Friday, October 03, 2003
Buying online...
Ok, even though I haven't been blogging so much the last couple of days, I've still been writing down notes. I'm still congested, but I think the flu is basically gone now. It seems like summer is finally gone and so we just finished taking out two of the three air conditioners in the house. With all that out of the way, let's see if I can't play catchup...
I still have yet to try Modern Tales or Bitpass, but as I hear more and more about what is availible, I may finally give it a shot pretty soon. The latest thing is this article interviewing Jim Zubkavich about The Makeshift Miracle. From the preview, it looks like a story I'd really enjoy and the artwork is very very nice. I also like how I can read each page without a lot of scrolling even on my 800x600 resolution at home, without it seeming cramped. 99 cents to read the whole thing? That might tide me over until/if some sort of printed collection came out...
I have to say I'd still be tempted to save the whole thing to my drive so that I could see it again whenever I wanted (not just out of cheapness, but the collecting mentality of wanting to buy a product I can keep, fear of it going offline someday, and my slow internet connection at home). Still... if I started using BitPass enough for other things, maybe I'd still pay the 99 cents again if I wanted to read it a second time, despite actually viewing it offline... Jim and BitPass certainly deserve the money a lot more than most record companies and the RIAA do...
As an aside, I'm rather proud to say that some months ago, I bought my first music CD from MP3.com. Years ago, I discovered the band Electrostatic through the site, downloading quite a few of their sample mp3s. The site works on a similar premise as CafePress, in that you give them the music and artwork and they create the CDs on demand, charging a base price that you extend for your own profit. The CDs not only include normal music tracks but a data track with mp3s you can transfer to whatever device you want. The site itself has charts for the samples that get downloaded, giving you an idea of what is popular. It is a system that works and the music is great. I promised myself that I'd get the CD eventually, and I'm glad I finally did.. $10 is very reasonable, especially with the artist getting several dollars of income direct from it.
I don't claim to be the most moral person out there.. I've taken quite my share of software and music and video, but I've been trying to make a bit of an effort lately to be a better person. I've been trying to limit using file sharing and such to preview a couple of songs from artists I've seen mentioned but not actually heard, or translated anime/manga not licensed yet (but not the entire series, to motivate me to buy later on), etc. For me, that seems like a compromise I can live with for now... If micropayments get more popular, that'll make it easier to preview stuff and still support artists a bit...
I big problem that I see with the music industry, actually, is that despite them having so many problems lately, one thing they seem to have won is a battle of perceptions. We all know that artists in the big companies generally don't get what they deserve in the way of compensation. Courtney Love's writeup has been around for a while and I generally agree with it.
But still, it isn't JUST a matter of executives lining their pockets and a ton of middle-men. Another thing about it is the massive money that goes into advertising and promotion and things like making expensive music videos. What seems to have happened is that the companies focus more and more on surefire winners and spending tons of money to promote them. A lot of the time it works for them, but if it doesn't, they lose a ton of money. You also see this with the movie industry and huge budgets and salaries...
What I'm getting at here is that if you don't like what the industries are doing, instead of just getting the same stuff online for free, make an effort to look for less known music or movies or comics. Generally the people involved with them get a bigger piece of the money you give and it may even be cheaper to begin with due to lower overhead costs. With the internet being such a powerful method of spreading awareness, the money saved on huge marketing campaigns can be a big benefit to consumer and creator...
Lately I've been trying to keep an eye open and be selective in my support. I'm willing to buy most manga volumes since I find the price and format reasonable and DVDs in general are usually a good buy. Most of the time, music CDs don't seem worth it to me, so I buy used or download mp3s or MOD files that creators have made availible for free online. But if I can manage to buy some more CDs from lesser known artists online, I think that'll be a very good thing. =)
It is difficult to break from the blockbuster mentality, and the whole manga bookstore discussion shows how visibility can directly affect sales... Still, if less expensive things like the web can help to get the word out, it may help bring bring prices down. In general, I'd also like to see more comics, movies, cartoons which have a good story but not a huge budget. This lets you have a variety of things availible and less of a hit if it doesn't sell. The Lord of the Rings movies are spectacular, but what if it had bombed? The amount of people buying manga and indy movies lately I think shows that people may not always need a big glossy production as long as they enjoy the output and can get it for a decent price. If Disney had done more movies like Lilo and Stich instead of Treasure Planet, maybe they wouldn't have had to axe their 2D animators!
