Tag: Culture

Yesterday, I highlighted the modular by design approach and what modules are. Today, we delve in, looking at the first industry to get impacted: the music industry. When Napster introduced the concept of sharing songs, it was not so much the idea of sharing that was wreaking havoc on the music industry; it was the fact that albums were now being sliced and diced. Traditionally, the music industry has been organizing around the concept of album sales. When developing a new music album (which is only a compilation of several music tracks,) the music industry decided to bundle some good songs, along with some so-so and sometimes some bad ones. The idea is that they would promote a few songs in the media and use those as a way to sell albums. Where the economic breakdown happens is that not all songs have the same value. As a result, the idea that a hit song is worth the same amount as a B-side falls apart. So if you take the current album-related economics model, you end up with a product of 10-15 tracks, which retails for somewhere between 15 and 20 dollars. Based on that concept, one can argue that…