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Stealing Entertainment, Revisited

by Smithee on July 28, 2009

in Consumer

A week ago I wrote a post called “Is it Ever Okay to Steal Entertainment?”, which produced great comments from our readers, many of whom were clearly incensed that I would ever try to rationalize stealing from content creators. I’ve been thinking about the criticism and understanding that was added to the original article. I wanted to see if I could ever become the person that never even accidentally steals entertainment.

I got the impression from your comments, and correct me if I’m wrong, but a lot of people feel that if I’m enjoying any kind of entertainment, then I should have paid for it first.

The problem, I’ve concluded, is that we all steal. All of us. Not always on purpose, but it happens. Some examples:

The Problem with Having Friends

Your friends want you to enjoy the things they enjoy. I really enjoy the band “Cake”, and I never would’ve been exposed to them if someone hadn’t burned me a copy of “Fashion Nugget” back in 2001. Now, over eight years after that, I still haven’t paid for that album, but I enjoy at least one of those songs at least once a month. I’m willing to admit right here that I “stole” that album. And as a direct result, I paid for three other albums of theirs. So the band “Cake” was down one, then up three. “Cake” profits.

This is true of most of the bands that my friends share with me. Friends know best what you’re likely to enjoy.

The DVR Problem

I don’t think there’s any Cable/Satellite/FiOS TV provider that doesn’t offer a DVR box for their customers. Unless you’re watching a Superbowl-type event, or keeping tabs on a weather event or election, you’re probably skipping commercials. That’s stealing: it breaks the model of “we’ll make shows, you pay us, and we’ll insert ads for your product, and there’s an infinitesimal chance our viewers will buy your product over someone else’s”.

If you have a DVR, and you’re decidedly not skipping commercials out of a noble effort to continue this outdated model, then my hat’s off to you, and also, I don’t believe it.

Not to mention the fact that most of the time, the volume of commercials during the break is set so loud that I feel I’m being screamed at.

The “Album Only” Problem

The list of albums that I can listen to all the way through is about half a page long, double-spaced. Nearly every album contains filler material: stuff that the artists know most people won’t like. For about thirty years, record companies sold single songs, with B-sides, and they did very well. The popularity of the CD somehow brought about a trend for people to buy whole albums.

I bought plenty of albums on CD, and have been disappointed with plenty of songs. That’s not an accident, that’s the record company stealing from me. I’m not saying “two wrongs make a right”. I’m just pointing it out. Apple and the record companies know that people much prefer buying single songs, and not wasting money, so they’re working on a new add-on for people who buy whole albums. We’ll see how that turns out, but at present, I predict it will be a miserable failure.

Entertainment in the 21st Century

I much prefer the Creative Commons approach to releasing entertainment. Since Day One, Jonathan Coulton has made it possible and easy to enjoy his music for free. Just as importantly, he’s made it possible and easy to pay him for the songs you like. His music makes me so happy that I’ve paid for the MP3s, as well as a collector’s set of “Thing a Week” CDs, a DVD, and tickets for three concerts.

I know the system works for him, too, since he recently moved into a bigger house with his wife and children.

A Larger View

I think we’re in between payment models at the moment. I’m seeing a 21st century where people only pay for the things they enjoy. My wife and I are already working on a computer-based system, using content from places like Hulu (which includes ads that you can’t skip, but only a couple minutes’ worth), and I’m looking forward to reporting on it, if I can get the bugs all worked out.

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How Much You Can Save By Using a Free Library

by Flexo on June 30, 2009

in Frugality

I am a typical American consumer. I buy books, music, and movies for my own entertainment, and the objects spend more time on my shelves than they do in their respective playback devices. I make an exception for music as everything I buy is almost immediately transcoded digitally and transfered to a portable media device. The entertainment industry is thankful for people like me. I don’t even maximize my Netflix subscription, which I seem to have kept despite considering quitting the program over two years ago.

The library should be a money-saving option for people who like reading, watching movies, and otherwise consuming media. I found a calculator that will put into numbers how much money you could save by utilizing a library’s services rather than opting to buy everything you consume. The calculator is designed for library patrons who already use the free services and would like to see how much they are currently saving, but a slight modification in the terminology would focus the calculator on how much you could save by getting to know your friendly neighborhood librarian.

