Morning reading.
Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite by Paul Arden. One of my favorite books. I picked it up at a shop in Manchester during my last visit. It’ll turn your brain inside out. Which is just what the doctor ordered.

Look inside on Amazon >

Amanda (Binky) Urban - Veteran Talent Agent and Queen Bee of the Literati. Known for her uncanny ability to garner large advances for the writers she represents. Her negotiations for Donna Tart's "The Secret History" set the stage in 1992 at a whopping $450,000. Today, the publishing world is being rocked by a new giant with deeper pockets – Amazon – who could transform the world of books into an author's market.

“Publishing is a quaint little industry based on romance and low profit margins. But now we’re in Amazon’s sights, and they’re going to kill us.” – Anonymous Publishing Industry Insider

Recently, PandoDaily contributor Sarah Lacy posted an email from an anonymous publishing industry insider detailing how Amazon was setting a course that could put major publishers (as we know them now) out of business. It’s a fascinating insight into the future of books, and how a handful of gatekeepers are being traded in for direct access to the talent.

Here’s an abridged version of the email. You can read it in its entirety on PandoDaily.

So Amazon, pretty much since they started selling books, has been selling them for razor thin or zero margin. We sell them books at 50% of the retail price. You’ll notice that popular books are usually selling for more than 50% off. So they’re actually losing money on them. For years Borders and Barnes and Noble maintained that this was unsustainable, but the tactic succeeded in putting Borders out of business, putting BN on the ropes, and destroying hundreds of indie stores. It also lowered customers’ perception of what a book *should* cost…

… Long-term there’s no future in printed books. They’ll be like vinyl: pricey and for collectors only. 95% of people will read digitally. Everybody in publishing knows this but most are in denial about it because moving to becoming a digital company means laying off like 40% of our staffs. And the barriers to entry fall, too. We simply don’t want to think about it.

Amazon is thinking about it, though, and they’re targeting the publishers directly…

… I saw this [redacted] proposal a few weeks back. It was okay–[same redacted author] is an asshole but [redacted] has a certain following and it would probably be a bestseller. Bestseller now means selling 20,000 copies, so I was thinking of offering like [hundreds of thousand] for it. But Amazon had already bid $1 million for it. A similar thing happened with a [redacted] memoir a few months back. Traditional publishers are snickering, “Look at stupid Amazon–overpaying for books!”

But Amazon isn’t stupid. They’re overpaying intentionally to keep advances high (and high advances will bankrupt publishers). And they’re also taking away all the authors who actually move units. They gave Seth Godin really favorable terms on a deal. Only a matter of time before they snag a James Patterson or some other big genre fiction name.

We can’t pay $1 million for books anymore. Amazon could probably afford to lose $20 million/year in their publishing arm just to put the other publishers out of business. I think that’s what they’re trying to do–throw money around in an industry that doesn’t have any, until Amazon becomes not only the only place where you buy books, but the only place that publishes books, too.

So rather than getting a 30% of an ebook (with the other 70% being split between the publisher and author), they’ll be getting a 70% cut (with the other 30% going right to the author). Funny thing is that it’s actually better for authors.

To be honest, publishing is a quaint little industry based on romance and low profit margins. But now we’re in Amazon’s sights, and they’re going to kill us.

Read the full text of the email on PandoDaily >

Purity Ring is a synthesized twosome out of Canada making lush, slightly bizarre music that makes you want to throw a dance party in the woods. I’ve had them on constant rotation at the studio over the past couple months. Here’s the video for their latest single “Belispeak.”

Download “Belispeak” by Purity Ring FREE via Wears the Trousers >

My harp-playing doppelgänger, Active Child

A harp played by a straight dude? Seems like an odd pairing?

Listen close.

That’s the sound of panties dropping.

For all of you that are geeking out over the upcoming Prometheus, you should see what Ridley’s daughter is up to. The movie is called Cracks. It’s basically about a girls school on an island off the coast of England where everything is beautiful and moody – and where a very hot and very disturbed teacher (Eva Green) gets into some creepy, scanadalous biz with her students.

