[x0x0]

On what basis do you believe as content distribution technology improves, the percentage given to content creators will increase? This is in direct contrast to historical examples such as monopolies and amazon clearly wants to become a near-monopoly; further, even if the percentage increases, if the absolute amounts fall the content creators still end up worse off. See eg recent articles on HN about the economics of movies being damaged by the move from dvd purchase to $4 or $5 digital rentals.

[klodolph]

Go read that article again. That article talks about how content creators needed a ~10% profit margin to survive. The introduction of DVDs meant that half of that profit moved into long-term DVD sales, so studios decreased short-term margins and made bets on long term gains. When digital distribution took profits from DVDs, content creators were suddenly running at ~5% margins because the long-term bet had flopped. Or, in summary, we are in the middle of a market correction.

I don't know much about the movie business, and I'm not sure about my predictions. But I wouldn't want to draw conclusions by narrowing my focus to big-budget Hollywood movies with traditional distribution models, especially if the newer content distribution technologies are disrupting that model.

I also wasn't trying to make a statement about absolute amounts.