Content provider or content withholder?

by Justin 27 April 2011 07:25 Miscilliness

Downloading music (illegally) for free is nice and convenient, but it's less convenient if it means that your favourite artists can no longer afford to make music due to the fact that they're no longer earning any money from it. But how straightforward is it to replace Channel BT with your friendly, neighbourhood legal download service?

I’ve ranted previously about the wrongheaded attitude to piracy that most media corporations and governments possess, but I’ve put slightly less effort into testing the various alternatives the content owners purportedly provide. I tend to buy most of the movies I want on DVD or Blu-ray, I download most of my TV (because Australian TV is unbearable to sit through), and I rarely buy music.

This weekend I wanted to buy some music: specifically, I wanted to buy the soundtracks to Moon and Tron:Legacy. Since I wanted to actually listen to those soundtracks over the weekend, ideally on that very day, I discounted the idea of ordering the CDs online. This left me with two alternatives: buy the CDs in my local entertainment retailer; or pay to download the soundtracks. My first port of call was JB HiFi, which only offered me Tron:Legacy at a price of $19.99. While many might argue that $20 is totally reasonable, it was a little more than I wanted to pay - I didn’t want to listen to the soundtrack enough to pay $20 for it (maybe because I’d already paid $30 for the film just a few days earlier).

Next I tried iTunes, which had both soundtracks for $16.99 each... what - wait?! $17?!

So, let’s get this straight - for the content provider *not* having to pay for distribution, storage and manufacturing costs they’re going to knock a whopping $3 off the cover price? For sacrificing CD quality sound (iTunes AAC files are only provided at 256kbps), a physical disc, a printed cover, and a shiny plastic box to store all of that it I’m saving myself a staggering $3? If you ask me, that doesn’t exactly add up. I’m well aware that there are many additional costs involved in producing a CD, and that there’s definitely an argument that it’s the content, rather than the medium, that matters. However, to my mind there’s significantly less value in having a virtual product as opposed to a physical one. I’m prepared to give up the various benefits of having a actual CD, but I expect my virtual equivalent to come in at a much lower price.

I then tried one of the iTunes alternatives: bandit.fm. They only had Tron: Legacy, and at the same price as iTunes. No sale. Prior to writing this post I also checked with BigPond Music - Tron: Legacy was available at $15.65 for a 320kbps download (a worthwhile improvement on the iTunes offering), while Moon was not listed. As far as I gather there are no other realistic download services available to the Australian consumer right now. So that’s a big pile of fail right there.

Next up, another good download service I (thought I) had successfully used in the past: the UK-based 7digital. This site offered me Tron:Legacy for £4.99 (roughly AUS$7.60) for a 320kbps mp3 (no sign of Moon). Deal! Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to hand over my money as the site is geotarded: UK customers only. This continues to stagger me: here I am actually wanting to give my hard earned money in exchange for a company’s product, but I can’t!

Does anyone else think this is absolutely, completely backwards? Imagine going into a shop and trying to buy something, only to be told you can’t because they can only sell stuff to people who have the letter Y in their names. It makes about the same amount of sense.

Now, at this stage, I only really have two other options left. If I really wanted to I could fire up Tor, locate a UK proxy, and buy the damn downloads on Amazon.co.uk (Tron: Legacy for just AUS$7.60, Moon for slightly more at AUS$10.65). This would involve potentially enabling the person providing the outgoing connection to capture my Amazon login and payment details (it’s unlikely, but always a potential risk) as well as forcing me to download my files over a far slower connection. Alternatively, I could just go to Kick Ass torrents and do a quick search there.

Anyone want to guess which I ended up doing?

damned larceny!

So, the deal is I’ve ended up having to commit an illegal act, one for which governments and media corporations are conspiring to punish with increasingly disproportionate penalties. These same companies would probably argue that I had a perfectly legal alternative provided to me via iTunes. Well, sorry, but I didn’t feel like being ripped off this weekend.

If there’s a lesson in this it’s that the content providers need to get on with actually providing the content, instead of wasting time and resources turning people into criminals. A lot of people don’t mind paying for their content, but if it’s easier to download it for free than it is to walk down to the shop and buy it then they’re going to choose the easy option. Conversely, if it’s easier to go to a retail site and pay to download the content than it is to hunt down a torrent then people will pay. Strangely enough, most people will also resent being overcharged, as well as being told which devices which they can and can’t use to enjoy the content they’ve just paid for.

Content providers: you have to remember, we consumers now have the power to choose, whether you like it or not. Why don’t you just make it easier for us to choose you?

the happy ending

In my defence I *loved* both albums and will be ordering the CDs from Amazon.co.uk this week (AUS$11.99 for Moon and AUS$9.40 for Tron:Legacy). I could pay more at an Australian retailer, but I’m really not going to do that. Either way, this is really just a token gesture - it’s the downloaded versions I’ll be listening to.

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