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iBook Store Features Leave Indie Publishers Behind
jfruhlinger writes "Apple has introduced some new features to its iBooks store in order to make illustrations and fixed layouts possible — something particularly important for children's books. But at the moment, it seems these features are only available for big publishers, not indies. This is not dissimilar from the controversy that brewed over indie labels' access to iTunes LP."
Apple comes and pisses on the little people, yet again !
mp3.com? didn't that die as fast as Fred Durst's star power?
I know it's cool to be anti Apple on slashdot these days, but does the hatred have to include loss of logic?
Apple doesn't publish music or books, so in the case of iTunes LP, or the latest iBooks features, they need to work them out fully first. They do this by working with a few big companies, giving them access to rough beta copies of tools and tech specs. By working togther on a few items, Apple can identify and fix issues in a tool or spec before it's widely released. If they just threw out unfinished tools and specs, people would whine about the problems, and also increase Apple's support burden. With a slow and steady rollout, they can do it right, and ensure the mass publishing market has tools or specs that work without requiring direct hand holding via Apple support.
Looks like won't be on iBooks any time soon. Thank God for Kindle :-)
My web domain.
wha?
lots of people have never bought apple/itunes products in the first place. Things such as buying mp3s, buying ebooks, buying things at set prices, buying video games at retail prices, these are things that most people who are fairly technically savvy have never dealt with and never will. For them, this is much ado about nothing. Also, this tech savvy crowd grows everyday.
[Apple] is only providing information on how to create fixed layout ebooks for it's store to a select group of publishers and ebook producers."
And a week from now when that information finds its way to the internet the headline will be "All Authors Able to Publish Fixed-Width iBooks"
What exactly did Apple do to mp3.com? Indie artists are welcome to make their music available through any mechanism they like: youtube, myspace, facebook, etc.
Or rather, they're welcome to sit in obscurity in any way they like. The RIAA is NOT a music industry. It's a promotions industry. They exist to make music famous, a process which costs a vast sum of money. And until relatively recently, it was a profitable business model, which never went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
If they've managed to take hold of the most famous platform for music, that's just what they do. But opening it more for indies isn't going to make them famous, which is what they crave. They can be ignored in iTunes with equal vigor to the way they've been ignored on youtube (and, for that matter, in bars and cafes) for a long time.
The Long Tail is a dream sold to small artists. The technology means that they've been able to raise their income from "nothing" to "next to nothing". Because the thing to remember about the Long Tail is that it's very, very, very long, and you're sitting out there somewhere in the middle of it. You wanna sit on the bigger hump, you spend money to do it. A _lot_ of money.
The independent market never "thrived". The artists were, statistically speaking, all starving. Even some extraordinarily talented ones making great music.
Technological change may be able to kill off the RIAA's fame-producing industry, but it's not like indie artists are in some sort of close second place raring to take over first.
Its the only explanation.
While inspiring, I just have a tough time really assembling behind your battle cry.
Before Apple, big labels and publishers have been working to screw over independants and/or exploit them in any means possible, so I find it hard to really find "Boycotting Apple" as the solution to the actual problem. Apple is just riding the bandwagon, tagging along, trying to get a piece of the pie.
I would much rather have more people go independant (as the music trend seems to be, more and more bands are leaving the big labels, or starting their own labels, or indie labels supporting other indie bands). It's not so much that people need to boycott certain publishers, its that the artists, authors, musicians, etc etc - they need to stop feeding the publishers with content to sell. Starve them out on content, not sales. Because consumers are idiots, there will always be people willing to buy the shiniest product, or spending for the sake of spending. There is no real way to cause a boycott that way. But once the Indie market thrives because thats where the best content is, with the best delivery system - thats when we'll see real progress.
I will usually hear a song from a band I like on the radio. Whether or not they are on iTunes doesn't make a huge difference to me, I won't like them less because I can't get their tracks through that ONE distribution method. Best Alternative? Have a website, where they handle their own song/download/transactions - as some bands have started doing, or even better, if they offer the CD for free knowing it'll drive Concert sales. There's so many ways to deliver content around iTunes its baffling that it has as much sway as it does.
