The Digital Revolution and the Conflict between Elders and Contemporaries in Cultural Industries

Arts markets are subject to frequent upheavals triggered by the emergence of innovations. These innovations can be aesthetic – for example, contemporary art versus classical art, contemporary dance versus classical dance, traditional circus versus new circus, nouvelle cuisine versus gourmet cuisine and so on. They can also be technological. In a Schumpeterian process of creative destruction, new technologies give rise to new enterprises and new business models that existing actors either resist or adapt to. In the 19th century, photography caused a radical transformation in the market for paintings. Later, the advent of television called into question the organization of the movie industry. Today, the digital revolution is having a similar transformative effect on all the cultural industries simultaneously