For all of the explosion of data in the past couple of decades, it's remarkable how disconnected and crudely measured much of the world around us still is. Weather forecasts, for example, have improved enormously in recent years, yet still aren't reliably accurate. The problem has been three-fold -- not enough ability to measure, incomplete data, and not enough computing power to make sense of the … [Read more...]
How Subsidy for Big Tech Wrecked the Arts (and Journalism)
In the 2010s, cheap solar panels from China began flooding the US market, killing off US domestic panel-makers who couldn’t compete on price. The US government slapped a 40 percent tariff on Chinese panels, claiming under World Trade Organization rules that China’s government was unfairly subsidizing panel-makers. Given how quickly solar panel costs were plummeting and the Byzantine ways in which … [Read more...]
Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture in the Age of Abundance
We’re consuming more culture than ever: The audience has never been bigger, and its appetite in the mass-distraction marketplace seems insatiable. But what does 13 billion YouTube views mean? Justin Bieber has 111 million Twitter followers. Is he really that smart? Or entertaining? Or even have much to say? [How algorithms magnify these numbers is a topic for another day] Despite the … [Read more...]
The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts?
Many of the world’s largest companies have opted out of traditional retail transactions in favor of subscription models. Whether it’s software, newspapers, movies, TV, or even food, fashion or cars, subscription schemes are becoming a go-to model. And headlines the past few weeks have been full of stories about what’s happening to subscriber-driven companies – Netflix most of all. So perhaps a … [Read more...]
#2. Five Observations about COVID and the Arts: The Great Resignation and Beyond
This is the second of five observations about the arts after 18 months of COVID (note I'm not saying "post-"COVID). The first part was on money and the arts. Today I want to focus on a disruption in the labor market and how it will affect the arts. Big Picture Since April, millions and millions of workers have quit their jobs. Record numbers in April, July and August. This after a year when … [Read more...]
Observations on the Arts 18 Months into COVID: Finances
After an 18-month shutdown the arts are opening for live business again. COVID will be a continuing factor, but it's possible to start taking stock of what's changed over a tumultuous period and make some conjectures about going forward. So here's what I'm seeing, based on the thousands of arts stories we sift through in a given week. These observations are also based on dozens of … [Read more...]
Business Models and a $9 Billion Idea
NOTE: This is the first of five posts with my thinking on addressing long-term problems in the arts. My overview framing of the five can be found here. My case for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the pandemic shutdown offers to reinvent is here. I don't have any easy answers or magic fixes. This is an attempt to organize my observations (from my vantage point) and try to provoke fresh … [Read more...]
Five Things to Fix in the Arts
In the financial crash of ten years ago, the S&P 500 lost almost 60 percent of its value. Millions of people lost their houses and jobs. Entire industries – banking, cars, airlines, housing -- were on the verge of collapse. And yet, if you had wealth, you probably did fine. More than fine actually. For some the crash was a huge opportunity. The auto and banking industries got bailouts, and … [Read more...]
Arts: Rebuild What? And Why?
I've been staring at this screen for several days (weeks, actually, if I'm being honest) trying to write about what the pandemic and the lockdown means for the arts. It's not that I don't have anything to say -- it's the opposite. Anything I begin to write seems reductive. There's too much to say and where to start? So this is maybe the start of a series of pieces on the topic. When everything … [Read more...]
Killing NEA, NEH And PBS Is Just Collateral Damage In The Commodification Of American Values
So it begins. A report in The Hill, then picked up in the Washington Post, says that the Trump administration intends to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities and sell off PBS. It's part of a plan to cut some $10.5 trillion over the next decade. Zeroing out the culture budgets isn't about money; together, the NEA, NEH and PBS account for … [Read more...]
Some Of Our Orchestras Seem To Be Thriving – Is This A New Trend?
There's been a change in the news coming out of symphony orchestras over the past summer. Usually there's a background drumbeat of struggle as orchestras fight to stay alive. But for months now, the beat has shifted, and we're hearing about orchestras that are not only surviving but thriving. Yes, Fort Worth Symphony musicians are on strike, the Pittsburgh Symphony is in the middle of … [Read more...]