Creative Industries: Contracts Between Art and Commerce

by Richard E. Caves

Book Overview

This book explores the organization of creative industries, including the visual and performing arts, movies, theater, sound recordings, and book publishing. In each, artistic inputs are combined with other, "humdrum" inputs. But the deals that bring these inputs together are inherently problematic: artists have strong views; the muse whispers erratically; and consumer approval remains highly uncertain until all costs have been incurred.

To assemble, distribute, and store creative products, business firms are organized, some employing creative personnel on long-term contracts, others dealing with them as outside contractors; agents emerge as intermediaries, negotiating contracts and matching creative talents with employers. Firms in creative industries are either small-scale pickers that concentrate on the selection and development of new creative talents or large-scale promoters that undertake the packaging and widespread distribution of established creative goods. In some activities, such as the performing arts, creative ventures facing high fixed costs turn to nonprofit firms.

To explain the logic of these arrangements, the author draws on the analytical resources of industrial economics and the theory of contracts. He addresses the winner-take-all character of many creative activities that brings wealth and renown to some artists while dooming others to frustration; why the "option" form of contract is so prevalent; and why even savvy producers get sucked into making "ten-ton turkeys," such as Heaven's Gate. However different their superficial organization and aesthetic properties, whether high or low in cultural ranking, creative industries share the same underlying organizational logic.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674008081
• ISBN13: 9780674008083
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The underlying economic principles for many industries

Dozens of books on entertainment industries come out every year, but only few survive the test of time. This is one of them, and not precisely for the encyclopedic amount of information and references it presents (you can actually get many more references by sending an email to the author), or for its practical value --which in my opinion is high. The value of this book boils down to its elegant treatment of the economic logic behind seemingly unrelated businesses like moviemaking or ballet. The chapter on contracts for creative products is truly illuminating. The author provides upfront the seven basic economic principles that affect all creative industries: 1. Demand is uncertain 2. Creative workers care about their product 3. Some creative products require diverse skills 4. Differentiated products. 5, 6, 7: read them yourself. While everybody in the entertainment world might have their own list, this one is written and carefully developed by Richard Caves. The format might be intimidating to some (e.g., no pictures, no tables, no flashy stuff), so don't buy it if you are not willing to invest a little time and brains to profit from the author's reasoning.