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Apple Movie Store Only Serving Disney Films?
Alex Romanelli, Variety writes "Variety has the scoop on Apple and Amazon's forthcoming movie download services. Apple's will launch with only Disney as a partner. Amazon will have most, and possibly all, of the major studios on board. The reason comes down to price, insiders said.
Amazon.com will launch its movie download service later this week, numerous sources confirmed, while Apple will start selling films on Tuesday as part of iTunes."
Does the name iTunes Music Store still really apply? If they are now selling movies and music, you would think a name change would come about. Just a thought.
Im sure both will be DRM-encumbered, and while the apple one will probably be quicktime-centric in some way I'm sure the amazon offering will be windows bases and require WMP in some form.
No thanks. Until they sell me a non-drm'ed movie download I can watch with xine/mplayer on my Solaris/Sparc desktop, I'll stick to the pirate bay...
Actually, I prefer the idea of having a digital copy of movies i own. DVD's get scratched very easily and stop playing properly.. I'm a bit of a backup nut so i wouldn't lose my copy either which makes it all that much more attractive.
MABASPLOOM!
FTFA: "Because it also sells DVDs, Amazon has agreed to studio demands that digital wholesale prices not undercut those of DVDs. As a result, Amazon.com's digital download prices are expected to range from $9.99 to $19.99..."
"Initially, Apple was pushing to sell all films for $9.99, just as it sells songs for a flat price of 99 and all TV shows for $1.99. But due to studio pressure, it will launch with two price points: $9.99 for library titles, $14.99 for new pics in the DVD window."
Neither of these companies will get my business. Why the hell would I pay retail for a download when I can have it in a day or two on physical media with a case and an insert? $4.99, maybe - after all that would compete with "buying" a new release on DirecTV which I can save on my Tivo. This one I really don't get.
I still don't purchase (complete) CD's online - I'll take the packaging. Individual songs make sense since I might only care for a couple tracks on a disc. I've never had the desire to download specific chapters of a DVD. Music downloads are a whole different thing than video. Oh well, I hope the market takes care of this.
Although I wouldn't consider a DRM'ed movie on its own, I'd consider a packaged deal where I get the DVD in the mail, but in the mean time can download the DRM protected movie immediately (and obviously I'd be willing to pay slightly more than the typical DVD). This would benefit Amazon because I'd be willing to pay more to be able to view the movie sooner. This will benefit the studios because in addition to the higher price, I'm less likely to rip the DVD into a DRM free file since I already have a soft copy on my PC. This would benefit me because I'm an American and like instant gratification. The band Pearl Jam basically did this for live shows on their 2003 tour. You could buy MP3's of the show roughly within 24 hours, and they would mail you an audio CD (acutally most shows were two CD's, some three) of the show in a couple weeks. For fans this was great, and although I don't foresee the movie studio's allowing a non-DRM format for video, I'd still be a heck of a lot more motivated to buy a downloadable movie if I knew I'd be eventually receiving a full DVD copy.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
Why couldn't you get the DVD extras? Surely if you're downloading a DVD you can download the extras too.
There's a huge difference between $9.99 (which I think is doable for many customers) and $15.99 (for which I think people will keep going to the DVD store). So if any online movie download store succeeds, it will be Apple's.
However, I can't help but notice that there are a lot of titles at my local DVD store for $6.99 or thereabouts. I don't know if this will be as lucerative a venture as music, especially since you tend to listen to music a lot but only view movies once or twice. Rental may well still be the best movie model for most people.
D
I don't get why people never get this. To manufacture a cd costs very little. I can make cds of me singing and sell them. But my singing is really really bad (It hurts my own ears).
/10$ = 1 million copies. Thats a lot of DVDs.
Content is more than the cost of the media. If I make a movie that costs 10 million dollars, and sell it on DVD. How many movies do I have to sell before I make my first dollar. (say I make 10 dollars per dvd sold).
10,000,000$
Everyone who does your thinking thinks of "blockbusters", movies that are so popular the cost per dvd sold is a very very small percentage of the cost of the disk. For less popular movies a good chunk of the cost of the DVD has already been spent on production.
Your right about the elasticity of demand though, cheaper means more buyers.
The rumors that I've seen haven't mentioned a price. I'd figure $50 or so more than the 'AirPort Express Base Station with AirTunes' device which gives similar music-only functionality, so that would be $170-$200.
Of course, it could just replace it at the same price.
'Sensible' is a curse word.
LionsGate announced in August that they'd be part of the new movie store. So, why does Variety appear to be reporting otherwise?
This is going to be the biggest problem with movie downloads. If you can't burn them to DVD and watch them on your home theatre, or at least download a DVD quality movie, then I seriously doubt that people will be willing to pay full price (or even close to it) for the movies. If they made the movies $2, but they were 320x240, and you could only watch them on your computer, then that would be fine. It would be great to check out movies that I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy. Later if I wanted the movie, I would buy a physical copy. However, paying full price for something that takes 5 hours to download, and won't play on my home theatre is just stupid.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
How about when you just want to watch all the boobie shots in a movie, or all the explosions or karate kicks for the action film fans?
... and then they built the supercollider.