Eva Green in Cracks, a film by Jordan Scott

Recording artist Lykke Li puts extra care into her live performances to make up for what's lost in a digital age.

Examining the love-hate relationship between artists and their computers.
As an artist working in the digital age, you’re supposed to be super psyched that everything has gone do-it-yourself. Want to make a movie? You can now buy a camera (or two), rent some lights and recording equipment (if you’re feeling fancy), and get some software from a friend.

Best case scenario, you’re well on your way to the next showcase piece at SXSW.

Worst case, your friends and parents will have to dedicate 2 hours of their soul to a film that will forever haunt the dusty corners of Vimeo. Either way, booyah! That’s the magic of the Digital Revolution.

The word “Revolution” sounds punk rock. Add “Digital” and it immediately sounds less so.
People hate digital. Let’s be honest. Or at least what it represents. Because in most of our minds, even those that have fully invested their careers into digital pursuits (mine included), we secretly feel like we’ve come to the end of reality, of flesh and blood, of one-offs, of vulnerability, failings, and humanity.

Splicing film in the editing room - A forgotten art? Or happily forgotten?

When was the last time you used the word “digital” in a conversation with a fellow creative person and didn’t feel your womb dry up and die? This is one of the ideas being explored in the movie PressPausePlay, produced by House of Radon, and featured by Wired Magazine (see the video at the bottom of this post).

Wired - How Social Media Fuels Social Unrest - By Bill Wasik

I have a subscription to Wired. And so does Moby. Probably.
If you feel like the last time you heard the name Moby was when you were still on drugs and making poor decisions at after-hours clubs, then you are not alone. Because even Moby gave his digital music career a temporary hiatus. To make tea. Yes, that bottle of Teany Tea you just bought at Whole Foods? That’s Moby’s. When he came back to his music it was mostly to bitch about how the world of good taste had become overrun by regular people thinking they knew how to make dance music on their laptops. He also made a few interview appearances where he said he regretted licensing EVERY song off his Play album, because it made him feel like a sell out.

Poor Moby. (Oxymoron?)

Moby - Play - 1999

That was a decade ago.

Today, if you’re going to be a successful musical act, you’re expected to sell out.
You expect it of yourself. When Santigold came out with her debut album in 2008, she followed the Moby model and leveraged every track to the hilt. And that was success. Or was it? Where is she now, just a couple years later?

Santigold dropped her album and immediately started doing ads for Converse

The fact is, no one has the answer for digital.
The best we can do is call it a Revolution, and state, as they do in PressPausePlay, that this is the most epic time to be alive and creative. That past generations never had it so good. Maybe they’re right. Maybe hindsight will be twenty-twenty. All I know is that I just hung out with my Mom, who was alive for the Sixties and Seventies and saw her own share of revolutions. She said something that got inside me, way down deep. She said, “When I look at the world today and how fast everything is happening, I think this is a good time to be old. I’m glad I don’t have to do it.”

Do what? This. This way of life that has all of us doing a million things at once, just to get by. Let alone be seen or heard. But that’s just the one side of it. That’s the dark side. And everything has a dark side. Honestly, it’s sometimes the easiest thing to see.

But here’s where things take a brighter turn.
When I go to a playlist on my iPod and hit Play, I notice something. The songs that come up weren’t produced by a major record label, but rather by the artists themselves who were probably working in a room, much like the one I’m in now. All by themselves, spinning straw into gold. And when I think back to the music that was actually made by all of those record companies, back in “the good old days,” I remind myself that most of it was awful. Because back then, records were a commodity. They were tied to corporations and sales figures and test markets. Today, you could argue that there isn’t any market for music. But then there aren’t any test markets either. And so what you get is something fresh and raw coming from the most unlikely of places.

A computer.

Watch PressPausePlay in its entirety below.
Make some popcorn and snuggle up on the couch. It’s the most interesting (and important) thing you’ll watch all week.