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Why Apple Can't Get Movie Content
An anonymous reader writes "This article analyzes Apple's negotiations with record companies and movie studios. It explains why Apple's preferences are aligned with those of consumers. Using a software model, it concludes that the iTunes Movie Store currently doesn't have the software/hardware lock-in that forced the music industry to agree to Apple's terms for the Music Store."
Apple took a brave stance when they opened the movie store for business, and if good intentions == $$ they would be doin' just fine; However I haven't seen a scrap of news about the movie store since it's been launched. That's either good news or bad news.
So what would slashdotian's prefer to see? Apple make compromises and let in the companies that are twisting it's arm, or Apple to stand it's ground and watch the movie store sink?
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Their preferences are aligned... but due to limitations of negotiations with the studios & labels, the implementation isn't as closely aligned & there is some hassle with DRM. Although, the music rights are better than most of the other legitimate online stores out there, the video rights are more limited as far as burning. However, I think part of the reasoning for that is video content is consumed very differently than audio content. As such, the flexibility to format transcode audio is more important. People are more likely to have multiple audio playback devices that take CDs away from their computer, for example in their car, than they are to have multiple DVD players outside their home. Also with the "iTV" in the product pipeline, the need for transcoding to DVD is minimized.
Why digital distubution for Movies will win in time
I've bought a few albums off itunes recently. I don't like the DRM hassles, and I like CDs. Here is why.
Selection. The last 3 CDs I bought I checked 3 record stores and 1 big box chain. They had none. Itunes had them. Itunes had them, and I got them for cheaper and in less time than if they were at the store. The tradeoff is a slight quality degradation and that DRM. I burn them to audio CDs anyway as one backup so I don't care. I miss the packaging but some CDs you buy online come with PDFs of the liner notes.
Itunes has lots of music and never runs out (I don't think it can.... Maybe bandwidth could kill the site). Any online sales of music have these advantages.
This is why ultimately I choose to buy online.
Movies will eventually come around for the same reason. Selection. Now only if we could get bigger pipes (and not clogged pipes) to get these movies faster..
Agreed, Apple is likely going to win on this. Why? Because they've left themselves upgrade paths *that people want*.
In hardware, they can at least leverage 16:9 screens and higher resolution for their next generation video ipods. They can also add processing power and hardware conversion if that becomes economical (like high speed mpeg2 to mpeg4 conversion).
On the software aka media side, movies are doing something music isn't quite yet as an industry--increasing the quality of the product. (I realize there are higher fidelity music formats like SACD.) As it stands now, the major component of next generation video sales are the lasers and components. Not to mention 2 HD definition formats to choose from. People can either choose to drop $200-300 (in say, 2 years) on a BluRay or other HD player, or buy a video ipod. Not a hard choice to make.
All Apple has to do is have a product ready that will take care of high definition content and get *1* major blockbuster copyright holder to bite and offer it on the itunes store. Given also they are releasing a home player, 20GB downloads via bittorrent for HD content that is seeded by Apple on Akamai networks would slaughter the industry. Apple is going to take this step by step, but one thing they are damn good at is consistently progressing their product offerings and setting the relevant industries up in preparation of their next releases.