Kodak
"Sad that Kodak thought it was in the film business, when it was really in the memories, self expression and shared experience business."
Have you been following the war on Netflix and Redbox/Blockbuster? The film companies and HBO believe if they make war on these distributors DVD sales will rise and happy days will be here again. This is like the record labels believing they can make CD sales rise if they make war on Best Buy and Wal-Mart and put a shiv into the independents while they’re at it.
Huh?
The future is inevitable. Reading is moving to electronic devices and physical media is dead in the music business, despite all the hosannas about vinyl. Sure, vinyl is fun and warm, and who doesn’t love those giant covers, but saying vinyl is making a comeback is like touting the sales of typewriter ribbons, it’s a drop in the bucket, it’s irrelevant nostalgia, a footnote by the side of the road on the way to what comes next.
And who taught us about the future?
THE PUBLIC!
The public embraced digital photography as well as MP3s. The public has no investment in infrastructure, it just latches on to what’s cool and efficient and goes there.
The more the studios fight with Netflix and Redbox, the more they’re incentivizing people to steal. Might be copyright infringement, but I see you talking on your handset in the car, and that’s illegal too. Unless we put a cop in everybody’s house, with a book of tickets, P2P trading is inevitable.
So how do you fight the onslaught of consumer sentiment?
YOU GET AHEAD OF IT!
Palm ruled in organizers. Who knew people wanted a phone and organizer in one? Turns out the old heads of Palm, who created Handspring, so Palm took them back in. But it turned out your datebook was not as important as your e-mail and Palm got wiped out by RIM, with the BlackBerry, and then RIM got wiped out by the iPhone and Android. You’ve got little sympathy for RIM, you’re laughing at them, why aren’t you doing the same for the music and movie companies who are so inept they don’t want to believe the future exists!
Transitions are hard. That does not mean you can’t make them.
I’ve got no sympathy for the record labels and no sympathy for the indie retailers. You don’t see Wal-Mart complaining about CD sales tanking, they just reduced square footage and sold something else. As did the savvy independent music retailers, most especially Newbury Comics. Lamenting the loss of the past is like desiring we all move back to slide rules in an era of digital calculators. Huh? Did you ever use a slide rule? MP3s have better usability and portability than any previous music medium, and you want people to give them up? What, are we all supposed to go back to using our portable CD players? You don’t see Apple complaining about the slide in sales of the iPod, they just moved on to iPhones!
Record labels are music companies. They were all about distribution, not only did they have empires of people performing those functions, it was their ace in the hole, it’s what gave them their monopoly. And it’s never coming back.
That’s why they’re toast, it’s that simple. As easy to understand as digital replacing film.
All this B.S. about money and radio and TV is irrelevant. Because you can get cash and exposure elsewhere.
As for the film companies, they still control the theatres, but have you been reading the newspaper, admissions are declining. And what do they do, KEEP RAISING THE PRICE!
Don’t criticize Steve Jobs, lionize him. He was the only one who stood up to the labels, who refused to live in the past. Tracks had to be a buck and you could buy them individually. Insisting on albums is like insisting on DVDs in the era of BitTorrent, it’s RIDICULOUS!
And it’s not only the labels, it’s the acts too. Albums are anachronisms. And if you’re withholding your material from the streaming services you’re just showing your ignorance. You probably still don’t have a cellphone. You could at least be honest and say you’re into the money and you can make more withholding, but if you don’t think streaming trumps iTunes you still believe the CD’s gonna make a comeback and destroy Apple’s music store.
Why is everybody so stupid? The above quote from the WSJ did not come from one of its writers or some business consultant but an online poster. People know!
