One of the great advantages of being a journalist is that people send you interesting information all the time. Recently, I was contacted about doing a story on a company who builds speakers--you know, those things you hook up to your stereo or iPod.

The nut of the pitch was that the speaker industry is a huge, $10 billion industry. Interestingly, that's pretty close to what the videogame industry reported as it's North American gross for 2004.

Why does this matter?

I've been on a kick lately thinking about the business aspects of the game industry. We can talk about whether or not games are art, but whatever else they may be, they are largely a commercial product at this point.

Noticing that the industry is only about the size of the speaker industry is a little sobering. But, at the same time, it points to the relatively disproportionate cultural influence games have. Yes, people spend as much on speakers as they do on videogames. But I don't hear much about how high fidelity sound is going to change the world we live in.