The digital elephant in the room

[ComicConnoisseur]

In all honesty, the one thing people are forgetting is that the prices we have paid for music and printed material is elevated BECAUSE of the logistics and technical burdens in getting them to us in the form of vinyl, CD or full color printed format. When you remove the technical burdens, there is nothing to artificially inflate the value of the product and it should be devalued proportionately. There are millions of excellent singers, thousands of composers, and thousands of artists which never had an opportunity to sell us their work because the record companies and publishers held tight control over who had the opportunity to get a shot at fame and success. You and I had no way to go out and produce a vinyl record of our own, so record companies could charge whatever they want. Farmers never had the prices protected on the commodities they've sold if their peers had a prosperous harvest. Technology and realities of a free market economy are just leveling the playing field and it's affecting publishers now. People passed music around for free before MP3 existed. Cassette mix tapes were everywhere when I was growing up. It's just easier now. Technology has made the product worthless and only the people who want to adhere to the fading distribution model of the past think that artists are owed a standard of living. I'm not saying I like the idea of an artist not making an income off of his art. Farmers dealt with that for years. It's going to be even harder for new creators to make money off of their work if everything is digitally available forever. It's going to get worse.

 

DG

You make a good point. The days of a Elvis,Michael Jackson,Madonna or Beatles selling multi- millions copies of music are over. I see it has happened in comic books as well.

It`s all about niche audiences now in music,comics and tv.

I still see movie blockbusters though as the last bastion to have universal appeal.

[Davenport]

Long but interesting article: Comic books and the rise of digital download codes as a second market

 

"Not everyone who purchases the physical item wants to use the digital copy. This has created a secondary market for the codes. Unlike the the old-fashioned market for used books and DVDs, the secondary market for downloads codes has also started a legal fight in the United States."

 

Any boardies here working that 'rising market'? Codes into currency?

[Ares]

Long but interesting article: Comic books and the rise of digital download codes as a second market

 

"Not everyone who purchases the physical item wants to use the digital copy. This has created a secondary market for the codes. Unlike the the old-fashioned market for used books and DVDs, the secondary market for downloads codes has also started a legal fight in the United States."

 

Any boardies here working that 'rising market'? Codes into currency?

 

I guess the fight is does the code belong to you to give away or does it go with book.

What if someone who buys your copy want the digital as well

[dupont2005]

There should be no legal fight. They charge extra for the copies with digital codes, meaning the customer paid for that code. They should be able to sell it as well. As long as they can't reproduce codes it seems completely fair to me. This is one of those things that keeps companies from embracing digital, and essentially losing money. Someone wants to buy a code, let them buy the code. Otherwise they could just get a free copy off a torrent site anyway.

[ComicConnoisseur]

Long but interesting article: Comic books and the rise of digital download codes as a second market

 

"Not everyone who purchases the physical item wants to use the digital copy. This has created a secondary market for the codes. Unlike the the old-fashioned market for used books and DVDs, the secondary market for downloads codes has also started a legal fight in the United States."

 

Any boardies here working that 'rising market'? Codes into currency?

 

Interesting. I wonder if Ebay will allow it?

[joecgcmaniac]

Long but interesting article: Comic books and the rise of digital download codes as a second market

 

"Not everyone who purchases the physical item wants to use the digital copy. This has created a secondary market for the codes. Unlike the the old-fashioned market for used books and DVDs, the secondary market for downloads codes has also started a legal fight in the United States."

 

Any boardies here working that 'rising market'? Codes into currency?

 

Interesting. I wonder if Ebay will allow it?

 

That probably would, at least until the law suits started flying.

 

[montrealfilmguy]

I just recently started buying comics from DC and Marvel for my Galaxy tab 2 Samsung.

 

I bought the 4 issues of Kingdom come and a free issue of the first issue of Doom patrol.

 

 

But i'm more into the classic issues,not at all into modern stuff.

 

 

And I wouldn't want to fill my tablet with a billion issues either.

 

Next pack i'm buying is the Beta ray bill issues from 337 on and maybe a few masterworks books.FF and X-Men stuff.

[markseifert]

Any boardies here working that 'rising market'? Codes into currency?

 

Interesting. I wonder if Ebay will allow it?

 

That probably would, at least until the law suits started flying.

 

Search the ebay modern comic section for "code". It's already happening in pretty significant volume.

[Senormac]

I guess I'm getting old.

 

If it's not in print (as in PRINT)... it's not going to be for me.

 

I tried the digital comic thing and I hate it. I really do.

 

Comics came from the Depression of the 30's to give children some form of 'escape' and that's forever where I'll be.

 

Mind you, I'm all about MP3's (MP4's..etc) and quality of sound.

 

No one can convince me that a 'digital' copy of a comic is superior to print.

 

And why the rush to digital anyways?

 

I'll meet you in the WC for that one...

 

I think the newer published comics are superior to print, in that along with computer coloring, backlit artwork always appears more vibrant, shiny and explosive.

 

I tried TWD on digital and I liked the format, but it wasn't until A vs X #1 when I saw how amazing the color looked that I decided to get rid of my reader runs. In my opinion, the quality of a high resolution, digital download on an iPad is vastly superior to it's printed counterpart.

 

And I am sad to see that era go by the wayside, too. I work in a print-related field and I don't like seeing it go away, but in five to eight years or so, I don't think you're going to be buying print comics anymore.

 

I don't know Balls. If they discontinue comics in paper form, how far away are graphic novels, childrens books, and libraries from getting discontinued also. I think there is and always will be something about the human equasion that calls for "possession" of things. People will still want to own.

[Davenport]

Search the ebay modern comic section for "code". It's already happening in pretty significant volume.

Wow, a "digital code only" search yielded 182 active listings.

 

So, if a collector is pre-ordering from, say, DCS at deep discounts. Then ebaying the d-codes for a buck or two...

 

Is that the pay off for this particular market? Nearly-free physical books for the effort?

[Davenport]

New SXSW article with some interesting numbers and info.

 

SXSW 2013: Marvel, Comixology and the Growth of Digital Comics

 

"...since it launched in 2009 with 80 comics from 8 small publishers (yes, no Marvel or DC). The vendor now offers more than 30,000 comics and is adding more than 300 comics a week to its inventory. The vendor hit 100 million downloads last year, released a Windows 8 app this year and was the #3 top grossing book app on Apple. Comixology just keeps on growing—indeed, more than 40% of its sales come from overseas..."

 

 

[Arkham]

I'd be screwed without Comixology.

 

Also, hopefully it will bring some competition into brick and mortar's here. I can get a floppy for $5 out of Brisbane via Comics Etc (AWESOME bunch of peeps there).. but last time I was in Minotaur in Melbourne they were charging $8 for a floppy. Outrageous!