Digital Renaissance: What Data and Economics Tell Us about the Future of Popular Culture

How digital technology is upending the traditional creative industries - and why that’s a good thing

The digital revolution poses a mortal threat to the major creative industries - music, publishing, television, and film. Cheap, easy self-producing is eroding the position of the gatekeepers and guardians of culture. Does this revolution herald the collapse of culture, as some commentators claim? Far from it.

In Digital Renaissance, Joel Waldfogel argues that digital technology is enabling a new golden age of popular culture - a digital renaissance. Analysing decades of production and sales data, as well as bestseller and best-of lists, Waldfogel finds that the new digital model is just as powerful at generating high-quality, successful work as the old industry model, and in many cases more so.

‘Digital Renaissance should be consulted by any regulator or legislator being solicited by a forlorn media mogul looking to protect a traditional business from disruptive market forces.’ - Jonathan A. Knee, New York Times

‘Compelling…Waldfogel’s book offers reassurance to those who fear that the new regime of ones and zeros is undermining cultural production. But his assessment will be far less comforting to denizens of the traditional cultural-industrial complex.’ - Daniel Akst, Strategy+Business

‘[Waldfogel] argues that we not only have more reading, viewing and listening material than ever before, but it’s better. And he’s got data to back that up.’ - Amanda Gomez, Reuters Breakingviews