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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Analysis and Opinion   >   Analysis   >   The future of media, in 45 minutes

The future of media, in 45 minutes

By on September 6, 2010

I gave a talk entitled Whales, Power Laws and the Future of Media at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival last month.

In essence, the old media model is that all consumers were treated equally: one price, one experience. They had to be, because physical distribution meant it was impossible to offer personalised experiences in a cost-effective way.

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The Internet has changed all that. I can enjoy dabbling in a free-to-play game gratis, while another gamer can spend money on progression, or pimping his ride, and gain whatever emotional satisfaction that the game provided. A record label can generate the same revenue from a combination of free and high-quality, high-status products for it’s true fans as it used to be able to do by offering the same product at the same price to everyone.

It’s the future of the media, and with evangelistic zeal, I want to spread the word. Please, please help me. I want this video to be watched by game executives and designers, by record labels and television producers, by analysts and journalists.

If you like the video, and think the message is important, please spread it. Tweet it, post it to Facebook, tell your friends in the pub.

Thank you in advance.

Part 1: Why publishers can no longer charge 80% for their services

 

Part 2: Why our analysis of free-to-play success has always been wrong

 

Part 3: How the record industry will be saved by the whales, if only they work it out in time

 

Part 4: Questions

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com