Music and Film Companies Should Awaken to the Realities of 2008

My interest was piqued today by the article in the telegraph and the times here and here. Its an old chestnut the issue of illegal downloading of content, but it appears that the capitulation of governments to the overweening and overblown music and film industry is set to continue as Europe and world wide initiatives swing ponderously into action.

I find this all a bit galling when in 2007 the US box office takings amounted to $9.6 billion up 5% on the previous year and part of a trend expected to continue.

Worldwide box office takings also rose to an all-time high of $26.7bn, a figure which only makes the whinging about piracy sound even more pathetic.

I think they should shut up and get on with it, especially considering the recently engineered format wars over Blu Ray and HD that echoes the old VHS/Beta squabbles of the eighties. The only loser in this is the consumer. As an avid collector of film I again see the writing on the wall with my nigh on 2000 DVD's being the equivalent of a bunch of VHS in a few years. Its so upsetting that once again an new format arrives, is grossly overpriced and gives the film industry another excuse to rehash old products that you can get for £2.99 on DVD but cost £24.99 on Blu Ray.

This is bad for a number of reasons. Firstly people will of course buy Blu Ray and replace favourite DVD's over time, but think of the waste! All that plastic, an environmental nightmare in the making.

The solution, retailers should be forced, along with distributors and film makers to organise a recycle facility where if you take in your old DVD of Mission Impossible then you get a copy on Blu Ray for a fiver.

Secondly, in theory you have already paid for the right to own and watch a particular film, so why have to pay for it again?

The solution, as above, with the prices reflecting the reality.

Thirdly, despite illegal downloading happening they are still making a profit and my time in the film business has taught me that people want to own the original. They will pay for it, even if they have seen it. So what's the fuss about in the first place.

Its about control, they want to milk the product by controlling the streams of income as and when they facilitate them. Of course they do and rightly so, but that only works if the realities of content availability in 2008 is taken into account. Whilst the major players fart around with region encoding (so only certain discs work in certain countries), staggered release dates and different windows of availability for different delivery structures (Cable, Satellite, DVD,Blu Ray et al) Joe public will happily download the film illegally in the sheer frustration caused waiting for the months away from release for the film they require.

An excellent example is House, the brilliant series with Hugh Lawrie, Season four is not out until October, nearly a year since season three and way after it's television premiers.

Like wise "The Mist" a fun adaptation of a Stephen King book that has yet to see the light of day in the UK but is available in the US already.

This appalling treatment of their core customers marks the film industry as a slumbering giant, resting on it's own laurels and not racing to be ahead of technological advances and differentiating their marketing strategy accordingly.

End region coding, standardise release dates, be brave enough to recognise that the person who goes to see a film at the cinema is not necessarily the same one who buys the Blu Ray or watches it on Sky and speed up the release to the home market of all films.

They also might wish to consider making some better product as well!

Meanwhile the music industry is experiencing the opposite and as this article in the times illustrates, it is new forms of music distribution that are giving the corporates such a headache.

It is a mess of their own making, as with film they have been cumbersome at addressing the needs of the new millennium and are now paying the price. They have ripped us off for years and now they have the cheek to act aggrieved? People have already bought the same songs numerous times on records, cassettes, eight tracks and CD's, it is hardly surprising that people feel comfortable with downloading songs illegally, they have a certain right to.

The music industry must wake up quickly to save itself from itself. If artists and bands, fuelled by the freedom an internet distribution centre offers them, see this as a chance to cut out the big guys, then they should. The big guys better get with the programme and find new ways of offering quality product at the right price.

The EU, Governments and ISP's should stop interfering and let the wheels of business grind on, the strongest will survive and the weakest will fall. Utilising legislative power to frighten and coerce people into compliance with these business behemoths is not their job, and if that is true then there is an ulterior motive, and its probably about surveillance and keeping checks on Joe Public, not on saving the bedraggled music industry from its own sorry self.

In 2008, we can download any content that can be made downloadable, now get over it, respond with a new business model that attracts us, your customers, back to you, or be prepared to sink under the weight of your own arrogance and ineptitude.

In the final analysis it seems that their is an easier way to force them forward. Instead of increasing the time an item remains copyrighted, we should decrease it. It's currently 100 years. Lets make it 10. A chance for all to make some good money but after that it is in the public domain, then they may sit up and take notice.