Film producer Robert Cort writes "Straight To DVD" in an Op-End piece in the New York Times. This is digital video, not music, but reflects the same mindset about technology and new distribution channels.

Mark Cuban has been advocating collapsed launch windows for years and invested part of his fortune in film production and movie theaters to make it happen. So this article is hardly novel. But I love it when Hollywood insiders break the silence and speak the truth.

Here are a few choice excerpts from the piece:

During my three decades in the industry, I've seen film executives try to shun every innovation from VCR's to digital editing. Ultimately, they've accepted and profited from these new technologies but, by waiting years longer than they should have, left a lot of money on the table. And now studios are committing a far costlier error by refusing to release DVD's and downloads of movies at the same time they make their premieres in theaters. ...

To paraphrase William Goldman, no one in Hollywood seems to learn anything. ...

Exclusive theatrical releases also expose the studios to huge losses from piracy, which has already damaged the music business. A study by the Motion Picture Association of America this week revealed that piracy was nearly double what the studios had estimated - costing Hollywood more than $6 billion a year. The major factor contributing to this piracy is that consumers know they can have content immediately, but are being denied it by the industry; hence a black market has inevitably sprung up. ...

The problem for the rest of us is that a monopoly like this one, without any underlying economic rationale, distorts the marketplace and hurts consumers. It will not hold in the face of democratizing technology.