This is a little off topic, but it’s something that’s been driving me nuts the last couple of months. The digital media market has been rapidly evolving over the past decade, and forces de resistance have been scrambling to find ways to adapt. The RIAA played the role of the bully enforcer by suing kids over downloaded music. The newspaper industry is attempting to wall off its content from non-subscribers and Google! TV shows are trying week-long delayed releases on sites like Hulu. And most recently, this post by Gizmodo states that Simon and Schuster plans on delaying the availability of e-books by four months.

What has happened over the last decade with digital media is that the market has stood up against the industry giants and said, “We’re tired of you dictating the terms of how we consume your products!” We live in a market economy, and when high demand meets resistance or unruly terms, consumers turn to the underground economy — the black market. This means the TV shows that could be earning revenue of Hulu are going to be sought out via torrents or streaming sites. Media moguls need to come back down to earth and talk 1-on-1 with the market they serve. If they are going to survive, they need to come to an agreeable understanding. The more time they waste resisting, the more likely somebody else is going to research and develop tomorrows new media delivery medium.

We consumed your media at your prices and on your terms in the past because we had no alternatives. You built your empires, bought your multimillion dollar homes, private jets, and other luxuries at our expense. Well, times have changed. The market has changed. Stop looking backwards to the “good ol’ days”, and look into the future. Start by looking at the now. Downscale your empires, reevaluate your business plans and models, and innovate for a prosperous tomorrow. If you don’t, and you keep resisting, you will only find yourself in a hole that you dug as a means to entrench yourself.