A quick run of the calculation shows that I could save $100 per month in books, movies, and CDs alone. How much could you save by visiting the library rather than the store?

Personal Library Savings Calculator, Winter Haven (Florida) Public Library

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Following Your Bliss: Good Advice or Bunk?

by Flexo on April 20, 2008

in Best Of, People

One of my favorite musical “acts” is Blue Man Group. The Blue Man Group explores, with primitively modern musical instruments, society, detachment, and collectivism. You may remember them from Intel’s old Pentium commercials. You may also remember them from the television show Arrested Development, in which the character Tobias, played by David Cross, auditioned for the show and failed, later declaring, “I blue myself.” Blue Man Group has shows in New York City, Boston, Las Vegas, and a few other cities, as well as a touring rock show, with each show similar but not identical to the others.

I recently picked up the latest Blue Man Group CD and DVD combination package, How to Be a Megastar! and watched the program. It includes fantastic music and visual performances as I expected, but I am equally intrigued by the special features, including a documentary-style interview with the creators of Blue Man Group, Phil Stanton, Chris Wink, and Matt Goldman.

When originally devising the concept of the Blue Man, the creators struggled at first. These three percussionists, who were working day-jobs as caterers in New York City, were ready to abandon their vision. At the right time, they received a sign. While watching television, they came across an interview with an expert on religion and philosophy. In this interview, the expert was asked to summarize the prevailing philosophical thought across the world, to which he answered: “Follow your bliss.”

Stanton, Wink and Goldman then knew that despite their difficulties, they must continue to create their vision through completion, even if success would never come. Thankfully for them, success did come, and Blue Man Group is now a cultural phenomenon. But the interview made me think about this particular philosophical idea.

First of all, what is “bliss?” Wordnet defines the word’s most common sense: a state of extreme happiness. The true path is the path that leads you towards a state of extreme happiness. In fact, in the interview, the creators of Blue Man Group went on to say that the journey is more important than the destination.

Am I following my bliss? I’m not sure. There was a time when I thought I had my life planned out, but year by year, I allowed this path to change. I’m now quite far from what I thought I would be doing with my life by this point, the age of 32. My job is fine, but it’s not intellectually, emotionally, or artistically stimulating. I like writing for Consumerism Commentary, but I’m not a particularly good writer. I enjoy building online communities, and that may be my personal strength for the moment, but is it my “bliss?”

Who should follow this advice, to follow one’s bliss? Perhaps not everyone has the luxury of doing so. The world needs janitors, truck drivers, bus boys, and others who perform thankless jobs — the jobs children often don’t think of when they are asked what they’d like to be when they grow up. But then again, are we sure that these individuals are not following their bliss? Perhaps their “extreme happiness” is satisfied simply by providing for their family in any manner possible.

In the case of the creators of the Blue Man Group, they needed to complete their project before they could be satisfied. With success, it seems their project may never be complete; shows are revised, new tours are initiated, and new audiences are born constantly.

After leaving the arts world, I thought my goal would be to volunteer for causes about which I feel strongly or become a to philanthropist as much as my budget allows. It seems I may be too picky to do so at the level at which I would be making a difference, and in some cases, to do so at all. Even though the organization closest to meeting my requirements is strongly involved in the activity I wish to support, having been close to that organization with intimate knowledge of its administration, I’d prefer not to do business with them. Unfortunately, no other organization is similar.

Do you follow your bliss?

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Best Buy Offering Store Credit in Return for HD DVD Hardware and Movies

by Flexo on March 24, 2008

in Consumer

If you have an HD DVD player and fear it will be collecting dust in your entertainment center, you have an option to turn the hardware into $50. Best Buy is accepting returns for any HD DVD product in return for store credit. You would receive up to $50 in store credit for the player and a few dollars for each HD DVD title you return through the Best Buy Trade-In Center.

You can even return HD DVD hardware and titles not purchased at Best Buy, but you’ll still receive a Best Buy gift card in return.

