Path / Boulder, CO

There are many parallels in the changing business models in photography and music. Changes in technology have fundamentally changed the way people interact with photography and music, changed people’s expectations and perspectives on paying for photographs and music, thrown out existing business models and turned companies and industries into disarray.

The fundamental shift has been the democratization of the tools to create share, promote and distribute content. The tools are no longer available only to the rich, the connected, the judges or connoisseurs of taste: available and open to all, we now have the opportunity to create ourselves, distribute ourselves, and rate and rank by ourselves. Eliminating the opaqueness of the process has spread the opportunity to the masses and increased participation and interest. (1)

This new transparency has completely changed people’s perspectives on owning, storing, consuming and creating content, and thus have re-examined the traditional model of paying for content. Although we assume we should pay for value, our expectations of what we are paying for has completely changed, impacting the ways we expect to pay, how content should be delivered, and how much we should have to pay.

It has been a tough shift for many, and it’s not over. Consumers have moved faster than companies, who are beholden to old models, clinging to old relationships, old expectations, old business models. The different rates of change has caused substantial conflict between consumers and providers: think Napster, RIAA, DRM, lawsuits, copyrights, microstock, agencies, Flickr, iStockphoto, JPG Magazine, Jen Bekman Gallery, Lulu, even Etsy and Threadless.

I think musicians have adapted faster than photographers. Read the news: Madonna, Jay-Z, Radiohead, Trent Reznor, Live Nation, all examples of people and companies that have begun to test and profit from these fundamental changes. There are some great thinkers and doers out there exploring the possibilities for music business models, read this Fred Wilson post for his thoughts on the need for a new platform for distributing and monetizing music. Music labels and publishers have proven to be ineffective middlemen in the new technology age, and someone / something new needs to fill that role.

Who is leading the way in photography? Some might argue the platform is already there: the stock agencies. The stock agencies offer that platform to find and distribute content, enforce a set of copyright and fair-use laws, and collect and distribute payment to photographers. In many ways, they have adopted to the changing rules and expectations better than the music labels, with the microstock agencies directly addressing the changing expectations of price and quality of published images.

But while musicians have pushed the edge in the music industry, we have yet to see photographers take advantage and truly test this new world. What should they do, and how should they do it? And who will show them the way?

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My newest photography project will give some insight into one way I think photographers can change. I’m looking forward to getting it launched as much as you are.

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(1) Inspired by Umair Haque