Digital Downloads

Today, I want to talk about digital distrubution of content (the legal kind--not the illegal or even grey kind); services like iTunes and CinemaNow. I've never really been that into music. I'd listen to the radio every so often and I've gone to a couple of rock/alternative concerts (and a few classical music concerts), but I can't say I ever really cared that much for the concerts or even cared so much about the music. I especially never really cared enough to buy most CDs--I can remember only buying a couple of CDs in my life (Bare Naked Lady's Stunt is one that sticks out in mind, and then a couple of novelty CDs like Peanut's Classics on Toys)--all my other CDs came from friends and family who got promotional CDs they gave to me, gave me copies of CDs (that I never asked for), or gave me their old CDs [I also had a couple of CDs of game music that came bundled with games I bought]. I just never felt like it was worth buying the CDs when the majority of the time there was only 1 or 2 songs I even liked on the CDs and when I listen to music I normally focus on something else and don't pay attention to it any way. Napster came along and I kind of just shrugged it off--what does free music matter when I had gone this long without music already? Plus, even before it was declared illegal in the courts I questioned the morality of it (I'm half humanities/creative--writing--and I know that without sales artists have no means of income, and you know nobody actually donates money just because they like stuff...) That was also at a time when I was considering going into the game's industry and I figured people would get music free now, but oncce internet connections were faster they would be getting movies and games (and thus not buying games that I'm making, and thus making me less money), so I thought it would be wrong of me to download music when later on I knew I'd be asking people not to download my games for free (by the way, feel free to download the one game I've made for free at SourceForge--it's a platform game for the visually impaired).

Then came services like iTunes, eMusic, etc. At first I kind of just turned a blind eye to them and didn't really care, although I did like that there was finally a legal/moral way of downloading individual songs (and just for the record--I hate the RIAA and think they extort money from artists too, but still... if you don't buy the song legally, artists get nothing... so I still favor the legal approach... and allofmp3.com is a grey area and the artists still get nothing... so you may possibly be legal that way, but I still say it's immoral to not support the actual artist--unless you're going to concerts, which as I stated I never really cared all that much about... although I am definitely interested in going to the Gorillaz concert when they start touring next year... and if I was gong to be in Chicago in November I'd probably buy tickets to see She Wants Revenge--best new alternative/rock band out there, in my opinion). But I digress. As time went by though and various promotions for x number of free songs for trying the service (or through Pepsi) sprouted up, I began to test the services and the idea of buying just the 1 or 2 songs I would want (and I would only want 1 or 2 songs about 4 times a year) for 99 cents the concept quickly grew on me. iTunes ended up becoming my service of choice (I don't own an iPod, and personally dislike the interface and the pod people premium of the iPod--plus I got 2 Samsung MP3 players for free from a contest), but iTunes was my service of choice due to the selection, FairPlay being slightly more friendly then MS's DRM, and the fact that the few sites that sold normal MP3s (legally) had rather pathetic selections (see: eMusic). How I got these on my MP3 player at one point is nobody's business, but how I get them on now is simply by burning them to a CD (which you can do legally) and then reloading them on to the computer as MP3s to be placed on to my MP3 players. So the legal downloadable music has been great for me (although it does mean I spend more money on music then I ever did before--and I've even gone so far as to buy a couple of albums... and I mean exactly 2, both through iTunes--one because I liked everything the band had and another because there was no other way to get the ONE song I wanted on the CD legally and because the other songs on the CD were at least pretty good--that was from Spider-Man 2 soundtrack Dashboard Confessional's 'Vindicated'--I waited a year for it to be sold without the album and it didn't happen so I finally caved in, albeit kicking and screaming and almost downloading it illegally out of protest but being the good little sheep I am and paying for it legally...)

Downloadable movies I see as a whole different issue though, as currently the prices are ridiculous for what you get (the movie, without the extra features of the DVD, and up until recently couldn't burn them on to a DVD for playback on a DVD player all at the same price, or often times more, than the retail of the DVD). Not to mention that downloading a DVD takes considerably more time and bandwidth than just downloading a single song. This is a terrible business plan for downloadable movies, but you know what? I don't care that the system for downloadable movies sucks because (at least at present) the current DVD distribution system works for me. I buy the DVD I like while browsing through a store and I see it on sale for a price I think is fair (there's only about 1-3 movie a year that I feel I MUST own on DVD and rush out and get as soon as it's released). For the quality of picture, longevity, and features I tend to have no problem with DVDs (and also see no need for HD-DVD or Blu-Ray for at least another 3-5 years... if not longer). Plus, if there's ever a movie I really want I can get it fairly quickly--it's not that far to go to the nearest Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, etc. and I normally need to pick something else up at those locations any way, so it saves me the minimum of 1 hour downloading the full version of the movie (that doesn't even include all the special features). Now if it included all the special features, could be burned to a regular DVD, AND cost less than a retail DVD (as it should--since the cost of bandwidth is considerably less than packaging, in-store marketing, and transportation) then I MIGHT consider buying it through download, but for me a movie is something semi-collectible so I like to have the physical packaging and like the longevity of the pressed DVDs--plus the packaging helps keep the movies better organized so I can find the movie I want to watch quickly (and I rarely watch movies on my computer--even though my desktop is a semi-media center).

In short, downloadable music on a song by song basis for a reasonable price = GREAT. Downloadable movies with no benefits of downloading them and lots of shortfalls = HORRIBLE. The digital age is great and all, but not everything needs to be downloadable. Maybe when downloadable movies are reasonably priced and residential bandwidth is large enough to make downloading movies faster than just running to the store then it will be a viable business plan, but for now, I pass--although I DO see it as viable for hard to find/no longer in print movies (but for that the download kiosks in retail chains are also a good idea--and that's the ONLY good thing for those proposed download kiosks).