FutureBook: "People love shelf space"

03.12.09 Catherine Neilan in The Bookseller

The digital revolution presents a career opportunity for publishers, delegates at The Bookseller's Digital Conference FutureBook heard. But it could still be some time before digital sales reach a tipping point.

Jason Dunne (pictured), digital consultant, said that what was evident about the developing electronic market was that "people love shelf space". He said: "There are those in industry who think the book will always be with us and there are those who are not so sure. People love books, but they also loved vinyl, and soon chucked that out when CDs came out—and soon chucked those out when MP3s came along."

However, rather than fretting over what could be lost, Dunne said the move towards digital content could be "the largest opportunity of our careers".

But keynote speaker Ben Drury, chief executive and founder of music and video download company 7Digital, said it could still be some time before digital publishing reached a tipping point. He said in the UK, downloads still only made up 15% of album sales, while in the US it was roughly 30%.

"One reason for this is gifting," he said. "When it comes to Christmas, downloads don't do that well, because they are not great for gifting." Drury added there could be "a parallel with books there".
DRM could also be a problem for the books industry as it had been for music, because it leaves the industry "trying to sell something that was inferior" in both usability and quality.

However, Drury also highlighted the different problems faced by the two industries. "[Publishers] don't have to worry about people buying chapters, whereas the music industry has shifted towards people buying individual tracks. Previously the market was selling bundles of tracks for a high margin, but that changed with downloads. I suspect it won't happen in books."