why are disk based services often cheaper or have a bigger selection?

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okkii

23 posts

Geek

#173597 28-May-2015 20:15

it just seems that often these older style services/stores such as fatso(sky owned), the warehouse, video ezy, and united video, have bigger selection than iTunes(no tv shows, drm, pricey and sometimes missing rentals.), google play(like iTunes, drm, has no tv shows, expensive or missing rentals. ) neon(also sky owned, has less content), netflix, and video ezy on demand (often costs more than a disk, has drm on purchases, no specials, tv shows can't be rented).
it seems like a different system to the us market, where iTunes is cheaper and has a bigger range, and amazon offers a catalogue almost as big as their disk service. also in many cases the warehouse is offering better deals than iTunes. it just seems very mysterious.

cyberhub

224 posts

Master Geek

#1313731 28-May-2015 21:11

It appears that the issue is the big music and movie companies have been stuck in the old ways of doing things. Consumers want to consume their products in a different way. Napster, torrents and other downloads have changed things.

At the end of the day I think consumers want convenience. iTunes had the market for a while and could of made it work but then they lost it. All off a sudden the market changed.

A classic example of this is spotify and pandora etc. Of course any of us could download music for free but I am more than happy to pay for a service that makes it easy for me to listen to music.

I love the idea of a streaming service like netflix, I will be signing up in the next week or so.

DRM turns consumers off, convenience turns consumers on.

Why do people torrent movies? Because it is free, sure that is true but it is also convenient and easy. Easier than jumping in the car and going to the dvd store.

Anyway coming back to the OP. I think the reason for all these issues is that the big movie companies want DRM to prevent illegal downloads, when really they should be making it easy to legally and conveniently download movies and other content.

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cyberhub

224 posts

Master Geek

#1313736 28-May-2015 21:17

For the record I would be prepared to pay the same cost for a new release movie as the cost of going to the movies.

As long as I could pause it (toilet and snack breaks etc)

I would totally pay $20 for an epic new release like Avengers 2, Avatar etc.

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jfanning

438 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1313754 28-May-2015 21:30

cyberhub:
DRM turns consumers off, convenience turns consumers on.

Does it really? DVD's and Blu-ray's contain DRM, and you can say they have been quite popular. Netflix has DRM. I think the inconvenience of some of these digital download systems turn people off. The fact that you can only view iTunes videos on certain devices, the same for Google Play, those services requite more of a generic player, which is something Netflix provides.

cyberhub

224 posts

Master Geek

#1313953 29-May-2015 11:02

jfanning:
cyberhub:
DRM turns consumers off, convenience turns consumers on.

Does it really? DVD's and Blu-ray's contain DRM, and you can say they have been quite popular. Netflix has DRM. I think the inconvenience of some of these digital download systems turn people off. The fact that you can only view iTunes videos on certain devices, the same for Google Play, those services requite more of a generic player, which is something Netflix provides.

Is there DRM on Spotify? I don't know as I am able to use the technology the way I want. Sometimes on my PC, sometimes on my iPhone. It is very convenient for me.

On Spotify I don't know if the DRM exists and I can still consume the content when and where I want and that is fine and I am happy to pay for that service.

I generally don't watch much TV but I really like the idea of Netflix, sure if they have DRM that is fine as long as I can consume the content when and where I want. Which I am anticipating is the case.

On my TV, on my iphone, ipad etc.

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1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#1314095 29-May-2015 13:15

jfanning:
cyberhub:
DRM turns consumers off, convenience turns consumers on.

Does it really? DVD's and Blu-ray's contain DRM, and you can say they have been quite popular.

Not anymore. CD,DVD, BR are dying formats, 'video rental' shops are closing down in a big way in the US & NZ.
CD,DVD,BR are being relegated to niche markets that the majority no longer buy/rent. Much like big old records :-)
They are only popular when there is no alternative.

In fact, some production companies no longer even release on DVD .

DRM and anti piracy adds was a big turn off for me, on the DVD's I bought. I just paid for the DVD, so why force me to watch
an antipiracy propagander message that I cant skip past. Why force me to watch ad's (ie trailers) for new releases .

Back in the day, CD's with anti-piracy enabled wouldnt even play in my CD players . So to get my new CD to be usable, I had to
make a copy without the anti-piracy(copy protection) part on it. Hardly convenient, so why bother....

The issue Music companies ignore, is that the public will no longer pay $30 for a CD that is 3 good songs & 10 'filler' songs. ie its 80% crap.
I can get my money back on any other product that is substandard (ie junk) , except CD & DVD, so why bother.
I will NEVER buy another CD without (illegally) downloading it first to see if its any good.

jfanning

438 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1314160 29-May-2015 14:52

1101:

Not anymore. CD,DVD, BR are dying formats, 'video rental' shops are closing down in a big way in the US & NZ.
CD,DVD,BR are being relegated to niche markets that the majority no longer buy/rent. Much like big old records :-)
They are only popular when there is no alternative.

In fact, some production companies no longer even release on DVD .

DRM and anti piracy adds was a big turn off for me, on the DVD's I bought. I just paid for the DVD, so why force me to watch
an antipiracy propagander message that I cant skip past. Why force me to watch ad's (ie trailers) for new releases .

Back in the day, CD's with anti-piracy enabled wouldnt even play in my CD players . So to get my new CD to be usable, I had to
make a copy without the anti-piracy(copy protection) part on it. Hardly convenient, so why bother....

The issue Music companies ignore, is that the public will no longer pay $30 for a CD that is 3 good songs & 10 'filler' songs. ie its 80% crap.
I can get my money back on any other product that is substandard (ie junk) , except CD & DVD, so why bother.
I will NEVER buy another CD without (illegally) downloading it first to see if its any good.

Personally where I live I haven't seen video stores closing, they seem to be doing well, and have always got people in them. Now calling CD/DVD/BR niche is a little premature, digital downloads are only really getting to 50% of the market.

May I ask how you watch movies etc now? Unless you are downloading them for free, they will contain DRM.

DRM doesn't cause anti piracy ads to appear, the production studio forced that on you. iTunes movies are full of DRM, they don't have those messages.

You can't get a CD with anti-piracy enabled, it isn't a CD anymore when they have that included.

Why are you (illegally) downloading the song to hear it when there are so any DRM filled sites that provide such a good preview service?

Back to my point, DRM in DVD/BR (remember CD;s don't have DRM) didn't reduce how popular they were. Digital downloads have the problem that they are restricted to certain devices to play

sen8or

1789 posts

Uber Geek

#1314535 30-May-2015 11:16

I think it will be a while before DVD stores go the way of the dodo, although right now they are mostly struggling and the market is shrinking.

It's been a while since I've seen some actual figures, but the decline from 2012/2013 was about 30% ($125m to $85m for rental store revenue), I suspect the same would be true of 2013/2014. I closed our store in Hornby mid 2014, turnover in the months preceding was down 20-30% on the year prior each month. Other stores I speak to since indicate 20-30 % down is continuing. Rent is the biggest killer of traditional stores followed by franchise fees that are now simply a drain in cashflow, franchise adds no value whatsoever.

When we closed, we had about 15k DVDs and 2-3k Bluray, even allowing for multiple copies of movies, I would estimate approx 10-11k individual movies and we were only a small-medium sized store, heaps more selection that Netflix etc, but yet Netflix ex will be the downfall of the industry, convenience is king