Apple accepts book from anyone who can generate ePub. Is the same true of the Kindle? It would be nice for Apple to also release details on the format enhancement but if they are exactly as open as any other company, and then merely add some other capability on top of that Apple restricts - why is Apple evil when they help out indies as much as any other company?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
According to posts yesterday, this link leads to a virus in PDF. Don't click it.
Independent music artists association. Independent writers association.
And get into the game.
>>>BOYCOTT APPLE.
Nah. My blacklist is long enough:google, yahoo, microsoft, sony, comcast, ..... Besides Christmas is almost over, so too late to sell my Apple Mac on ebay (I wouldn't get anything). I think I'll just keep it for now. It has 8 gigabytes; that ought to be enough for anybody* and last me a long, long time. Anyway I will not boycott Apple - not just yet.
*
* Course I said the same thing about my 8MB Mac Quadra. Hmmm.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Have you been reading Slashdot lately? It's nothing but screeching monkeys and poo flinging at the merest mention of Apple.
People seem to hate Apple nowadays the way they used to hate Microsoft. Heck, half of the things people are saying isn't factually correct -- it's just what they believe. I still see people claiming you can't play MP3s on an iPod.
I think in many cases, logic has gone completely out the window when Apple is the topic.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
What's the virus?
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
surely they'd allow users of other operating systems to create apps for iOS?
They do. You can generate iPhone apps from Flash. That tool can be run on Mac or Windows.
Now what you are suggesting is Apple is beholden to make the development tools THEY write for Windows. Why should that be the case? Microsoft doesn't produce Visual Studio for the Mac!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You mean, other than the millions of customers they have now and the new ones they get every week?
Why, practically nobody.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
How do you get that out of UMG v MP3.com, and what did Apple have to do with deciding it?
The case was regarding whether the website had the right to use copyrighted music to make ad revenue.
I find your claim particularly curious since this case was on or about 2000, and the iTunes store did not launch until 2003.
I think the reason for their confusion is that sales and profitability at Apple are higher than ever.
Apple is not run for the benefit of their customers, but for the shareholders, executives and their friends.
So they're like 95% of all the corporations out there then?
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
That works if and only if Apple tells everyone that's what they're doing. While it may be likely based on past experience, you cannot safely assume a company will do anything in particular.
Innovation often doesn't come from the big guys. Experience so far with the App Store has certainly shown that. There's no good reason for Apple to only look at large publishing operations for input.
"does the hatred have to include loss of logic?"
Its usually hard hate if you let logic get in the way.
Like most mob trends, the anti-apple movement has some valid points down below all the posturing and silliness, but most of what you see online fails to convey them.
-Lod
This just in, companies seek to sell their own products.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Dude, you're aware that exceedingly few artists, however famous, have really made any money from the selling of their recordings, right? Even famous ones are starving by that metric. Now the fame brought by the recording industry makes their performances much more profitable, true. Artists make most of their money from performances. By the metric of performance earnings, artists are making more than ever, while the recording industry is suffering. Also, more indies are making more money than ever. And while most of them do in fact struggle, that's more in the nature of a small business than the fame thing. There's really just no defending the recording industry - there is no valid excuse for the level of exploitation involved. Art and artists historically have done, and are doing now, just a bit better without the industry than they did with the industry. With the exception of the famous, which happens to include many singers who can barely carry a tune along with the very most talented.
Political incorrectness.
Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
Yo, Dawg ... I hear you like to hate, so I installed some hate so you can hate while you're hating. :-P
On that, we agree. =)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I heard it died faster than Jobs' liver "donor".
mp3.com? didn't that die as fast as Fred Durst's star power?
Fred Durst had star power?
Apple accepts book from anyone who can generate ePub.
Which brings us back to the question of the article: For a book composed mostly of full-page illustrations, what's the best way to format that as an EPUB?
YOUTUBE: About two years ago YouTube redesigned their trove system to make it almost impossible for small acts to be found. Try it. You are pretty much stuck with the mainstream stuff they sort to the top in each category. You pretty much have to accidentally find indie acts on youtube.
