Investing in Music vs Investing in Art

Now, this is all from the consumers' point of view. I came across this article today - "Your guide to investing in art." At one point in time, I compared 'listening to music over and over again' and 'reading a story over and again'. Such comparing tendencies readily brought in music here and got me comparing investment in music vis-a-vis investment in art.

Now, I must say I'm such a novice, for whenever I think of the "high costs" of art, it never striked me that people buy it to resell too. Of course, when I read this article, it doesn't come as a surprise that people do that - resale of the art-piece they buy! It is so costly, after all. But, what was indeed surprising was that the investment in art can bring such high returns. Well, I don't belong to that league (not so rich!) of investing in art, so that's not too important for me.

Now, let's come to the comparison part! When it comes to music, it is not that costly. It is costly to produce it, of course, but it is distributed to so many people that the end-price is very affordable. People invest in music, solely for the purpose of enjoying it! Now, they invest their time and spirit, not their money, in music. When it comes to art, it doesn't reach so many people. Most of the (popular/precious) art-pieces do not have copies, they are unique pieces and hence reach a single consumer. Now, that consumer is not the end of the consumer chain. He/She can preserve the art-piece methodically and when they want to, they can become an intermediary and sell it to the next in the chain. In case of music, the consumer after purchasing music, is the end of the chain, they don't need to become intermediaries (not talking about the music retailers here) as the music is available first-hand to the rest of the audience anyway.

Even if people re-sell some DVDs, the resale value only deteriorates and would never appreciate. I think the advent of Internet has hit music considerably, but did not hit art as much! Of course, the comparison can be done from many other angles, but I leave that all to the creativity of the reader.