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iTunes Movies to be sold for $9.99?
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Lets face it, people are attending the cinema far less now then any point in history, why? Since you now have the option of SD and HD, VHS, DVD, VCD, etc...
A lot of flexibility, and choice at a low cost.
The MPAA already knows they are losing money from all sides, and not listening to the audience will just make their profits shrink faster. What happened to the Music Industry back in 97-99 is happening to the Movie Industry and its only going to get worse....for them.
The MPAA is running out of options, and its the customer that will call the shots.
A lot of flexibility, and choice at a low cost.
The MPAA already knows they are losing money from all sides, and not listening to the audience will just make their profits shrink faster. What happened to the Music Industry back in 97-99 is happening to the Movie Industry and its only going to get worse....for them.
The MPAA is running out of options, and its the customer that will call the shots.
AidenShaw said:
vhs is nowhere near 640x480. in fact itunes video content is very close to the resolution of VHS (240 horizontal lines of res on VHS).
BornAgainMac said:
bandwidth costs for apple are negligible. i get something like 500GB of transfer for $10 a month. apple is paying significantly less. this movie is apparently ~400MB for 1:39; lets just bump it to 500MB 'cause i'm bad at math. it would cost apple, at the rate i'm paying $10 to send that movie 1000 times. put another way sell one copy and they've paid for the next 999. that's really simplistic because it doesn't take in to account server hosting/personell/marketing/licensing/encoding etc..., but at the end of the day bandwidth is dirt cheap.
----
as for people clamoring for DVD and up quality. first of all the number of sets that support 1080p are minimal, even apple's offerings only the 23" and 30" can support 1080i/p. but let's talk DVD quality and double the size. you're looking at 1GB+ for a movie, the bandwidth/broadband infrastructure in this country (USA) sucks compared to the rest of the industrialized world. 1GB would take hours and hours to download on even the fastest residential broadband connections; HD content could take days. you guys are dreaming if you think that's going to happen in the next 5 years*.
*caveat - a massive and rapid rollout of ubiquitous and cheap ultra broadband. maybe UWB would allow for it.
$9.99 to own is cool.
Of course, there are other issues like can it be broadcast in decent to fantastic quality to DVD, but you know what...as a stay-at-home Dad who also runs a business from home, dloading $9.99 to watch a much anticipated flick at home is pretty darn good imho. There are a recent flicks I would have dloaded in a heartbeat.
of course, i'm in canada so forget seeing this service for a long time. doh!
Of course, there are other issues like can it be broadcast in decent to fantastic quality to DVD, but you know what...as a stay-at-home Dad who also runs a business from home, dloading $9.99 to watch a much anticipated flick at home is pretty darn good imho. There are a recent flicks I would have dloaded in a heartbeat.
of course, i'm in canada so forget seeing this service for a long time. doh!
$10 is a descent price
If....It came with a box
If....It came with inserts
If....It had special effects
If....It came with on a DVD
If....It had a higher resolution
If....It had 5.1 or better surround sound
If....I could turn CC on when when I want to
If....I could sell it
If....I could freely and legally change the format
If....It was a good movie
This is just one bad apple.
P.S. The last movie (from Universal Studios I believe) I bought had everything above, and I paid $7.50 for it- Brand new at Wal*Mart.
If....It came with a box
If....It came with inserts
If....It had special effects
If....It came with on a DVD
If....It had a higher resolution
If....It had 5.1 or better surround sound
If....I could turn CC on when when I want to
If....I could sell it
If....I could freely and legally change the format
If....It was a good movie
This is just one bad apple.
P.S. The last movie (from Universal Studios I believe) I bought had everything above, and I paid $7.50 for it- Brand new at Wal*Mart.
Maybe they will be bumping the resolution, but yes the price is high for a low resolution video. At first I thought that pay-to-own would be good, but then I thought about what it cost to have a net-flix acount and to have one movie at a time from them is only $9.99. This is a better solution then buying movies from Apple at $9.99 and low quality, certainly if people are wanting to play these in their living room or on their portables. Apple needs to consider this.
I like how 1/2 of the people on the forums were like "!¡OMg $9.99¢ WoULLD bE dA S#¡*" And now everyone bit**in about how the bandwidth is outrageous and how its too expensive...
I think its a BIG step in the right direction
I think its a BIG step in the right direction
Our local movie rental place let's us rent movies for $2 for a day. Apple's pricing is very high, especially considering the fact that I could HYPOTHETICALLY rent the movie and rip it to my iPod. $2 for a full length DVD, or $9.99 for a digital version with no extras or menu at half the resolution. No contest, nothing to see hear, move along folks.
Anyone who promises that he would purchase this film if it were HD quality should admit to subsequently hoping for a lesser resolution once the download clock creeps past 2 hours...
Obviously HD is a pipe dream at this point. However, since Apple copped to marketing the Mac Mini as a device to integrate with the living room television, there has to be an upgrade on the horizon. I wouldn't even expect DVD quality, but I think 640x480 would be a marked improvement.
Obviously HD is a pipe dream at this point. However, since Apple copped to marketing the Mac Mini as a device to integrate with the living room television, there has to be an upgrade on the horizon. I wouldn't even expect DVD quality, but I think 640x480 would be a marked improvement.
The ability to burn the movie onto a dvd disk for viewing on your home dvd player (for those that dont have iPods yet) would be a good idea but im sure they will sway away from that due to the high risk of piracy. I do agree that it should be on a pay-per-view basis most people will not want to watch the same movie more yjam a few times
Brad Raple said:
I agree. It should be DOA at that price... I posted this before in a dead thread, but figured I'd repeat it here too:
I want pay-to-own, and I want it at rental prices.
