An Open Letter to Hollywood →

Kevin Whipps writing on AppStorm:

But today, I can’t leave a movie theatre without paying $50. My wife and I both need to get in, and now tickets are over $10. Popcorn prices have been going up for years as has drinks, so now I’m paying even more for the same thing. I get into the theatre, and it’s the same experience I had 20 years ago — which would be fine, but my 1080P TV at home sure does look a lot better, and I don’t have to deal with Smokey McTextingpants in the next row live tweeting the event from his BlackBerry. Plus I’ve got to get a babysitter (and I understand that it’s not your fault that I decided to procreate), deal with that whole nonsense and in the end, it’s just not worth the cash. Too much friction.

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I haven’t bought a retail version of a DVD in years because if I don’t get it via Netflix, I download it from iTunes. Why? Again, friction. I pay $20 for an HD version of a movie and it’s in my living room within 20 minutes. That’s better than the pizza guy, and I don’t have to deal with his BO or debate whether or not to give him a tip or a handful of anti-bac soap.

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This one is pretty easy: Continue to sell things on iTunes and other online markets. Now wait, you’re probably freaking out but listen to what I’m suggesting. With Apple, everything you sell gets you 70%. Now I know there’s contracts to work with and exclusive deals here and there, so maybe your numbers are different. But if you put everything you have into iTunes, then there’s more stuff for people to choose from, it will make you more money.

Think about it like this. Remember when VHS came out? Then LaserDisc? Then DVDs? Everyone bought their entire collection over again because of the new standard. This is the same thing. People will continue to buy their stuff all over again, but this time, you don’t have the production costs of stamping and making DVDs. Now it’s all servers and file storage, something you can handle in your sleep.

This is right on. The whole article is worth a read. This sums up many of the problems with the industry well.