I think we are at a very unique point in culture. We used to pay the gatekeeper (huge publishing houses and studios) who were controlling the market. The internet made the rebellion against these gatekeepers easy with torrenting, instant downloads, "free" everything. Now we are swinging back and seeing that rebellion slowly subside as more and more creatives are marketing and selling their own media. The creators have more control and the consumers are open to paying for the amazing things people create. However, our spoiled little asses still want that media to be as quickly and easily consumable as possible. I am more likely to buy and ebook than buy a real book. I haven't purchases a DVD or even Redbox DVD in years. I want to download my music and have it on all my personal devices whenever I want.

What the large movie studios are failing to recognize is that if you want people to buy it, it has to be on the consumers terms. We want it now and we want it without the bullshit - the DRM, the bloated media player, etc. The money is no longer the thing holding consumers back, it is the ease and accessibility. If it is easier for me to type "tpb movie" and fuck around on Hubski for an hour as it downloads then that is what I am going to do. Netflix has done an astounding job at accomplishing this. Their player on the computer is in your browser using the simplest add-on tech possible. You can get it on your phone, tablet, ps3, wii, xbox, smarttv and any semi-recent DVD player. It is easier to open Netflix than to download a movie and that is the reason for it's success.

Books are the next arena that we will see the shift. Amazon is a great marketplace and their one click buy is easy. iBooks (never used it) probably does the same. But there needs to be something more like Netflix or Spotify or Pandora for books. When that happens, then that arena will be more set and we will see an increase is consumption and discovery of new media. That will trickle down from the big publishing houses to the little guys and the long tail, just like we have seen in the music environment.

Amazon/Apple iBooks/etc are still viewed differently because (1) they are seen as a more traditional media source and (2) you still have to make the decision to pay for each and every thing you want to buy. There is no serendipity or freedom like the Netflix model. And it isn't new. People love new. Netflix was new. It was fresh. It was reinventing the realm of watching movies. We need that for books.