BARS AND CAFES: As a cafe owner can attest that BMI and ASCAP make it almost impossible to play indie acts. The fees are just too high for small businesses. Even i you make bands sign papers stating they are unsigned acts playing only there own music, BMI and ASCAP still go after you. The first six months we were open we had live music 1-2 nights a week. The minute we posted notices on MySpace we had BMI and ASCAP twisting our arms to buy a annual license. License fees that were far too high to make it even remotely sensible from a business perspective. I would happily support local bands but the system is rigged.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
How can a holiday which has not even begun be "almost over"?
Apple has been going full-on evil lately with a vision for the future that makes even MS's most dominating days pale. They want to control every device you own, and the appliance model is what they like. Devices designed for consumption, not production. You get to pay for everything and can buy it only through the Apple owned store. They will make devices designed to have a short life with features like non-replaceable batteries so that you are always spending money on the newest, trendiest, toy. They get to be the arbiters of what is acceptable and what is not on your devices, in their one and only store.
That is a pretty scary vision of the future, in particular for the generally very openness loving crowd on Slashdot. At least MS just seemed to want to be your operating system, they didn't seem to want total control of your device and what you could buy.
So I am not surprised Apple gets a lot of hatred here. If they don't want that, maybe they shouldn't have such a closed, "The Apple was is the ONLY way," ecosystem. Now if you like that that's fine. I'm not telling you what you should or shouldn't want. It is perfectly ok to say "I like their system, I want my stuff locked down and controlled, because that also implies protected, I am willing to deal with higher prices and less choice in trade for what I feel to be a better overall experience." However understand that many people do not feel that way, in particular many who inhabit Slashdot. So there's gonna be a lot of Apple hate here so long as that is going on.
In fact, the only reason Apple ever got much love on Slashdot was because they were an underdog. Apple has always had a pretty controlling vision of computers, though not near as much as the present. However they were the little guy, fighting against the behemoth that was MS and Slashdot loves underdogs. Now they are massive and their strategy is well known so they've lost any love from /. they might have had.
Never let those pesky "facts" get in the way of a good Apple-bashing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3.com
[MP3.com] was shut down on December 2, 2003 by CNET, which, after purchasing the domain name (but not MP3.com's technology or music assets), established the current MP3.com site.
On January 12, 2000, MP3.com launched the "My.MP3.com" service which enabled users to securely register their personal CDs and then stream digital copies online from the My.MP3.com service. Since consumers could only listen online to music they already proved they owned the company saw this as a great opportunity for revenue by allowing fans to access their own music online. The record industry did not see it that way and sued MP3.com claiming that the service constituted unauthorized duplication and promoted copyright infringement.
Judge Jed S. Rakoff, in the case UMG v. MP3.com, ruled in favor of the record labels against MP3.com and the service on the copyright law provision of "making mechanical copies for commercial use without permission from the copyright owner." Before damage was awarded, MP3.com settled with plaintiff, UMG Recordings, for $53.4 million, in exchange for the latter's permission to use its entire music collection. Later, the firm no longer had sufficient funds to weather the technology downturn. MP3.com was subsequently bought and the new owner did not continue the same service.
Weakened financially, MP3.com was eventually acquired by Vivendi Universal in May 2001 at $5 per share ($23 below the IPO share price) or approximately $372 million in cash and stock. Jean-Marie Messier, then-CEO of Vivendi Universal, stated "The acquisition of MP3.com was an extremely important step in our strategy to create both a distribution platform and acquire state-of-the-art technology. MP3.com will be a great asset to Vivendi Universal in meeting our goal of becoming the leading online provider of music and related services.
Vivendi had difficulties growing the service and eventually dismantled the original site, selling off all of its assets including the URL and logo to CNET in 2003.
For comparison, Apple opened the iTunes Music Store in April 2003--23 months after Universal got MP3.com. CNET bought mp3.com in November 2003.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/apr/28musicstore.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1008275/cnet-buys-mp3com
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
ePub would suck indeed if you could not add images - but you can.
It's just a question of letting the reader flow the text in relation to the images, what is in question is being able to have a totally fixed layout, to say that THIS text is HERE on the page in relation to THIS image. It's actually a bad idea for most things because it eliminates a number of ways a reader can improve reading on the device, but some things (like childrens books) it's a must.
