Heald conducted his research using a software program to grab a random selection of book titles off Amazon. It is similar to what I am trying to do with the Folkways Folk Music Collection, but of course is much more thorough and efficient. From the data he collected he had some very telling, quantifiable results. Some of the striking statistics include there being as many books in print from 1910 as from 2000, as well as the number of books in print from the 1850s being twice as big as the number of books in prints from the 1950s. As these results are contrary to the standard assumption that the number of books in print should steadily decline moving back from present time (due to less market demand as material ages), there is a red flag that something might be wrong with the copyright system.
As we can see in the graph above, the hardest hit time period appears to be between 1940 and 1980, approximately the same period I am using as my window for Folk music. Since copyright was introduced in 1923, mid-century media (books, music) has become virtually obsolete. Digitization seems like it will be able to protect media released in the time since the technological revolution, as almost all music and many books are now released and stored online. But that doesn't bode well for the mid-century material which has yet to come of age and fall into public domain with the expiration of its copyrights.
There are also differences in books and music which should be noted. It seems that as time goes on the market for books (printed or e-format) is in decline. People aren't reading nearly as much any more, a trend which can be seen in the decline of print newspapers, the end of Border's, and the current struggle of Barnes & Noble to stay afloat. The music industry, though not as profitable in song by song or album by album sales, is still as popular if not more so than ever before. This can be seen in the number of new start-ups related to music sharing, filing, and listening. There is still a music market, and still a broad range of taste. Therefore when thinking about the effects of copyright, the losses resulting from inaccessible music may be even greater than those of the inaccessible books. The size of the present day music market, with the addition of laptops, tablets, smart phones and other devices, if much larger than it was at the time of release of many of the songs I am looking at.
It seems as though in the print industry and the music industry, publishers and labels play parallel roles. I found it interesting that in the article, publishers were said to be the ones keeping the mid-century books off the market because they weren't profitable with the copyright attached. From the data I've collected so far, it seems to be much the same story in the music industry with labels not digitizing music and releasing it on streaming sites possibly because with copyright the costs outweigh the benefits, potential revenues.
I plan on looking more in depth at copyright as the semester progresses and will be using Heald's work as a point of reference for my continued research.
Your not quite getting the full story here because you haven't discussed the nature of inventory costs with print books. Here is still one more thing to read that might give you a better idea of the issues.
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