Speaking to RTE Ten, American Beauty/The Usual Suspects actor Kevin Spacey commented on the difficulties of working in the entertainment business. With a TV series, House of Cards, listed on his portfolio of work, and well over fifty films, the actor knows a thing or two about longevity in the business it's fair to assume.
Speaking on the downfall of music sales and the survival of TV, Spacey noted that TV 'learned the lesson the music industry didn't learn' in its production of new content. Whereas the music industry is in a worrying financial state due to the progression of technology that has enabled millions of people to download for free, TV still has a big enoguh market that will pay for new content on sites such as Netflix.
Spacey believes TV's clever strategy of setting in place a system of access that people find more agreeable than the old pre-internet system is what saved series such as his. He stated' I always believed [and] have been talking about it for about eight years, that we were eventually going to see one of these companies that was making a tremendous amount of money as a portal for content, waiting to eventually get into providing the content and being a part of the story telling process.So it didn't surprise me, I was incredibly pleased that Netflix was the first, they have been tremendous partners, and I think in some ways maybe this proves that the way in which an audience has been able to find the series, that we have learned the lesson the music industry didn't learn.'
Summing up his feelings towards the music industry versus TV, he added 'give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in at a reasonable price and they will buy it and they won’t steal it.' Touche Spacey, you know how to serve it to the losing team. The second series of House of Cards is currently in production, with the first available for streaming on Netflix.