Note this does not stop people from publishing fixed layout books as apps, for instance right now on the popular list is an iPad app that's a pop-up book (which would probably stay an app due to the need for animation).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I still have my Quadra 650. It had 12 MB of RAM. Still runs and handles Photoshop 2.5/Illustrator 5.5 just fine as well. I can't throw it out as I've never had any problems with it.
I drank what? -- Socrates
The Christmas *selling season* is almost over.
That's what I meant. Sorry. For online selling and catalog selling the peak time ends about five days before December 25, because people can't be sure they will get the gift shipped in time. Instead they shop at physical stores where they can get the product immediately. So selling on Ebay now would not gather as many or high bids as if I sold the 2-3 weeks immediately after Thanksgiving.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Fuck "trendy" ... I'll stick with "works".
Do you really think most people buy Apple stuff because its "trendy", or do you think they might be "trendy" because they do what the users want it to?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
All those new customers are merely hipster posers who hang out at Starbucks, have handle bar mustaches and ride penny farthing bikes.They couldn't program in assembly on a TMS9900 if you set their feet on fire and had a ring of naked women throwing pickles at them. In other words, total losers who make more money then they know what to do with. If they had any sense, they woulda' donated to Firefly fandom so that it wouldn't have been canceled.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I'm not sure I could either, to be honest. :-P
However, if anybody has anything to support an invocation of Rule 34, then I'd be interested. For, um, academic purposes.
I for one welcome our new naked, pickle-throwing overlords.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
firstly the long tail means for "small" artist, a better way to make themselves heard, and a chance at celebrity however small. Wthout it you are condemned to obscurity or nearly. Secondly more importantly that can mean in certain case the difference between having to have a job beside music to pay rent, or live off music, have more time to be creative, the same way people live off their job (not rich, but enough to live as us the common mortal). And thirdly, for US the public, it gives us globally much betetr chance to hear other music that the "promoter" RIAA might not give a chance to because their marketing say them they won't recoup their cost.
It is a win for the artist, a win for the public, and even a win for the RIAA in case the artist don't want to promote itself, so that can see whoever is "catching up", even if they can't propose them a "bad contract" and remove the skin from the artist, they will have to propose a better one, but OTOH they know in advance what they buy. It is a win for everybody really.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
100% in fact – it's the duty of the corporation to do their absolute best to make money for their investors.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/lp-and-extras/
I would expect the same in a few months for any iBooks thing.
If that were the case, once Apple were confident in their tech specs, surely they'd allow users of other operating systems to create apps for iOS?
There's no "allow" here, as in Apple acting as the bully keeping you out of its tree fort. Apple would have to significantly increase its development investment in the iOS development tool chain to maintain and QA ports for other desktop platforms. That's money directly diverted from enhancements to the toolchain and to iOS itself. The return on that investment is doubtful at best, and the lost opportunity cost is damning. Personally, I can't foresee any market for this that would justify the ongoing costs.
Haha, this is the absolute perfect example of misinformation about apple. Who cares about the fact that m4a is actually the MPEG standard designed to succeed the MPEG standard ac3, which itself was designed to take over from the MPEG standard mp3.
No, instead we need to have a good bash at apple for trying to get "their" standard through over all others.
Your own post starts:
Apple has been going full-on evil lately with a vision for the future that makes even MS's most dominating days pale
In the face of such epic chicken-little style hype, why would responses not be agressive? Why do you get to be agressive and not expect agressive counter-argument in return?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
50/50 I reckon.
Not surprised, just wondering why both sides seem to be made up of people incapable of having a civil discussion.
As for the moderation -- friend of a friend status means I see it rated as "+5 Troll" -- you're a highly rated troll. So there's that, at least. :)
I have two year old family members who are able to use parts of the iPhone just fine.
And "children's book" is a pretty broad category, going up almost to the teens...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
... Wikipedia (yes, I know, I know) From the criticism of the EPUB format: "One criticism of EPUB is that, while good for text-centric books, it may be unsuitable for publications which require precise layout or specialized formatting, such as a comic book"[1] Comparing this with what the article says that Apple is doing, it sounds like they are trying to deal with this problem. I'm probably wrong, but that's my first impression. Let's just hope that they decide to submit the proposal for an update back to the standards committee.
