The strong progression of social networks will speed up the progressive disappearance of the «old media» model, based on total control of the value chain by old world companies, including copyright. This model is the perfect example of a type of consumer lobbying to whom sales and marketing methods are imposed, and which don’t have anything to do with content suppliers, or artists’ talent and creativity.
In this diagram, I’m showing that a great revolution will take place in the media’s value chain. Consumers are about to take control of the medias they use, not only as active spectators, but also as a talent scouts, producers or distributors.
In the same way, copyright systems will evolve drastically. Artists will be able to choose whether to distribute their music under a Creative Commons distribution license, which allows them to keep their rights over their productions, while allowing the public to listen, download, copy and distribute them.
This consumer and creator incursion into the old economic model’s value chain will deeply change the media world. And it’s highly probable that News Corp’s strategic move will be followed by many others.
Rupert Murdoch built his media empire, News Corp, the old-fashioned way… by vertically and horizontally integrating deep and wide into the layers of the media industry (e.g. from production to distribution). But with his acquisition of MySpace, Murdoch has gone down a new path… a new dimension of strategic corporate development that I like to call “social integration”. Robert Young – Link
