What is most worrying is not the future of music, literature or cinema, but rather the future of listeners, readers and spectators
I have always thought that countries should measure themselves by the scale of their intellectual tradition. For example, a worthy goal for a nation is to find itself in the ’Culture’ pages of a newspaper rather than the ‘Economy’ . However, the fact is that the economy grips us ever more, like an uncomfortable scarf four sizes too small, while the culture industry confronts an apparently endless collapse. But, what is the worrying thing about this collapse? Is it the data they shower us with on precipitate falls in disc, film and book sales or news of the closure of big publishers? No, I do not think so.
[This research paper has been reproduced with permission of the authors, professors of IE Business School, Spain http://www.ie.edu/]