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
There is also social responsibility.
Social responsibility is good PR, not a legal obligation.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
They fought to acquire the same rights as individuals, they are burdened by the same obligations.
What obligations to corporations in the United States have beyond providing their shareholders with a profit? I ask about US corporations because Apple is one.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
I still see people claiming you can't play MP3s on an iPod.
This is untrue, but the fact that I cannot play my .ogg files on my iPod does not endear me to Apple.
Cue rockbox.
If Apple is consistent with their previous roll outs, they will release this to everyone later, once they have had a chance to debug the code and make it work the way a publisher would want. And it won't be because of the uproar here. Apple does not promise to roll out later since they are prohibited from making certain types of forward looking statements.
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
Come on, every anti-Apple story has a legion of screeching fanboys coming on to defend the company (though not directly, it's usually couched in phrases like "ohh, you're just hating out of hatred"). There's faulty thinking on both sides.
Screeching fanboys or just people who are dubious after so much wolf-crying?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
This might be true if Apple were standard compliant in regard to ePub, which they are not (example here, make sure you read Liz' blog all the way through, she rules!). So, they'd have to fix a few other things before we talk about the new iBooks 1.2 fixed layout specs or them throwing "out unfinished tools and specs" as you say. IOW, there's enough to whine about already (again, check Liz' blog for details!).
OTOH, lots of small publishers are eager to satisfy their clients, but cannot, since Apple chose to keep the new specs under an NDA. Thanks a bunch for that... . And you keep defending that, citing "Apple's support burden" *shakes head* Who are you, an Apple helpdesk guy?
I hope I didn't brain my damage.
Again : As market share approaches total dominance, it is the obligation of the monopoly to provide access to all elements of the niche they control.
If it cannot, or will not, then it must be split into competitive entities which are capable of serving the entire market, or allowing competition to muscle in and serve appropriately. So, from a profit-only perspective, the corporation becomes two or more corporations which, individually, are no longer serving their investor as well as they could have, because they didn't conform to the social obligations their influence dictated.
The problem with the profit-only model is that it condones economic circumstances like monopolies - eliminate the competition, control the market, limit who can participate - all acceptable behaviour under that ethic. This (in America) is ultimately a breach of the open market, which is supposed to be the guiding social force, isn't it? It is inherent that a company which climbs to such market dominance, has to either manage the multitude of facets dependent on that market, or break itself into less-profitable, competing pieces. Either way, at this level of market dominance, there is a social obligation defining its behaviour (you might argue that it is an economic obligation that forces this circumstance, but that can only be argued if you do not subscribe to a "profit-only" ethic - hence, it is primarily a social force).
The profit-only is fine for, say, a highly competitive market niche - a niche lacking a dominating player, but the obligations change as the competition decreases.
People always throw this quote out like it means something, but it doesn't.
Is it the duty for the corporation to do their absolute best to make money for their investors for the next quarter or for the next 10 years?
Do corporations have a duty to do what's best for the investors right now, even if it's going to hurt, or even destroy the market 5 years from now?
The biggest irony? The Turner Diaries aren't available on iBooks :(
I've still not read them, though I hear they are poorly written and deal with some kind of farfetched race war. Still, they seem like a part of pop culture, so I might as well.
Learn about Photography Basics.
And more's the better if it did - AAC is technically a better codec than mp3. Both have patent and licensing issues, but AAC is an open standard as designed from the start. Mp3 was grandfathered in and is more tightly patent controlled by a single company.
It would be better if AAC took over.
Note that Apple does not control or own AAC - it just uses it as its default format.
How do you know it's untrue? Have you looked back over recent Apple posts on slashdot? The wealth of disinformation and just plain wrong data that is touted as "fact" is staggering.
This is not just confined to information about Apple, but all of the "unpopular" entities on slashdot - Google, MS, Sony, Apple, Facebook etc. The genuine issues with these large companies (and they all have them) are drowned out by nonsense wailing, gnashing and frothing from people with an axe to grind and whose only desire is to astroturf.
