Wal-Mart, BitTorrent Movie Downloads
Two more companies just piled onto the digital movie download bandwagon. I’m still vaguely interested in this future market since both Apple and Amazon are involved. Here’s a good New York Times article that outlines the two new plans.
Wal-Mart’s offering is a bit odd: For every purchase of a physical DVD, you get an option to buy and download a computer-friendly version for $2.97, one suitable for a portable device (iPod) for $1.97, or both for $3.97.
Several thoughts upon reading this: If I’m already buying a physical DVD, why not just give me a data DVD with the files on it? And second, if I’m already buying a physical DVD, of what use would the data files be? I could just stick the DVD in my computer or TV and watch it. And third, the files supposedly don’t work on the Mac or the iPod. I’m out.
The BitTorrent idea focuses on just the digital download. Basically, the movie companies would upload their movies to BitTorrent. The more people downloading them, the faster the download. The network is decentralized so no one server is bearing the brunt of the bandwidth traffic.
I think BitTorrent is cool technology but there are some problems with it as a distribution medium for movies. For starters, BitTorrent doesn’t completely control the user experience, because of the nature of the technology. Meaning, if nobody else is seeding a file (or very few), you’re out of luck. I don’t think this experience will really change even if the studios put up their most popular content. The downloads of American Idol will go fast, but anybody who’s into something on the “long tail” may not get a good experience.
When downloading media like movies, people generally don’t like to wait. The ultimate holy grail internet movie experience should be like YouTube, where you hit play, and there it is (after paying a toll, of course). Everyone should be striving for that.
Then once I get the file, how is it organized and managed amongst the rest of my media? This is where Apple and iTunes shine.
While the whole idea of digital movie downloads is an amusing idea, as a consumer I still find it a hard sell. Most of my movie consumption is rentals, of which I pay rock-bottom prices for via NetFlix. The truth is, most movies are ultimately disposable. I watch it once and that’s it. And for the films I really want to own, I’d rather buy a DVD that is of higher quality and more tangible than a digital download.
So I don’t know, I think perhaps the studios should be exploring the use of the internet as a means of marketing and promotion than trying to sell the actual films (at least until the technology catches up). Tons of “outtakes” for Borat are on YouTube and piqued interest in said film. The first few minutes of A Scanner Darkly is available online. Shorter clips mean faster download times. Even the Da Vinci Code Google game got me suckered in and I went to see the film.
I’d love to that kind of stuff blasted out for free with no DRM, through all these various channels. I have a feeling for now, viral marketing and freebies are going to be a better investment than trying to compete with Apple.