From an OpenBusiness interview with Esther Dyson:
“I expect that business models will change further and it seems likely that the traditional music and book publishing industry, for example, will have to change radically, or die. They have huge investments in marketing and distribution, but that value is eroding rapidly, leaving them with costs that are increasingly hard to cover. The new digital and networked online environment simply does not support big intermediaries; the revenues, moreover, can flow more directly to the artists rather than to the intermediaries. That’s not to say that they can’t perform useful functions in career management, production, editing, marketing and the like—but they can no longer get much of a return on the distribution function that was their mainstay.”
Not that her observations hold that much hope out to authors: “For individuals, depending on what area you look at, you find new ways that content creation is being supported. In some areas we basically see a revival of medieval patronage: You can find a rich guy who likes your work and he supports it. Or you can earn in other areas you create supplemental income based on the attention your content creates. Public reading or performances are such a strategy. Or if you’re on the business side, you can sell consulting services or advice.” Get a sugar daddy, go on the road, or get a job: this is supposed to be inspiring?