On the point of .ogg, it would be nice if it was a standard supported format, but the market is just not there (ie, not enough demand). The solution would be to allow you to add third party codecs of your own to the iPod itself, since it seems crazy that you can extend iTunes this way (well, not crazy that you can do it - anything that Quicktime will play, iTunes will play), but you can end up in a situation where iTunes will play a track that you can't sync to your iPod. Any of the current devices running iOS should be ideal for codec extensions.
Making rough beta copies of tools and tech specs available on an equal basis to all publishers would work at least as well (Google tends to do this). And if support burden and focus was the concern, even better would be working with a small set of smaller publisher specialized in the areas most applicable to the new features. Choosing specifically to limit it to provide early access to large publishers is clearly designed to snub the small guys.
Have you been reading the same slashdot as I have?
It's being used as a platform for all kinds of Apple evangelism, any mention of Win Phone 7, Meego or *gasp* Android will launch a flurry of attacks against from Apple evangelists.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Of course, the International Digital Publishing Forum -- the group behind EPUB -- is also working on that problem, in the open, without distributing closed standards to selected parties.
Apple's not trying to fix problems with EPUB; now that they've used the fact that EPUB was a widely accepted to standard with existing tools and support to build iBooks, they are trying to use their current market power to create a breach between their platform and the standard, so that its more expensive for publishers to support both iBooks and compliant EPUB platforms, hoping that their current market power will lead publishers to choose iBooks rather than standard EPUB.
What, the fact that I've seen people on Slashdot claim iPods can't play MP3? Not hardly. People make all sorts of misinformed statements about what you can and can't do with an iPod -- including that it won't play MP3s or that you have to buy your music from the iTunes music store.
First of all, I don't think endearing you to Apple is important. It may not endear them to you, but you're not their market.
You know, the overwhelming majority of people don't know WTF ogg-vorbis is. So, why would Apple build in support? To keep happy the 0.5% of the population who cares?
And, quite frankly, the only time I ever even hear about ogg is when someone is whining that some device doesn't support it. For me, ogg is like GNU Hurd -- nobody really cares except those indignant that nobody else is using it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
mp3.com? didn't that die as fast as Fred Durst's star power?
Fred Durst had star power?
yes, he became invincible for several second
Mp3.com was doing fine until Itunes came along and sided with the RIAA ruining the thriving independent market. It seems they are at it again, siding with big businesses over artists, writers, and consumers.
Mp3.com got into trouble in 2000, when it branched out from offering downloads of independent music made available with the artist's permission to making available music from the major labels without permission (it was trying a new and untested legal theory that if the downloader owned the CD, it was OK for mp3.com to let them download copies it made). It failed at that theory.
This was before iTunes the software or iTunes the store even existed. Mp3.com settled with the record company that had sued it for around $50 million. Then the downturn happened in the tech industry, and they didn't survive that, and were sold. The buyers took them in a different direction. By this time iTunes the software existed. The iTunes store was still a couple years in the future.
Want to try a theory that is consistent with the way time works in this universe?
If they did make it available to everyone right away, people would still be bitching. The complaint would be that Apple is trying to hijack the open ePUB standard with their extensions for fixed layout.
The right way to do this is to implement their proposed system, test it on a few books, fix problems found, and end up with a format that works well for this. Only after it is stable and they have had a chance to see what other ePUB stakeholders think should they open it to everyone.
This is how most progress on standards comes about.
If it were so, they'd be just as "trendy" around the world rather than merely where they spend the most in marketing. That is not the case.
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
I think the predicament for the musician may nevertheless be better than for the writer.
Musicians, except for the Madonna's and the U2's, make very little money off of their album sales (due to the record company's double and triple dipping with recoupable expenses). Donald Passman goes through a line-by-line estimation (see citation) of where the money goes for an act that manages to release a gold album –he concludes that the act (i.e., this is not per person) brings home about $40,000 from the album, after the record label has recouped expenses. Further, the act is signed to several more albums under the same financially dismal relationship (the record company may also choose not to release further albums, leaving the act in a limbo). [See Donald Passman's book "All You Need To Know About The Music Business" for a much more complete explanation].
