All this has happened to me in the past few weeks.
First, I bought a 12-month subscription to my local indie chain of cinemas, the Everyman. It’s a brilliant little operation. The cinemas have comfy sofas, drinks and food served at your seat by pleasant people, and the airline-style seats even recline so you can nap during the slow bits.
For me, a £600 annual sub is great value. It allows me to have two tickets to as many films as I want to see – and in my job, I do see a lot of films. In fact, I’ve already broken even on my sub, so everything I now see, for the remaining nine months, is effectively f.o.c.
I was telling a producer contact of mine about this a few days ago, and we were trying to work out how the distributors, and hence the film maker, would be paid on this arrangement. Neither of us quite knew, although it’s a safe bet that they will receive far less than on regular admissions.
But that’s nothing.
About a month ago, I got into Breaking Bad. Yes, I know – I must be one of the last people in the Western hemisphere to see this masterpiece of a series, and believe me, I will enthuse about it as only a convert can elsewhere and at length.
Previously, I’d heavily fallen for The Sopranos. Box sets cost, if I remember rightly, about £35 each. As a BB fan I’d happily pay that price... let’s say the math is 5 seasons at £35 per season, i.e. £175.
But not any longer. Although I’d happily pay that price for such an amazing series, Apple’s iTunes would sell it to me for about £15 each, i.e. £75 the lot or less than half the price of box sets. Yay!
And here’s where it gets really crazy. You’ve heard of that little ol’ operation called Netflix? The folk who happily crunch up over a third of all US internet traffic? Yes, Netflix will let me watch BB (and anything else I want from their vast servers) for a token £5.99 a month.
That’s insane.
I almost feel ashamed of myself for being so cheap.
But I’m not stupid, either.
If you guys are happy to vastly undersell your product to me, then who is the sucker?
In common with most BB fans, I would unhesitatingly pay far more than that to get my fix. But no. It’s all there, just one click away, pretty much free.
And now, I hear that Amazon are adding a “free” music streaming service to the Prime service, obviously taking aim at Spotify.
All this is, of course, utterly devaluing creative intellectual property. As David Carr wrote in the NYT a few days ago: “as just one more participant in the Something for Nothing economy, I’d grown accustomed to getting all sorts of lusciousness for the price of zero”.
If you grew up in the marketing business, as I did, you’ll see what’s going on here. It’s sales promotion, plain and simple. “They” are eating “our” lunch... because it promotes their business.
In fact, they have no product of their own to sell! Without us, and the wonderful things we create, they would not exist at all.
So in the space of just a few short weeks, I’ve experienced a sort of descent into valuelessness. From discounted cinema tickets right down to free teevee.
Where will all this end?
It’s madness, all right – but as a friend of mine was once fond of saying... madness knows no limits... and he was right...
First, I bought a 12-month subscription to my local indie chain of cinemas, the Everyman. It’s a brilliant little operation. The cinemas have comfy sofas, drinks and food served at your seat by pleasant people, and the airline-style seats even recline so you can nap during the slow bits.
For me, a £600 annual sub is great value. It allows me to have two tickets to as many films as I want to see – and in my job, I do see a lot of films. In fact, I’ve already broken even on my sub, so everything I now see, for the remaining nine months, is effectively f.o.c.
I was telling a producer contact of mine about this a few days ago, and we were trying to work out how the distributors, and hence the film maker, would be paid on this arrangement. Neither of us quite knew, although it’s a safe bet that they will receive far less than on regular admissions.
But that’s nothing.
About a month ago, I got into Breaking Bad. Yes, I know – I must be one of the last people in the Western hemisphere to see this masterpiece of a series, and believe me, I will enthuse about it as only a convert can elsewhere and at length.
Previously, I’d heavily fallen for The Sopranos. Box sets cost, if I remember rightly, about £35 each. As a BB fan I’d happily pay that price... let’s say the math is 5 seasons at £35 per season, i.e. £175.
But not any longer. Although I’d happily pay that price for such an amazing series, Apple’s iTunes would sell it to me for about £15 each, i.e. £75 the lot or less than half the price of box sets. Yay!
And here’s where it gets really crazy. You’ve heard of that little ol’ operation called Netflix? The folk who happily crunch up over a third of all US internet traffic? Yes, Netflix will let me watch BB (and anything else I want from their vast servers) for a token £5.99 a month.
That’s insane.
I almost feel ashamed of myself for being so cheap.
But I’m not stupid, either.
If you guys are happy to vastly undersell your product to me, then who is the sucker?
In common with most BB fans, I would unhesitatingly pay far more than that to get my fix. But no. It’s all there, just one click away, pretty much free.
And now, I hear that Amazon are adding a “free” music streaming service to the Prime service, obviously taking aim at Spotify.
All this is, of course, utterly devaluing creative intellectual property. As David Carr wrote in the NYT a few days ago: “as just one more participant in the Something for Nothing economy, I’d grown accustomed to getting all sorts of lusciousness for the price of zero”.
If you grew up in the marketing business, as I did, you’ll see what’s going on here. It’s sales promotion, plain and simple. “They” are eating “our” lunch... because it promotes their business.
In fact, they have no product of their own to sell! Without us, and the wonderful things we create, they would not exist at all.
So in the space of just a few short weeks, I’ve experienced a sort of descent into valuelessness. From discounted cinema tickets right down to free teevee.
Where will all this end?
It’s madness, all right – but as a friend of mine was once fond of saying... madness knows no limits... and he was right...
