So... I'm really not a fan of paid digital content. Sure, I've bought indie games on Xbox Live and downloaded paid apps to my phone. I even paid for the Gosford Park soundtrack on mp3 because it was so hard to acquire through less legal means.
Yet to my mind, digital content doesn't "exist" in the same way that physical products do.
When I buy a CD, book, or game from a store, I own it. It's in my hand as an individual object that exists as a single entity in the real and physical world. When I buy an mp3 or program or whatever, it isn't a thing. It's a notion or concept that depends on other things in order to exist. Nobody ever considers a digital edition of their favourite novel to be a treasured possession, unless perhaps it's insanely hard to find or digital-only, and nobody ever fought off garden zombies with a box of mp3.
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| remember these? |
Still, I'm not a Luddite, and I'm not really that concerned about the physical properties of these purchases. I have plenty of free digital content which I am more than happy to use. Hell, this and every blog of mine doesn't count as "real" by my schema, yet I spend a ridiculous amount of time working on and worrying about them.
No, my concerns are more economic.
It takes a certain amount of material and manpower to produce a book or mp3. It takes twice as much material and manpower to produce two identical books, while producing two, six or thirty million identical mp3s costs no more than producing just the one.
When you paying for digital content, you're not paying for a "thing". At least when you pay for a book, a DVD or a cat-scratching post, you're paying for the materials that go into making it. Yes, I know that digital content still goes through a production process that costs money and has to be covered by sales, but every single purchase beyond that point increases the profit margin exponentially. Once a digital album has paid for itself, every sale is profit. Once a book launch has paid for itself, it still needs to make more books to encourage more sales.
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| well, maybe it's not that bad |
If Francis Drake can't pack it in a crate, store it in the hold and ship it round the world, then it isn't "real" goods, and paying for it is only going to take money out of the physical, material economy and put it into the pockets of retailers, driving up the cost of actual physical goods and materials.The value of your purchase isn't being passed down the line to anyone in construction or any aspect of industry- for all intents and purposes it simply vanishes.
Maybe I've missed something, or maybe this doesn't matter as much as I think does, and the economy has some sort of reactionary way of dealing with this that I haven't considered. I'd love to hear what you think over on Crap Looking Books Facebook page or in the comments below.
Nick
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I'll made a shorter, less wordy and more gesticulative video of this blog injected with my usually quirkiness, which you can watch you can watch here.
Writing, producing, editing, singing, playing a banjo are jobs like any other. I'm never gladly gonna pay a huge bully of an international company for digital content if I can't avoid it (after all, the bully's profit used to be mostly on distribution), but I don't see why you should pay the person that cleans your working place (given you don't take "cleanliness" home as a good, it's a service) or the one that answers your calls if you happen to have an office (you don't throw phone calls on zombies either, and you need a phone to make those exist), and not the person who wrote the book you're reading or the song you're listenin, it's pretty much the same.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, if it's an independent publisher or a band selling a digital record through their site or on Bandcamp, I'll be happy to pay. They are hardly gonna earn enough than for covering expenses for a new record/book anyway.
(Sorry for my English, not a native speaker)
You're English is absolutely fine, thanks for your comment.
DeleteIt was never my intention to make the point of "Why the hell should we pay for downloading books/music/games?" but rather highlight in purely economic terms how paying for something digital differs from paying for something made out of physical materials.
With independent bands/writers/houses you are usually paying for their time and effort rather than any sort of actual material, and they certainly need that- but this extends to larger and bigger names- however once all production costs have been made and a working wage facilitated, digital sales are all profit while physical sales still incur a material cost.
I apologise if this came across as a vehement campaign directly against paid digital content. It was intended as more food for thought, and eye opener.
Nick
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When you buy a copyrighted digital book (such as Amazon.com sells for its Kindle) you're not actually buying it; you're buying only the right to read it on a device registered with your account. You cannot legally sell it to another person, for instance.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, and that scary factor is they can (and have in the past) take that right away from you, with or without refund, depending on consumer pressure.
DeleteAn example I will cite is Live gaming on Xbox 360- purchasing a game from the Arcade will allow you to download it to any Xbox 360 console you are registered to, but when the Xbox 360 support is cancelled in future, that access will go with the ability to use it.
Nick
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I have mixed feelings about digital content. I like it, on one hand. There is a lot of convenience and not using physical resources to create and ship it appeals to my inner treehugger. On the other hand, it is not something I can resell or gift and I doubt if it is as costly to produce as real physical goods, so I get a bit nasty about publishers who sell digital content for the same price as their physical counterparts. Ideally, I like to get content directly from artists and authors to be sure they get their fair share, but I do not have a problem paying for digital content when it is reasonable.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I think there is a battle in publishing (as I suppose in many walks of life) between the economics and as you say, the "inner treehugger". It is not always possible to be a humanist and an environmentalist, and even less possible to be an economist and an environmentalist.
DeleteHowever I think as consumers it comes down to us to develop our own moral compasses over payment and our own environmental compasses too.
As you say, gifting is a key part of publishing, especially when it involves giving a book you have already owned or read. I hope you agree that the environmental value of a physical book increases when it is lent, resold, or gifted- three things that can not happen to liscended digital copy.
Nick
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Yes, of course , every time a book is read it's value increases on many levels. I do have a happy collection of real hardcover books and shell out generous portions of my paycheck for hardcovers of treasured authors. Perhaps that is why I feel frustrated at the battle that seems to be playing out between the two formats. I think they can work hand in hand if we allow them to. E-publishing is a comparatively low risk way for a new author to get started, not just for the author (who can publish a work himself if he does not have a publishing house) and the publisher (who will not be stuck with an excess of unsold books if it is not popular), but for the reader if new authors are able to offer their works for about the price of their morning coffee. I would like to think that eventually we will see the newer works get started digitally at a low price point, then published in physical format once the author has shown that their work has lasting value. I see a few of them already, but there is also a lot of resistance from people who are comfortable with things the way they are. I have a (possibly unjustified, but still pleasing to me) strong optimistic streak on the subject and I think this is one of the few issues where balance is within our grasp if we are careful.
DeleteI think you are rightly optimistic about this matter. Specifically regarding your following remark-
Delete"I would like to think that eventually we will see the newer works get started digitally at a low price point, then published in physical format once the author has shown that their work has lasting value."
-I can tell you first hand from my experience at trade/author events etc. that this is the highly likely future. It is a benefit to the publisher because the author has the chance to prove themselves before contract, but is also of benefit to the the author because they have the opportunity to gauge their own success/popularity, and can set terms with the publisher.
Nick
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