And yet, we see musicians everywhere, eating caviar in their butler-driven flying mobiles – this is because a sufficiently popular musician can tour and get a much better cut of the venue's revenue and merchandise sales. The industry view is that bands release albums to raise awareness for their tours. This is also why very old, very sad "rockers" tour into their 90s –they make good cash on shows.
I know less about the publishing industry, but my understanding is that there is no make-your-money-on-tour equivalent for writers. There are speaking tours, but these are chiefly to raise awareness (and possibly seduce B&N employees, baristas/ers, other hangers-on), not as a means of raking in cash. Notoriety may bring a writer opportunity (such as writing a column some place where everybody knows which are the really good ascots), but not in the form of further profit on the existing art.
Shock horror, they sell stuff in the markets where they advertise, and don't sell stuff where they don't!
There are a few exceptions to this - namely when the iPhone came out, and people were buying them in the US and selling them overseas for a large markup, and again when the iPad was launched, into markets that Apple wasn't targeting specifically with marketing. Other than that, they advertise in markets where they sell products.
Apple's idea of social responsibility is to put that fraud Algore on their board.
Mod Me Up. You'll make a grown man cry.
It's not the record labels fault that their self indulgent, caviar eating acts want to live like rockstars before they make it. The expenses these beginners rack up are taken out as an advance against profits. Profligacy now, indentured poverty later.
Mod Me Up. You'll make a grown man cry.
Hey, my heart's not bleeding for the "recording artists" –show me a band that's getting paid and I'll show you a band that's getting overpaid.
I'm pointing out that iBooks will have a different effect on indie writers than iTunes has had on indie musicians.
I don't buy Apple gear because I care about their notion of "social responsibility". To be honest, I don't recognize the notion of social responsibility. Instead, I treat society the way society treats the individual: I damn well take what I want.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Again : As market share approaches total dominance, it is the obligation of the monopoly to provide access to all elements of the niche they control.
Prove it.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
I have a book ("Chasing the Runner's High") that's available from a number of venues, one being the iBookstore. The iBookstore has the crappiest presentation of any online bookstore, bar none. You have to use your device to access it - you can't browse on your computer. And you can barely find a book if you know it's there - browsing, even on the iPhone/Pad, is almost useless. Sure you can write a seperate app for your book, but who wants to do that? And even if you do, it gets lost in the mess that's the iTunes app store. Apple might be a player in eReaders, but eBook shoppers go to places that provide a better interface to actually buy books.
Those numbers sound about right. But I can show you literally hundreds of very, very good bands who would happily sell their musical souls for $40k. You get bands like Radiohead who get to give away their music after that, because the studio did the heavy lifting of making them famous, something they couldn't do on their own no matter how good.
The situation with the writers is different. You're right that there's no merch market for the writers, but they don't end up in the same kind of indentured servitude because the expenses aren't quite so high. They're a lot higher than you might expect, what with copy editors and reviewers and such, but those people are less expensive than producers and engineers, and they work on $1k computers rather than in million-dollar studios.
So in the end the writer gets a pretty slim cut (about 10-15%), but the publisher eats most of those (comparatively slim) up-front costs.
*laugh* Dude, you're currently moderated as "insightful and troll". That rocks!
I think that pretty much sums up how polarized things are wrt Apple these days. :-P
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I don't have to. You made the claim concerning the social obligations of American corporations; the burden of proof is on your shoulders.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
How do you know it's untrue?
You misread my post. The idea that you cannot play mp3s on an iPod is untrue.
This is untrue
What, the fact that I've seen people on Slashdot claim iPods can't play MP3?
You misread my post as well. It is untrue that you cannot play an mp3 on an iPod.
You know, the overwhelming majority of people don't know WTF ogg-vorbis is. So, why would Apple build in support? To keep happy the 0.5% of the population who cares?
Software freedom is important whether you care about it or not.
Fixed that for you.
Fandroids hate facts.
seesee www.partinchina.com
Welcome to the /. moderation system. It may not be perfect but it's better then most other systems.
And I too appreciate the irony.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
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