One of the things about this is that I read it and I just think...it's hopeless. Not to you, but to the creators who are trying to shore up their livelihood by word of mouth guilt to consumers. Clearly the system is the problem, not the way individual people consume media, because look at how crazy this is. You're actually criticizing people for going out and legally buying the product. There's no reason people should have to see a movie in the first weekend etc. I love the long tail stuff where I can pay for membership and then see They Shoot Horses, Don't They? for the first time in 2010 instead of having to get myself to the theater to see something I might be interested in the first weekend
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I think they do that because trying to motivate consumers is the only thing that they can do. They can't do anything about how the content industry is a mess.
But you're right; it's really unsustainable and short sighted and people say so many contradictory things that confusion reigns and then you're just like "fuck it" and you buy shit when you buy it and how you buy it and try to worry less about everyone's contracts with their distributor. But I do feel irresponsible when I do that that I don't, oddly, when I actually download stuff. I mean, if I download then I'm just stealing. When I'm not buying in the perfect way, I'm not contributing to the artist AND I'm throwing my money away.
Absolutely--ITA that's exactly why they're doing it. And I feel for them because they must feel really helpless about it and they don't feel like they have any power to change the industry so they can only turn to the consumers and look for help there. Unfortunately even if they can influence consumers--and there are many consumers (like you) who really do have their best interests at heart and would like to help them--they can't do enough. What's even sadder is that frankly, even if everyone got it together enough that we could buy the right way the system would change to favor the industry again.
As weird as it sounds, what you say at the end makes perfect sense to me. When you steal something you're profitting yourself. When you buy it the wrong way it's like none of the actual people (consumer or artist) benefits so you feel like a dupe or a bad fan or whatever.
I do almost none of these things. Like pretty much everyone else, I can't afford to do these things. I buy almost all of my books from Amazon because that is the way I can afford to buy the books I want to read. I wait sometimes months for DVDs or TV sets because otherwise I am going to be paying twice the price, if not significantly more. You bet I'm going to pick up HIMYM for $12.99 instead of $39.99. If I can afford to, I do like to support independent bookstores and comic shops. But that has its limits. I'll buy a $14.99 trade paperback for full price at the local comic book shop, but I can't afford to pay $39.99 for a hardcover that is $17.99 online. And that thing about only buying single issue comics irritates the shit out of me. If I did that I would read no comics because I lose track of what's going on and can't follow the story when I read that way.
I had read this really great comic about music in England in the volumes that I borrowed from a friend. And I mentioned it to someone in the industry and he said, yeah, the volumes sell pretty well but the single issues didn't so they didn't get another contract because that's how that comics publisher determines demand. And Ali was like, then that comics publisher is stupid because who buys single issues? But you know, we're still not getting more of that comic because of that
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I just feel like, I'm never going to buy certain things at 3x price, so they should feel lucky I buy it at all at x price. Even if it's my favorite [insert media here] thing in the WORLD, I only have so much money, and that's that.
And in most cases, I feel that it's the media industry's own fault that they are in a crisis because they have not kept up, let alone anticipated, the change the digital revolution would bring about in consumers.
It's a mess, and everyone's panicky, but what sucks is that people freak out about what consumers are doing instead of maybe putting more pressure on the industry because they feel too beholden to the industry, but in turn feel that the consumers are beholden to them, and so here we are.
The Modern Family guy in particular is ridiculous. Those people who can't watch it legally online aren't going to then make sure they're home on Wednesday nights; they're just going to torrent the thing.
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But you're right; it's really unsustainable and short sighted and people say so many contradictory things that confusion reigns and then you're just like "fuck it" and you buy shit when you buy it and how you buy it and try to worry less about everyone's contracts with their distributor. But I do feel irresponsible when I do that that I don't, oddly, when I actually download stuff. I mean, if I download then I'm just stealing. When I'm not buying in the perfect way, I'm not contributing to the artist AND I'm throwing my money away.
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As weird as it sounds, what you say at the end makes perfect sense to me. When you steal something you're profitting yourself. When you buy it the wrong way it's like none of the actual people (consumer or artist) benefits so you feel like a dupe or a bad fan or whatever.
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And in most cases, I feel that it's the media industry's own fault that they are in a crisis because they have not kept up, let alone anticipated, the change the digital revolution would bring about in consumers.
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The Modern Family guy in particular is ridiculous. Those people who can't watch it legally online aren't going to then make sure they're home on Wednesday nights; they're just going to torrent the thing.
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