1 post tagged “media”

STUDIOS: You’re screwed. My God you’re screwed. And it’s not even because your stuff’s that bad (which most of it is). You’re screwed because you keep fighting technology. You hated the idea of TVs in the home. You went to court over VCRs. You delayed DVD. You’ve waited years to give us “the privilege” of downloading movies. And even then, you want to charge the same as a DVD, despite the absence of costs from production, shipping, and retail markup. You want people to go to theaters. You think you’re in the theater business. It costs me around $100 to take my wife to the movies, buy snacks and pay for a babysitter for the evening. It costs me $3 - $4 to watch the movie on DVD. You will have to do a damn sight better convincing me Ashton Kutcher can only be experienced in full on a big screen at that price.

The theaters get screwed on your rev-share, too. They’re in the popcorn and soda business, and - oh - there’s a movie here, too. They don’t need your prints, anymore. They can take a digital file and show it on the silver screen. Wait until they start holding hyper-local movie festivals. Even if they half-fill a theater, they do better than they do with a full theater of “Star Wars” watchers. Heck against a studio’s 80-20 rev share, they can one-quarter fill a theater and beat you guys.

RECORD LABELS: Circling the drain and good riddance, too. You have a few years left, so enjoy the ride. But you’re terminal. MySpace is making it possible for artists to sell directly to their fans. Do you think it’s that long before bands break out and start selling huge numbers of songs that way? You say you want to promote and protect the artists. Liars. Your contracts actually penalize successful artists. Artists can have a Gold record and lose money because you make them pay a ridiculous amount for studio time.

You think that studio time cranks out a more professional sound than I can on a laptop? Nope. Remember that Sgt. Pepper was recorded on a four-track. And then look at the 99 track software I have on my Mac. Pick up a few mics, a mixer and some good software and I have a high-quality studio. My band (“The VoSots!”) could put out a song in short order, sell it on MySpace, and make far more money than you would ever give us.

There will continue to be a niche for you for a while. Several years, certainly. But the artists are going to win and you will pay for your decades of abusing them.

via lostremote.com