I still have yet to try Modern Tales or Bitpass, but as I hear more and more about what is availible, I may finally give it a shot pretty soon. The latest thing is this article interviewing Jim Zubkavich about The Makeshift Miracle. From the preview, it looks like a story I'd really enjoy and the artwork is very very nice. I also like how I can read each page without a lot of scrolling even on my 800x600 resolution at home, without it seeming cramped. 99 cents to read the whole thing? That might tide me over until/if some sort of printed collection came out...
I have to say I'd still be tempted to save the whole thing to my drive so that I could see it again whenever I wanted (not just out of cheapness, but the collecting mentality of wanting to buy a product I can keep, fear of it going offline someday, and my slow internet connection at home). Still... if I started using BitPass enough for other things, maybe I'd still pay the 99 cents again if I wanted to read it a second time, despite actually viewing it offline... Jim and BitPass certainly deserve the money a lot more than most record companies and the RIAA do...
As an aside, I'm rather proud to say that some months ago, I bought my first music CD from MP3.com. Years ago, I discovered the band Electrostatic through the site, downloading quite a few of their sample mp3s. The site works on a similar premise as CafePress, in that you give them the music and artwork and they create the CDs on demand, charging a base price that you extend for your own profit. The CDs not only include normal music tracks but a data track with mp3s you can transfer to whatever device you want. The site itself has charts for the samples that get downloaded, giving you an idea of what is popular. It is a system that works and the music is great. I promised myself that I'd get the CD eventually, and I'm glad I finally did.. $10 is very reasonable, especially with the artist getting several dollars of income direct from it.
I don't claim to be the most moral person out there.. I've taken quite my share of software and music and video, but I've been trying to make a bit of an effort lately to be a better person. I've been trying to limit using file sharing and such to preview a couple of songs from artists I've seen mentioned but not actually heard, or translated anime/manga not licensed yet (but not the entire series, to motivate me to buy later on), etc. For me, that seems like a compromise I can live with for now... If micropayments get more popular, that'll make it easier to preview stuff and still support artists a bit...
I big problem that I see with the music industry, actually, is that despite them having so many problems lately, one thing they seem to have won is a battle of perceptions. We all know that artists in the big companies generally don't get what they deserve in the way of compensation. Courtney Love's writeup has been around for a while and I generally agree with it.
But still, it isn't JUST a matter of executives lining their pockets and a ton of middle-men. Another thing about it is the massive money that goes into advertising and promotion and things like making expensive music videos. What seems to have happened is that the companies focus more and more on surefire winners and spending tons of money to promote them. A lot of the time it works for them, but if it doesn't, they lose a ton of money. You also see this with the movie industry and huge budgets and salaries...
What I'm getting at here is that if you don't like what the industries are doing, instead of just getting the same stuff online for free, make an effort to look for less known music or movies or comics. Generally the people involved with them get a bigger piece of the money you give and it may even be cheaper to begin with due to lower overhead costs. With the internet being such a powerful method of spreading awareness, the money saved on huge marketing campaigns can be a big benefit to consumer and creator...
Lately I've been trying to keep an eye open and be selective in my support. I'm willing to buy most manga volumes since I find the price and format reasonable and DVDs in general are usually a good buy. Most of the time, music CDs don't seem worth it to me, so I buy used or download mp3s or MOD files that creators have made availible for free online. But if I can manage to buy some more CDs from lesser known artists online, I think that'll be a very good thing. =)
It is difficult to break from the blockbuster mentality, and the whole manga bookstore discussion shows how visibility can directly affect sales... Still, if less expensive things like the web can help to get the word out, it may help bring bring prices down. In general, I'd also like to see more comics, movies, cartoons which have a good story but not a huge budget. This lets you have a variety of things availible and less of a hit if it doesn't sell. The Lord of the Rings movies are spectacular, but what if it had bombed? The amount of people buying manga and indy movies lately I think shows that people may not always need a big glossy production as long as they enjoy the output and can get it for a decent price. If Disney had done more movies like Lilo and Stich instead of Treasure Planet, maybe they wouldn't have had to axe their 2D animators!
