This Georgetown talk is now on-line; the entire talk is structured around commentary on the economics behind particular musical tracks, including Desmond Dekker, Tarika, some doo-wop, and other favorites of mine.
Tyler Cowen lecturing on globalization and music
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Tyler, have you ever thought of doing video blogging? What are your thoughts on that form?
Towards the end of the Q&A you describe how the production of music and films is also globalized.
In films, you suggest that production is a decentralized. The writer, the director, the actors and all the other production staff come from all over the world and they all belong –perhaps– to different organizations. The actual production of the movie, the distribution, merchandising, PR and adverstising are all done by different players and companies. Even the financing is done by American banks, foreign banks, international funding institutes (e.g. country X would subsidize a film that plays in country X or uses country X’s actors or production staff).
Given this decentralized value chain, how come Hollywood still commands such a high share of the big-budget films. If everything can be contracted, why is production so concentrated? Where is the scale in having all the studios in one neighbourhood? In other words, what is the value added by Hollywood studios that nobody else can add?
Tyler, you need an iPod. It would have made your presentation so much easier to just forward and have the songs lined up in a playlist.
By the way, these type of presentations are why I don’t watch television anymore. Well, I rarely watch television.
What an interesting presentation.
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