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CULTURAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAM University of Barcelona
CULTURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP Digital business models
In the 90's there was a quantum leap even more important than the previous,
and it is what we could call the system of digital communication.
And this system of digital communication had several impacts:
first, in any screen we can have all messages
in all means of communication of human beings:
be it oral communication, written communication, audiovisual communication,
with images, dynamic images, etc.
As a result, this change in the system of communication results in what I call metaculture.
Metaculture is the amalgam of all cultural means in what we call the net.
The digital system or digitalization will bring about
on one side, culture democratization, an easy access to cultural goods,
which I am sure that, as time goes by, it will become a bigger wealth source,
compared with what the field of cultural industries has had up to now.
When we talk about cultural industry, we are mostly talking about the digital world.
It is an unavoidable path and, if someone thinks about the future without thinking
that there will be a vertiginous increase in the field of social communication, is wrong.
Regarding distribution, there will be a concentration in big companies,
something similar to those majors which existed for many ages,
and the digital distribution will be done from some few platforms.
The music field, for instance, was the first to suffer the digital scourge,
and it has been really difficult to find new business models.
The point is, basically, knowing how to use digital media to make it profitable for cultural industries.
That is, the music industry is undergoing a crisis, because the world evolved faster.
The newspaper industry is undergoing a crisis because the world evolved faster.
Therefore, we think that there is a chance to accelerate the change in many fields
which did not follow the pace of developments.
Nowadays, due to crisis, there is people who think that some actions should be done
to keep the status quo, but this means they do not understand reality.
The truth is that things have changed and models should be different.
Initially, the publishing field considers the digital environment as a threat,
but in the Frankfurt fair was very obvious that almost all publishers
are developing their own platforms of book acquisition for digital distribution.
And that is not a simple business niche, is like a motorway.
I think that, now, the cultural field is using it shyly in a promotional level
to try it, to know that it is a tool which should be introduced sooner than later.
But, for the moment, the traditional field is using it very shyly.
This global reach has an impressive power
and even if it only was to use it as a marketing channel,
which I think would be a waste, but it is there, the marketing power is indisputable,
and only because of this I think that we must be in the net, in an active or proactive way.
And the creative fields are introducing more and more
different digital aspects in their creation tools.
In theatre, cutting edge technology is being used more and more,
but it is being used as a means and not as a purpose, and this is the way I think it should be.
And the case is the same in the musical field.
And it is true that there are visual and audiovisual fields
which are emerging more in the use of technology or digitalization
as a purpose or creation process to reach the final result instead of using it as a tool.
In art and visual field, the creation through the net, the so called net.art,
has already existed for many years, and it also has chances of being
a business way or, at least, of generation of incomes for artists and art galleries, etc.
In the analogical world you also had to retrain,
and at that time you had to update the expensive production tools.
Obviously, training is expensive, but probably not as expensive
as buying a new machine to make books or records.
I think training is not a handicap, is an obligation of people
and even more of those who are working in the cultural sector and have to be trained and train.
We are not reluctant, but it is true that changes come really fast,
and something you are using today, one year ago was inconceivable,
and probably in one year you will have a much more powerful tool.
Which might be reason? The changes cultural process has undergone,
in my opinion, basically, the impact of science in popular culture,
and if we talk about the great changes in the communication methods,
the use of social networks.
Both things together will be the cause that in some years we will not identify the protagonists,
nor the field, nor the message of what we understand today as industrial culture.