I recently read a comment about collectors that I found interesting enough to share here.
On reddit.com, hatetosayit commented:
Awesome, you’ve just demonstrated one of my theories as to why people aren’t buying movies anymore. The industry likes to blame piracy, but I think they’ve missed something.
Nobody buys a movie simply because he wants to watch it. You don’t even buy a movie because you will want to watch it again in a couple years. People who buy lots of movies aren’t currently watching all of those movies. So why do people buy movies?
It’s because they’re collectors. It’s like kind of like stamp collectors or coin collectors or people who collect rocks. The point isn’t entirely to have this movie or that movie because you really need it, but to have a whole collection. It preys on human instincts to hoard stuff, and you can try to impress people with your collection, and whatever else. But you have your collection and you’re slightly OCD about it (no offense, I’m a collector too).
Meanwhile the media industry is trying to put you on the upgrade treadmill. Buy the Bladerunner VHS tape. Now buy it on laserdisc. Now buy it on DVD. Now buy the director’s cut. Now buy the director’s cut special edition. Now buy the super-ultra-amazing director’s cut. Now buy the Bluray. Now buy the director’s cut on bluray. Oh, but that won’t work on your iPad, so buy it on iTunes too. Now buy our 1920p version. Now buy it in 3D. And it will just keep on going.
The problem is that collectors, by nature, don’t want to collect things that they’ll have to replace. It runs contrary to the impulse of collecting. In this sort of situation, collectors tend to want the “correct” and definitive version that they buy one time, and then they’re done. They don’t want any of their copies to be the “wrong” version, e.g. DVD instead of Bluray, theatrical cut when the director’s cut is much better, collector’s edition if the original edition is “more authentic” somehow, etc.
So yes, you may have issues, but they’re the “issues” that the movie industry is relying on to make money. You’re a collector and you want your collection to be “right”. Unfortunately the movie industry doesn’t understand that the upgrade treadmill is going to alienate you (and others) in such a way that will probably cost them sales.
I was vaguely aware of some connection between the rushing out of new editions of movies and the decline in sales for movies, but I never heard it articulated this way before. I’m a fan of movies, and would love to collect them. I always like to see the movie as the artists that made it intended it to be watched. Whichever edition that would be, I’d have to decide which edition of the movie is the most faithful to that. DVD, Blu-Ray, VHS, it doesn’t matter, there’s some form of generation loss and formatting going on. It’s not like they’re going to distribute copies of the masters. As it stands with collector’s editions, I’m really not all that big into them. If I want to see behind the scenes or learn more about a movie, I can look these things up. What I do have a problem with is the format treadmill mentioned in the comment. As it comes to music, Vinyl is arguably better sounding than CD as far as tastes go. It’s an old format, well established, and probably not changing any time soon. It’s a prime example of what collectors are looking for. What movies need is some kind of the same, a stable format to welcome collectors. Digital media is great for convenience, horrible for collecting. Perhaps, a long lasting analog format is what’s needed. If like vinyl, they can distribute both the analog for collectors and the digital for convenience in the same package, I think that would be a win for everyone. I would be on board in an instant. As it stands though, I’ll just keep my list of movies I’d like to own and wait for a stable format so I can buy the media and turn it into a collection.
Tags: analog, collection, format war, movie