• Home
  • About
    • diacritical
    • Douglas McLennan
    • Contact
  • Other AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

diacritical

Douglas McLennan's blog

Five Highlights From Last Week’s AJ You Shouldn’t Miss

July 4, 2016 by Douglas McLennan Leave a Comment

10000_hours

This week: Alas, hard work probably doesn’t trump innate ability… It’s tempting to believe extravagant claims for technology, but there are limits… Yes, by all means let’s talk about equity, but be sure you know what it means… A real-world experiment in ticket pricing (and some surprising results)… The death of the mid-budget Hollywood movie.

  1. We Like The Idea That Hard Work Trumps Talent. Alas… You put in your 10,000 hours practicing something, you expect results. Our bookshelves are heavy with books extolling the virtues of hard work for success. But the truth is, “we know, from a growing pile of evidence from many different sources, that while innate ability is far from the only contributor to success, it is probably the best predictor of it.”
  2. Why Do We Believe The Technology Utopians? They’re constantly trying to convince us that their technology will make the world a better place. In some ways our tech innovators have become the high priests of our age. Alas they’re often wrong. “Can we find a synthesis in which technologists look at their work critically and work closely with the people they’re trying to help in order to build sociotechnical systems that address hard problems?”
  3. Jump Aboard The Equity Train! (But Be Sure You Know What It Means): The arts are awash in declarations about equity. But a lot of what’s being said is vague and meaningless if things are going to change. So let’s get what we mean by equity straight.“It falls to those seeking fair equity to propose a new way to allocate resources, with all the pros and cons on the table, for there to be a basis of discussion. Put another way, those who call for redressing inequity — and here I’ll expand this discussion to include diversity and inclusion, which suffer from the same definitional complexities — must propose ways to achieve the equity they seek.”
  4. Ticket Price Matters. And Not Just To Sell More Tickets: Maybe one reason we’re getting demographically narrow audiences is because of ticket pricing. Need some real-world evidence? In 2005, Signature Theatre, an off-Broadway house on far West 42nd Street, “did a very hard-to-do thing. They convinced a big corporation, Time Warner, to hand the theater $500,000 to try to chip away at the price barrier. Before that grant, tickets to Signature’s shows had cost around $55. After the grant, they cost just $15.”
  5. This Is Why You Might Be Watching Fewer Movies: “Either you offer audiences an unmissable blockbuster derived from well-known intellectual property, or you invest in meek, sub-$10-million indies and pray for a return on investment on the art-house and VOD circuits. That once-upon-a-time sweet spot of $30-million to $50-million productions, with marquee stars and trusted directors? That era is over.”
Image: YouBeUnstoppable

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Weekly AJ Top Stories

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Douglas McLennan

I’m the founder and editor of ArtsJournal, which was founded in September 1999 and aggregates arts and culture news from all over the internet. The site is also home to some 60 arts bloggers. I’m a … [Read More...]

About diacritical

Our culture is undergoing profound changes. Our expectations for what culture can (or should) do for us are changing. Relationships between those who make and distribute culture and those who consume it are changing. And our definitions of what artists are, how they work, and how we access them and their work are changing. So... [Read more]

Subscribe to Diacritical by Email

Receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 3,820 other subscribers
Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on E-mail

Archives

@AJDoug

Tweets by @AJDoug

Recent Comments

  • Sam Hodak on Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?: “So what you’re telling me is… make a VR experience” May 12, 00:03
  • Mark on What If Disruption Was Just A Tech Con Game?: “Thank you” Mar 19, 13:15
  • Douglas McLennan on Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale: “Hi John: Yes – remember over the last decade how Big Data was going to change everything and drive every…” Nov 26, 07:46
  • John McCann on Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale: “I haven’t read this book, yet your review triggered an insight about information shared within organizations and how so much…” Nov 26, 03:57
  • Richard Voorhaar on The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?: “We have reached the point where the average American has no attention span. A 3-4 minute pop tune is all…” Jun 10, 11:22
  • Alan Harrison on The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?: “Brilliant piece, Doug. It’s why, in my own columns on LinkedIn and Medium, I may have become more strident recently…” Jun 8, 15:46
  • Tom Corddry on The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?: “Slick analogy. Social scientists estimate that 95% of everything we do is basically done out of habit, because it’s an…” Jun 7, 21:04
  • sandi kurtz on The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts?: ““As for seat licenses in the arts – I think it doesn’t work unless demand is so spectacular you can…” Jun 1, 23:19
  • Douglas McLennan on The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts?: “I think the membership model is an interesting variant. And the web has gone back and forth on labeling its…” May 31, 07:42
  • Douglas McLennan on The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts?: “Thanks Gary. I originally had a section in this podcast discussing why the NYTs’ success hasn’t worked its way down…” May 31, 07:19

Top Posts

  • If Dance Can't Pay Its Dancers What Does It Mean To Be A Professional Dancer?
  • The Mass Market Ain't What It Used To Be (And What That Means For The Arts)
  • "Art Is Good?" Not Much Of An Argument For Art Is It?

Recent Posts

  • Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale November 25, 2022
  • The UnderTow: What the new Edinburgh Fringe Tells us about a Post-COVID World June 26, 2022
  • The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts? June 7, 2022
  • The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts? May 23, 2022
  • This Week’s UnderTow: Why are Police Playing Disney Songs? And Why did this Orchestra Fire its Conductor for… Conducting? April 23, 2022
July 2016
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jun   Aug »

An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale
  • The UnderTow: What the new Edinburgh Fringe Tells us about a Post-COVID World
  • The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts?
  • The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts?
  • This Week’s UnderTow: Why are Police Playing Disney Songs? And Why did this Orchestra Fire its Conductor for… Conducting?

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in