Additionally, Best Buy is automatically sending a $50 gift card to those who purchased HD DVD players at their stores. As long as your purchase is on the store’s records, you will receive this gift card in addition to any credits you would receive if you decide to trade in the player.

That’s actually not a bad deal. It’s rare that “early adopters” are afforded this courtesy.

Will you be trading in your HD DVD player? Or will you be keeping the device for the existing HD DVD titles and the player’s upconverting features for standard DVDs? Or will you be laughing at all of us poor souls who thought the lower price and better features would win consumers over in comparison with Blu-Ray’s larger storage capacity?

(Thankfully I hedged my bets and managed to find myself with a Blu-Ray player as well.)

Best Buy HD DVD Action Center

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HD DVD Officially Dead: Long Live Blu-ray

by Flexo on February 19, 2008

in Consumer

When VHS finally emerged as the market leader over Sony’s Beta format, we gave our immediately-obsolete player to my grandmother.

I’ve been following the high definition format wars with moderate interest, since I was a “late early adopter.” Last fall, I picked up an HD DVD player and during the holidays I received a Blu-ray player. In my opinion, HD DVD was the better deal — more interesting technology, players that were ready to enter the market, and better price points on the hardware. Blu-ray had the benefit of larger capacity and the bandwidth to allow higher quality encoding. Blu-ray also uses region encoding, like standard DVDs. Blu-ray discs purchased in one country will therefore not work in all countries. HD DVDs were “region-free.”

I thought that HD DVD would be the format that caught on, but I underestimated Sony’s ability to get the studios on their side. In the last few months, movie studios and distributors, one after another, announced they would be publishing future releases exclusively on Blu-ray, most likely due to the region restriction (and probably some financial incentive).

Toshiba, the major company behind HD DVD, has finally surrendered. The company announced they are discontinuing their entire HD DVD business. Thankfully, I haven’t invested too much in this technology, but with few movies being released on HD DVD in the future, I won’t need a device used for less than 10 movies (5 of which were free) taking up space in my entertainment center.

Toshiba announces discontinuation of HD DVD business [hddvd.org]

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Netflix to Support Blu-ray Exclusively

by Flexo on February 11, 2008

in Consumer

Netflix has been offering movies to rent on both high definition media formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray, will now be exclusively supporting just one technology: Blu-ray.

Citing the decision by four of the six major movie studios to publish high-def DVD titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray format, Netflix said that as of now it will purchase only Blu-ray discs and will phase out by roughly year’s end the alternative high-def format, HD DVD, developed by Toshiba.

Paramount and Universal are left as the only major film studios supporting HD DVD.

While I think Blu-ray is the superior medium in terms of capacity and encoding, its hardware isn’t priced competitively with HD DVD and the player technology is about a year behind HD DVD’s advancements. The film industry, rather than the consumers, has made the decision to support Blu-ray.

Netflix, Citing a Clear Signal From the Industry, Will Carry High-Def DVDs Only in Blu-ray Format [Netflix Press Release]

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Hedging Bets on Blu-Ray But Still Disappointed (and Blog Roundup)

by Flexo on January 17, 2008

in Consumer

Last year, I decided to become a “late early adopter” by taking the jump to high-definition entertainment. I upgraded my equipment, including a Toshiba HD DVD player. While cognizant of the HD format wars, I went ahead with HD DVD because the equipment was better priced for the mass market. I thought thought that due to pure economics, this format would win despite its technical inferiority to Blu-Ray. I decided to hedge my bet and asked my girlfriend for a Blu-Ray player for the holidays.

Recently, more movie studios have agreed to support Blu-Ray exclusively, so despite HD DVD’s connectivity and interactivity features — none of which were ready on Blu-Ray — people seem to be declaring that Blu-Ray has won the format war. Shortly after this announcement, the Blu-Ray camp announced that players on the market now (except for the one built into the Playstation 3 game console) will not be able to play most future Blu-Ray discs thanks to technological advances that won’t be backwards compatible. Even though I thought I was covering all my bases, I lost the format war. The consumers always lose.

Here are some articles I’ve enjoyed recently: [click to continue…]

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