I don't see any reason it couldn't be done that way-- my video store stocks 2 or 3 copies of new releases and probably rents them to a 100 customers in the first year. If the DVD make $10-20 each for the studio (and they probably make less than that) then they're making a grand total of $60 from my video store. If we went to iTMS and payed $2 to own it, they'd make $200.
Seems like a no brainer to me... Keep the extra material for the DVD so the real fans still put out the bigger bucks and sell the downloads at a rate where the pirates can't even compete-- and they're still making a better return.
thejadedmonkey said:
What movie was that? I doubt most DVDs are going for less than $10 at Wal*Mart. Most top-selling titles are probably going for closer to $20, with the occasional title selling for a decent discount.
I was just in the shower, pondering more about the cost of these movies. Which as I pointed out in my previous post, netflix charges $9.99 for their service which includes one DVD at a time. Now if we look at this, we have to remember that netflix has to pay to have the wharehouse space (even if they own their own wharehouses there are still many expenses) and the people to work for them. Apple could do this without adding on too many employees, atleast enough computer guys to keep servers up in running and some people to answer the phones at that big data center they just bought. I think that data center could handle a subscription service for full movie downloads. Sure, data transfer isn't cheap, but I am sure with a few thousand subscribers (assuming they did well) they could afford to pay the charges and employees and still make profit. I am not a business man, but judging from the response we have seen to a subscription service offering full movies, I think they could pull this off.
Some other thoughts though include verifying that the person has paid their fees for subscripton and will people be able to burn these movies to DVD. The pay-to-own model for $10 is fair for new releases to be burnt on our on DVDs and like $7 or something for movies that don't sell aswell. The subscription model would mean people couldn't "legally" burn their movies to DVD, and perhaps they would only play in quicktime and perhaps they would make you put in some verification number meaning you would have to be connected to the internet to watch. This becomes a hassle, and I would just stick to netflix and wait for my DVDs to come in the mail.
Of course watching the movie on the iPod rather then downloading to view on the computer go well with the subcription model. When you docked your iPod to your computer iTunes would check to see if you were subscribed to the service and had a right to have that movie in your special "movies" folder on the iPod. If you didn't, it would automatically delete it. This means A) you would have to be connected to the internet to get any other movies B) some people could still a movie, but that isn't a big deal, we can't stop it all. Also wi-fi iPods could allow for people to download music/movies on the go, and the movies with the subscription model would mean someone was in the hotel lobby using free wi-fi, they had just finished watching their movie and wanted a new one, they could access the database and make the exchange. Would it download fast enough? Low res for the iPod, but it still may take a long time.
Lots to think about when dealing with movies indeed.
Some other thoughts though include verifying that the person has paid their fees for subscripton and will people be able to burn these movies to DVD. The pay-to-own model for $10 is fair for new releases to be burnt on our on DVDs and like $7 or something for movies that don't sell aswell. The subscription model would mean people couldn't "legally" burn their movies to DVD, and perhaps they would only play in quicktime and perhaps they would make you put in some verification number meaning you would have to be connected to the internet to watch. This becomes a hassle, and I would just stick to netflix and wait for my DVDs to come in the mail.
Of course watching the movie on the iPod rather then downloading to view on the computer go well with the subcription model. When you docked your iPod to your computer iTunes would check to see if you were subscribed to the service and had a right to have that movie in your special "movies" folder on the iPod. If you didn't, it would automatically delete it. This means A) you would have to be connected to the internet to get any other movies B) some people could still a movie, but that isn't a big deal, we can't stop it all. Also wi-fi iPods could allow for people to download music/movies on the go, and the movies with the subscription model would mean someone was in the hotel lobby using free wi-fi, they had just finished watching their movie and wanted a new one, they could access the database and make the exchange. Would it download fast enough? Low res for the iPod, but it still may take a long time.
Lots to think about when dealing with movies indeed.
I think you are looking at this wrong.
YOu all want a subscription based service... and well it is probably coming! The truth is that if this is the ONLY movie that they currently offer (perhaps as a test) they can't have a service!!!! IT IS ONLY ONE MOVIE!
I can just about gaurantee there will be a subscrition based service.. it is the only thing that makes sense. BUT WAIT TILL THERE ARE MORE FREAKIN MOVIES!!!!!
And as for the price. I have watched this board every day for five years and I have never seen Apple come out with something where you didn't think the price was to high, and predicted that it would flop.
Recent examples:
the new mac mini
just about every ipod they have ever made. (my favorite being those who predicted the shuffle would flop because it had no screen)
For loving Apple you sure do complain a lot.
Oh and by the way.... If I was you.... I would go buy a truck load of aapl stock and I would do it fast. With the way the market has treated it you would be looking at upwards of 25% gains by mid April if Apple treats us the way we all expect.
YOu all want a subscription based service... and well it is probably coming! The truth is that if this is the ONLY movie that they currently offer (perhaps as a test) they can't have a service!!!! IT IS ONLY ONE MOVIE!
I can just about gaurantee there will be a subscrition based service.. it is the only thing that makes sense. BUT WAIT TILL THERE ARE MORE FREAKIN MOVIES!!!!!
And as for the price. I have watched this board every day for five years and I have never seen Apple come out with something where you didn't think the price was to high, and predicted that it would flop.
Recent examples:
the new mac mini
just about every ipod they have ever made. (my favorite being those who predicted the shuffle would flop because it had no screen)
For loving Apple you sure do complain a lot.
Oh and by the way.... If I was you.... I would go buy a truck load of aapl stock and I would do it fast. With the way the market has treated it you would be looking at upwards of 25% gains by mid April if Apple treats us the way we all expect.