View Single Post
Old 03-19-2010, 12:22 PM   #27 (permalink)
Wes Mantooth
Junkie
 
Wes Mantooth's Avatar
 
Location: Tennessee
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martian View Post
What's interesting is the studies that show that the folks who download the most are the ones who typically spend the most on music, movies or other forms of entertainment. I'll see if I can dig some up, but the bottom line is that people who like to collect movies or music are going to do so through whatever avenues are available to them.

The problem with all the rhetoric about intellectual property and rights and theft and so on is that in my mind it fails to address reality. Saying that it will devalue the product is behind the times -- it already has devalued the product. The perceived value on all sorts of media is through the floor right now. When people can get stuff for free online in minutes and can carry a year's worth of music in their jacket pocket, the value of any one track drops to the point where it's virtually nonexistant.

What needs to be done, and what the smart content producers are already doing, is to find a way to exist in the new climate. Usually that involves adding value to the product in the form of things that can't be had elsewhere. Going to the cinema is a classic and still valid example, and 3D IMax theatres are even more so. At that point you're capitalizing on the experience as much if not more so than on the actual product.

Tangential revenue streams are another thing, and Charlatan has noted that a lot of independent musicians are making a decent living that way. Give the music away to increase the value of concert tickets, merchandise and so on.

These are not new ideas, by the way -- what we're talking about here is in essence what television has been doing for the last 60 years or so. Give away the content to attract an audience, then find a way to capitalize.

I'm confident these things will be resolved, and in the near future. Finding ways to make money are what these big corporations are good at.
I think this is vaguely what I was trying to say in my above tired, drunken post (lets just say I have a really UGLY dislike for all things music business). Neither industry had done much to keep up with the times or what its customer base really wants. For example the music industry really dropped the ball, they all but ignored the idea of mp3's and downloading until the market pretty much forced them to deal with it all the while ignoring complaints about about terrible albums (filler) and continuing to raise prices on cd's regardless of its promises to lower them. When the tech begin to out pace the product, instead of adapting to it, they fought hammer and nail to suppress it.

If they had embraced the technology and listened to their customers I'm not sure filing sharing would have take off the way it did. As you and others point out a lot of people downloading music/movies do it because they want to sample before they buy, in other words not drop $20 on something that is probably complete trash. The value placed on the products from both industries has never really matched the value placed on it by the customers and until they realize this and find other ways to capitalize (which they're starting to do) illegal file sharing will continue.

I don't know maybe its a case of an industry and its customers just being on two completely different pages for two long.
__________________
“My god I must have missed it...its hell down here!”
Wes Mantooth is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360