Hair rocker Jon Bon Jovi has slammed Apple boss Steve Jobs, claiming the man is personally responsible with killing the music business. The cause? Digital downloads. Bon Jovi lamented the loss of the magic when discovering music, claiming that digital downloads don’t have the wonderful physical presence that CD case has.
Now that many forms of media are available through digital download, could books receive the same death sentence? In short – no.
When you buy books online, the vast majority of sellers offer the option of a physical copy of the book as well as a digital edition. Physical copies of books are still very popular in the UK and for good reason. The feeling of being able to touch and ‘smell’ a new book still entices the public to part with their cash for hardback and paperbacks.
Also, placing books on a shelf as part of a collection gives people the satisfaction of knowing they have read however many books to their friends. When a companion notices that you have blitzed through ‘A Brief History of Time’, it’s hard not to feel a sense of smugness.
However, it’s not as if digital downloads are killing the books business. Retailers can still prosper by offering .PDF versions of books suitable for mediums such as Amazon’s incredibly popular Kindle. In fact, the more channels that retailers can offer books, the better for consumers.
The iPad is also a good base for reading digitally downloaded novels. Seven per cent of Americans now own a portable tablet so offering editions of books suitable for iPads, Xooms and the variety of other tablets available on the market is a good money-spinner.
While the crudeness of Bon Jovi’s comments may nark music critics everywhere, beneath the incredibly blunt iceberg hides a valid point. However, the same cannot be said of books which, through the plethora of mediums that books can be accessed and the rise of the Kindle and iPad, are now more popular than ever.
