Digital Disruption in Music & Publishing

• In October 2018, Caracol Radio terminated Diana Uribe's contract, effective in one week.
• Uribe was a well-known cultural radio broadcaster and entrepreneur known for her radio show, Historia del Mundo.
• Outside of radio, Uribe was a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and cultural travel guide.
• Uribe's popularity stemmed from her progressive views and conversational style.
• Historia del Mundo was Uribe's main source of revenue.
• The termination prompted her to consider alternative options, such as moving to podcasts.

The Market for Cultural Goods and Services

• UNESCO defines cultural and creative industries as sectors involved in the production, promotion, distribution, and commercialization of cultural, artistic, or heritage-related goods, services, and activities.
• UNESCO recognizes that output from cultural industries are subject to intellectual property rights.
• Cultural industries include publishing, music, television, radio, and the arts.
• Approaching cultural activities from an economic perspective is recent; official measurements are lacking or not standardized.
• Cultural industries are growing, with digital content achieving double-digit annual growth rates from 2002 to 2011.
• Digital content led pack worldwide, with volume growth rates estimated above 58 per cent for 2019.
• The Internet is central for storing, sharing, and trading cultural content as consumer habits shift towards digital devices, social media, and cloud-based subscription services.
• Key challenges were the perception of culture as a free good, digital disruption, and piracy.
• Most countries support cultural goods and services to ensure access for low-income households, protect cultural minorities, or preserve national heritage.
• Public intervention led to the perception that culture should be available for free.
• The music industry is a well-documented case of digital disruption.
• The publishing industry adapted to digital disruption by adding digital products and services like e-books and digital audiobooks.
• Digital disruption led to a drop in sales, prompting creators to connect directly with audiences and cut out middlemen.
• Radiohead released their self-produced album in 2007, allowing fans to download it for free or pay what they wished.
• Self-publishing became a way for new authors to ensure faster publication and obtain a greater cut on sales.
• David Byrne stated that free streaming was unsustainable for supporting creative work.
• Other artists saw free streaming as a platform for showcasing new work or as an additional revenue source.
• Piracy puts severe pressures on the price of legitimate products.
• Piracy includes illegal downloading, file sharing or streaming, and recordable compact discs or industrial piracy.
• Internet piracy harmed the revenue-generation potential of digital content.
• Products affected by Internet piracy include movies, television shows, music, and books.
• In 2012, one in four Internet users accessed music illegally.
• Governments acted to enforce IP laws and reduce piracy, with streaming and on-demand models as the best solution.
• New normal appeared to be consumers being less willing to pay for everyday consumption of freely available content, and consumers shared for free via Creative Commons licenses.
• Creators were redefining their sources of revenue by focusing more on live concerts, merchandising, and deluxe editions around their brands.

The Regional Market

• Latin American demand for cultural goods/services seemed to be flourishing, fuelled by Internet and mobile penetration and a rise of younger individuals "starving for local content, in high-quality formats and in real time".
• Local digital content providers were thriving with innovative business models based on free content.
• Improvements in concert infrastructure and living standards made international rock acts tour the region more frequently.
• Industrial and Internet piracy were rampant.
• In 2018, Colombia enhanced IP laws for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, but the US government downgraded the country to its Priority Watch List for copyright.
• Market information for the country and the region was limited; existing studies about software piracy suggested that piracy rates ranged from 50 to 55 per cent.
• Focus on alternative revenue streams worked in the developed world, but prospects were less clear in the Latin American market.
• Lower income meant the market segment willing to pay for expensive cultural goods was significantly smaller in Latin America.

Diana Uribe, The World History Storyteller

• Uribe graduated with a philosophy degree from Universidad de Los Andes.
• While her work encountered criticism by historians, it was highly valued by others.
• She was awarded the International Simón Bolívar Prize in 2002 and Gusi Peace Prize in 2011.
• Uribe was grateful for the opportunity her work gave her to democratize world history and contribute to a more educated Colombian society.

Diana Uribe, The Cultural Entrepreneur

• The popularity of the radio show became the launching platform for Uribe's entrepreneurial work, following her passions around world history, world cultures, and peace-building efforts around the globe.
• Spanned formats used in the cultural industries and blended several market categories.
• Books contained audio tracks narrated by Uribe and published by Penguin Random House.
• Uribe activities included cultural travel guide and sought after speaker.
• Uribe worked with a historian, a business graduate, and a graphic designer.

Web and Social Media Presence

• To support her entrepreneurial activities, Uribe had a website as well as a presence on several social media platforms.
• Uribe launched a crowdfunding campaign to get the website up and running.
• Money was hard to come by; public funds for interdisciplinary work in the cultural industries were almost non-existent, and private sponsors were interested in Uribe as a person, not in the website.
• With no additional money and no formal job structures to support work on new content, the team gradually reduced website responsibilities.

Piracy

• Uribe's work was constantly threatened by piracy due to the extensive posting by third parties of complete audiobooks and radio shows on unauthorized YouTube channels.
• Her team decided to strengthen Uribe's social media presence to grow her follower base.

Entering the Podcast Era?

• Caracol Radio unilaterally terminated Uribe's contract in October 2018.
• Launching her own podcast seemed obvious, but it wasn't clear a podcast could replace the radio.
• Laura Rojas explained podcasts merged radio and internet.
• In 2017, Norway shutdown FM radio becoming first to transition to digital.
• Rojas thought that Colombia could draw three key takeaways from the booming American podcast market.
• First, revenue generation could not be treated as an afterthought; it needed careful planning.
• Second, audience building and maintenance was the single most important thing that any podcaster should care about.
• Third, quality mattered.
• Podcast revenue streams are advertising, institutional sponsorships, and crowdsourced patronage through platforms such as Patreon.
• Rojas and Uribe sketched what the operating structure would look like if Uribe were to launch podcast.
• The first step includes a setting up a website, choosing a podcast host, and listing the podcast on the Apple Podcasts library.
• Content production with a historian and professional editor were also necessary.
• The third and final step would be to disseminate finalized podcasts.
• Uribe thought she could aim to produce one podcast episode per week.
• Rojas also provided Uribe with a few benchmarks concerning podcast advertising in the local market.
• Uribe's radio shows had ranked among the most popular podcasts in Colombia on the Apple Podcasts list.
• Uribe already enjoyed a large listenership, which she could draw on if she decided to create new independent podcast content
• Colombias podcast market still in it infancy stage
• Uncertain about securing enough revenue, Uribe considered radio and podcasting.

Explore digital disruption's impact on music and publishing. Discover how industries adapted through self-publishing and streaming. Evaluate creator compensation and new narrative styles.