Strong Opinions @marksbirch

What does ownership mean in an age when any piece of art or information is simply an arrangement of orderly bits?  There was a time when we thought the question of ownership seemed clear cut.  While the general public could buy the medium, it was artists and/or middlemen that controlled the creation, distribution, and performance of the art.  Ownership and rights were the exclusive domain of the entities that had a vested interest in maintaining control throughout the entire supply chain.

There has been a lot of talk about Louis CK recently releasing a digital version of a performance for a nominal fee.  For the record, I do not think Louis CK is funny.  Anyway, while I applaud his initiative, this is not something new.  Radiohead had a “pay what you want” scheme for their In Rainbows album back in 2007, which resulted in 1.2 million downloads.  In interviews, it was clear that the strategy was to avoid the middleman and get product in the hands of fans without the friction (and cost overhead) of a music industry still beholden to the command and control structure.

When there is a middleman in an industry, the natural economic model of supply and demand becomes significantly more complicated.  The entity in the middle is not a producer or a consumer.  While they may certainly shape the art or information, they themselves have little ability to create original and authentic content.  Their entire existence is built upon the establishment of financial agreements and distribution rights that prevent the free flow of commerce between producers and consumers.  The middleman therefore acts much like a filter only letting through product that meets their fiscal expectations.  But the overall ecosystem becomes a dam, shutting out worthy contributions by artists that wish to be independent of the ecosystem, while only championing the few that get through the control gate.

The music industry is the classic example of the perverse nature of middlemen.  Payola schemes, punishing recording contracts, contrived radio playlists, and other practices of questionable value are all part and parcel to how the record industry consolidated power and controlled tastes.  This is how you arrive at copycats, boy bands, teen pop, and music devoid of any originality.  It is merely manufactured and packaged for mass consumption, but is about as satisfying and tasty as a microwave burrito.  Beyond the issues of quality, the industry has actively attacked innovations through lawsuits and licensing and DRM technologies, publicly proclaiming this is all in the name of protecting artists while in reality fighting for their own self-preservation.

A cottage industry has built up around cutting out the middlemen.   By melding the advances in web technologies with the brashness of a new age of entrepreneurs willing to topple industry giants, we are in the midst of a creator’s resurgence.  In music, artists are reaching out directly to potential fans through sites like Bandcamp and Noisetrade, enabling music fans to discover new artists.  Crowdsourcing through websites like RocketHub, IndieGoGo and Kickstarter is enabling artists to create product through the direct financial backing of fans and interested patrons.  Lulu, Blurb, and Amazon give budding authors platforms to self-publish high quality books and publications.  Etsy does the same for the crafts makers.  In fact, most industries have seen some sort of service come online in recent years, looking to disrupt the economics of third-parties and middlemen.  While in a sense there is still a middleman, these services act more like a free market exchange rather than a controlling and oppressive entity.

Without the strictures and perversions of third-parties and middlemen, the question of ownership becomes much clearer.  Ownership is shared between the producer and the consumer and is therefore owned by everyone.  By this, I mean that while the creator owns the original creation, the people that receive the creation can do whatever they wish outside of claiming it as their own.  This is the new era of ownership in the digital age; a place where artist and fan, producer and consumer, the creator and the user can share and be involved intimately in the process and the product.