be changed at any time, at a lower cost.

So am I safe to say the book, the record and even the movie are 'endangered species'?

On copying "content" like clothing, there's another issue I've come across. A few years ago I played some tabletop games where you had to paint your own toy soldiers. Those are quite expensive (as just a bunch of plastic parts you have to put together like a modelling kit), though now with the rise of 3d printers, even that industry is a bit in danger and that's becoming a bigger problem the cheaper those printers are becoming.

I think classic distribution is endangered. Games have already transitioned for a great part to being online services. That kinda works for a lot of games. As for movies... they still have the movietheater. But even that is a problem. In my area there are 2 theaters, one with 3 screens, one with 5. So imagine there's more than 8 movies coming out in a single week? And just keep in mind that most movies run more than a week... it's the same exact saturation on any industry. And I don't know if movies can survive on only some dvd sales, because there is still a lot of stuff not bought but obtained "illegally". Though it is a common mistake for any industry to expect that if I downloaded a movie through pirate bay, that I would've bought it otherwise. The reason why I downloaded it, might just as well be because I don't have that money to spend on a movie. And the entire morality deal might show up where you could say "well, no money is no movie".. but in 2011 that's not really a thought the majority adheres to.

I think, to make sure that distribution of intelectual property, because that's actually what the content you're paying for is... you're usually not buying a book because it's a book, you're buying it because of the content, you're not buying a cd because you like a silver disc with a hole in it... you buy it for what's on it... the way this kind of distribution wouldn't die out, would be if people were more up to the entire "no, I have to pay for this because it is something someone worked for". But with the oversaturation of any industry people fail to see what kind of hard work is done to get such an final product on the shelf.

Especially the entertainment industry kinda messed up by becoming this huge torrent of basically "anything" that can be considered a product. People lose track of "oh, that's new" and even more of the "that's good stuff". I remember that I used to wait for 3 years or so for my favorite artist to record a new album and I was pretty content with waiting. Yes, I bought other albums, I listened to other stuff, but I didn't really get impatient. Nowadays stuff is being marketed to actually make you impatient and just buy "something" rather then buy what you would enjoy.

And that's why any form of entertainment is endangered by physical distribution at first, and then other means, because hey... it's still a commercial industry and some people just want to earn loads of money.

And just remember that with no distribution there is no audience.

As for digital distribution, yes that works better for logistic reasons, but still the logic of "hey, I can get it for free" applies here. I don't believe in outlawing downloading stuff... I do believe in making people aware that some stuff is actually decent craftsmanship. Yet by that (and I'm really overusing the word) oversaturation people will not understand and see what actually is good.

A small note I like to add on downloading and outlawing... what I would like to see, and I doubt that'll happen, is that instead of people going back to buying albums again, I rather see more independant artists spread their music cheaper or for free and people hang on to that and kinda "boycot" the million dollar entertainment industry.

I'm also noticing that in this day and age more and more people are really just caring for a specific niche of some sort. I know people that do not care for science fiction except Star wars for example and the "interests" get more specific from there. It's kinda shallow and close minded to some extent, but that's the attitude a lot of people now have. People sometimes aren't even willing to just browse the Fantasy section for a nice book... they actually expect stores to have books tagged by about 100 variables... perhaps, that's the way we are spoiled (and rotten) in this day and age and to change it, it should be done all at once and with understanding and insight... if only one person doesn't want that change, people will fall back on their own habit.

I already listen to indie music on my own - because the Net brings them, cheap, fast and surprisingly good