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...]
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...]
The Party of Can't And Won't (So Let's Change The Conversation)
Mitt Romney said last week he'll kick funding for the arts and public broadcasting to the curb if he gets to be president. "We're not going to kill Big Bird, but Big Bird is going to have advertisements," Romney said, while speaking at Homer's Deli in Clinton, Iowa. Like virtually every other conservative candidate, Romney has had it -- had it! -- with government expenditures like public … [Read more...]