We usually think of Bittorrent in terms of film, music or television “piracy”, but there are increasing legitimate uses (see The Promo Bay for example).
I’ve also noted that the secret to success is to build a connection with fans and give them something to buy. Here’s an example where the author provided a lot of high value add-ons for his book, and linked to the book’s Amazon page, and sales go nuts.
The article of the same name at Techdirt starts with:
Just a few days after Joe Karaganis posted his response to the RIAA’s favorite researcher, Russ Crupnick of NPD Group, who suggested that Karaganis must be drunk and have little knowledge of statistics to publish a study showing that pirates tend to buy more — and then revealing his own numbers that showed the exact same thing — UK regulatory body Ofcom hascome out with a study saying the same exact thing again (found via TorrentFreak).
While the major record labels and movie studios do what they can to shutter The Pirate Bay, thousands of lesser known artists are eager to become featured on the site’s homepage. Since the start of the “Promo Bay†initiative in January, 10,000 independent artists have signed up to be promoted by the world’s largest torrent site. Those who were lucky enough to be featured have enjoyed a healthy career boost and in some cases earned thousands of dollars from file-sharing fans..
From TorrentFreak.com
Conventional wisdom is that there is no value in “free” distribution, yet 10,000 artists – probably more than signed to all labels combined currently – have taken advantage of the offer: free music for promotion.
Who’s looking out of step now? Not the artists, that’s for sure.
The conventional wisdom from the dinosaurs of the film, TV and music business is that all they need to do is get laws changed in their favor to “stop piracy”.
In Japan they got their way with a new, draconian, law going into effect:
Except, the reality is that consumers are spending less on music than they were before the bill became law. The article actually posits that the government has made some people so fearful of being arrested that they won’t do any downloading from legitimate sources any more — just in case it’s tainted. So even if they can cut out piracy (doubtful) there’s little evidence to suggest much increase in commerce as a result.
When will they realize it’s a business model problem. I repeat that no peer reviewed (i.e. legitimate) study has ever proved any damage to any organization from unauthorized distribution. Those “studies” that the industry produce have been pretty thoroughly debunked. It’s time stop suing and start thinking of new business models that embrace the publicity value from “unauthorized” distribution.
Yes, finally, another Terence and Philip Show! This time Terence grills Philip on what really happened during the Solar Odyssey, the production lessons learnt and what else has come out of the experience.
A short article (from the Associated Press so it may time out, sorry) Director Thomas finds passion project online leads with:
 Director Betty Thomas neatly sums up the benefits of making a low-budget online series: a lack of high-level meddling.
“There’s no network saying, ‘Oh, Betty, I’m not sure viewers will like that character if she picks that banana up,'” the Emmy-winning actress turned director said. Mention that the character enjoys fruit, she said, and the network comeback may be, “But what does a banana symbolize?”
While the MPAA lobby group keep bleating that filmmaking in some way is in trouble because they can’t see how they’ll make “$100 million movies” profitably, the industry is actually doing very well. In fact, there are those who believe that a return to making relevant films people care about is the future of filmmaking. (Movies that people care about, what a concept!)
On the weekend the New York Times published an article - Movies Try to Escape Cultural Irrelevance – that sums up the problem of focusing on the tentpole movie: other than 12-25 year old boys, they’re not particularly relevant:
Several industry groups, including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, and the nonprofit American Film Institute, which supports cinema, are privately brainstorming about starting public campaigns to convince people that movies still matter.
It’s a long article and a very good read for those who believe that film is culturally relevant. Personally I’ve long been a fan of Television over Film and I think more culturally relevant Television is being made than film.
But the prospect that a film will embed itself into the cultural and historical consciousness of the American public in the way of “Gone With the Windâ€Â or the “Godfather†series seems greatly diminished in an era when content is consumed in thinner slices, and the films that play broadly often lack depth.
As the awards season unfolds, the movies are still getting smaller. After six weeks in theaters “The Master,â€Â a 70-millimeter character study much praised by critics, has been seen by about 1.9 million viewers. That is significantly smaller than the audience for a single hit episode of a cable show like “Mad Men†or “The Walking Dead.â€
“Argo,â€Â another Oscar contender, had about 7.6 million viewers through the weekend. If interest holds up, it may eventually match the one-night audience for an episode of “Glee.â€
That must really hurt that your film in distribution can’t out view a cable TV show. But it’s not all bad news.Variety reports that  L.A. filming continues its rise and apparently a recent panel USC Law Program Captures Screenshot of a Tough Business complained that “too many films are being made” as if it was a bad thing. I suspect the problem is that movies are being made outside of the big six irrelevant studios by people who care about movies.
But, like the MPAA and “recorded discs”, if it’s not from an MPAA studio, then it really doesn’t matter. At least that seems to be the attitude of the entrenched dinosaurs of the industry. There are many more financially successful movies now than ever before because not everyone believes the only movies worth making have to cost $100 million or so.
Hollywood Still Resisting The Idea That Cheaper, Better Films Is The Way To Beat TV:
What did strike me as interesting, however, is that the article highlights a key point that many of us have been making. The industry really only has itself to blame for continuing to churn out expensive remakes and sequels, rather than investing in quality — the continued quest for “$100 million films” rather than figuring out how to make good movies for less money.
The entrenched players don’t seem to realize that disruption comes from outside. Never within. Those that do not realize this are doomed to be disrupted out of business.
Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6 is probably the most feature-rich release since the original one. As well as the features Apple discussed at NAB Â 2011:
there’s more. Much more. Including a feature I wish they hadn’t put in and one I’m extremely pleased they did. I’m ecstatic that selective pasting of attributes is now an Final Cut Pro X feature, but I’m really annoyed that persistent In/Out points made it to this release. More on these later.
The article at Techdirt is titled Hollywood Accounting: How A $19 Million Movie Makes $150 Million… And Still Isn’t Profitable but the discussion ranges beyond that.