Buying In Bulk
Word today (via Financial Times… see MCN front page) that Apple is negotiating flat rate access to all of iTunes is yet another major step towards the inevitable future of digital delivery… and an unspoken reassursion of the power and importance of the theatrical releases of movies.
Essentially, digital access in all media demands an open market. The theatrical experience is not open. It is only possible in a brick & mortar storefront. And because of qualities of that experience and the cost of delivering it, the will continue to be a strong lead market for film. But once you get to home experience, the game is completely different.
As with all things in this business, it will take time for the movie execs to see what is happening. But I will guess that less than a year after Apple starts a subscription model option for iTunes, we will see the first subscription model for movies and TV on iTunes. The big conflict for the TV model is who gets paid for what… and I don’t mean the unions. How do you slice the proceeds of a NBC show, produced by WB, when the public is paying $50 a year to download all NBC shows? Then you can worry about the unions are paid on a rental that had no disc or tape to count.
As I keep screaming, The Internet is not a medium… It is simply a delivery system. The pay TV concept is the future of home entertainment. Choice and Speed of Delivery and Day-n-Date are not the new foundation, but premium options. How many people are aware that you can watch what they are watching in Beijing or Rio or Belgrad right now, simply by paying DirecTV a few more bucks a month? The world is already smaller than we realize… and only niches care.
By 2015, Flat Rate will be king. And sales of premiums will be where the big added money is. For another $1000 a year, you will have access to the vast majority of what’s made and what’s been made. If 20 million people buy into that, the industry will have $20 billion more to split up… or DVD again. Theatrical will be about the same… about $25b worldwide by then. Other ancillaries (including the vast majority still not paying $200 a month for cable/satellite) add another $40b. And that’s just movies. And it is stable, the way corporations like it.
The thing about where you watch what you watch is not the story here… never was. It’s the revenues and predictability, stupid.
(via iPhone)
You actually sat there typing all that on your iPhone? Or is that satire?
Music subscription isn’t new. The question is whether you’ll get to own the music you download during your iTunes subscription, or whether you’re just renting your music? If it’s the latter, I imagine it’ll have slightly more appeal than the current subscription services, but not overwhelming appeal. It’s probably just my own bias showing, but I think people would rather own their music.
reassursion?
It’s time for Starburst’s MCWEENEY STYLE!
“Music subscription isn’t new. The question is whether you’ll get to own the music you download during your iTunes subscription, or whether you’re just renting your music?”
Itunes currently does work like a RENTAL location because unless it’s PLUS. Apple could — at some point — turn on the DRM in all of my Itunes and make them unable to play. Yet I still love buying Itunes. It is a tangled web, but any SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE should be DRM free. If it’s not. Apple are getting off on the wrong foot.
“If it’s the latter, I imagine it’ll have slightly more appeal than the current subscription services, but not overwhelming appeal.”
It might have more appeal than Emusic or Mtracks. Those two services are based solely around INDIE music. If Itunes truly opens up the candy store. If they let me spend 100 bucks a month for a 1000 tracks or something along those lines, that would be tremendous. How tremendous to regular people… who knows… but it could play well with people who want music. Yet do not want to pay 9.99 for an album.
“It’s probably just my own bias showing, but I think people would rather own their music.”
I feel that way about TV and Movies, but not music anymore. It’s still music. It’s still the artist I love or want to discover, but it’s in a more accessible form.
Sure; I still buy cds, but CDs are STILL TOO EXPENSIVE! I would love to own the CD of She and Him, but it simply cost too damn much. Why not spend 9.99 on ITUNES, and listen to Zooey and M.Ward make music? It seems practical to me.
1. Mutiny… no joke… I wrote on my iPhone.
2. Yes, there are subscription services, but none of them even begin to touch the subscriber base of Apple and the iPod is, obviously, the digital music device of choice.
A great idea without the equally great marketing push never reaches the tipping point. This could well be the tipping point.
3. The whole idea of ownership becomes moot if your closet has every item of clothes in the world and you can choose what to wear freely anytime you like.
Yes, ownership has its attractions. But aside from the 100+ gig iPod (and someone in here was talking about having a lot more music than even that), even a 20g player is a shitload of music… just not all the music. If I don’t have the visual cue of a rack full of CDs to look at anyway, why do I care whether I own the album or it’s in my epic library that I grab from as amuses me?
4. To assert again. It may or may not be a word… but it isn’t impossible to figure out.
I thought you were the guy constantly bemoaning the erosion of our standards (re: reassursion).
100 GB? I’ve got over 2 TB of music and it grows constantly, like a virus. Granted, most of my music is live shows, but i easily have at least 500 GB of recorded, non-live music to enjoy. Haven’t bought a CD in years. MUCH prefer having 2 or 3 kickass drives always humming as opposed to a million CDs, like the olden days. Also, the true Apple greatness is the 1 GB shuffle. I have a 30G and a 60G Ipods but NEVER use them, but my 3 1GB shuffles are in full use always. Once you get such a massive colelction of music, it seems stupid to load a 30G Ipod, much easier to just load the shuffle for a day’s playing. Works MUCH easier and is headache free!.
What’s your point, J-Mc? Is delivery supposed to define standards?
Kinda my point… about everything. They are different issues.
What are the key factors needed to persuade the studios to open up their libraries for the subscription model? Is it only revenue? How about security? What piracy rate is allowable? What is preventing the industry overall working with cable/sat operators in opening up the vaults?
DP, my point is that you’re not above the erosion of standards yourself.
Once again everyone… JEFFY MAC IS ABOVE REPROACH! DIG THAT… BRITCHES!
Reproach me all you want. Just do it well.