Music, Games, and Movies Buzzing Around Our Heads

The big thing now is digital destruction of various forms of digital media. We all know about music and the legal forms of getting mp3 files (like iTunes) and the not so legal ways of getting the same files (like bitTorrent). As the Internet becomes faster for the average consumer, movies and video games fall under the equation.

Let’s start with music because it is something I feel passionate about. The biggest story/joke around for many years was the Metallica (and other singers and bands) were crying foul over illegal downloading via the Internet. While they do have a case that they deserved to be paid for the the music people acquired, but considering that most bands, especially those not as established as Metallica make the majority of their money on concerts and other merchandise, it doesn’t have that much merit. If anything, it might make more business sense for the music be given away for free because if people like it, then they will spend money on the people who created it.

Indie bands have it rougher or easier than they would have had it fifteen years ago depending on who you ask. It’s rougher because radio airplay has become a joke upon itself as most stations pre-program their set lists without any input from the DJ. That Simpsons episode where the radio exec threatens to fire the DJs and replace it with a robot wasn’t far off. Basically the DJs are there to act as the voice of the station while a computer plays the music. This is why you will hear the same songs played in the same blocks throughout the day or on different days. The art of the music video is dead and the station that started it all, MTV, has become a generic cable station that offers little do with the music and more to do with the social lives of inept blondes in California.

Then again, it is a bit easier for a band to break it through to the big stage. The Internet has opened up the ability for good up-and-coming bands to put their music out there for people to get their hands on it. A personal webpage complimented by a MySpace/YouTube account allows bands to connect with their fans and allow their audience to grow. The Internet, when it’s not being seen as a way to steal money away from Lars Ulrich, can be the breeding ground for bands to grow and become bigger than they could have ever dreamed.

Which is a necessity as music becomes created on the mixing board and in the board rooms rather than in the recording booth. Music is too phony now. Songs about rebellion are rarely written by rebels anymore and are instead written by people in suits for the sole intention to sell music to angsty young (suburban) people with quick access to a credit card. Sure the music today might sound good (ok, maybe acceptable is a better word) but it doesn’t create any bond between the artist/song and the listener. Songs are designed to be popular today and forgotten tomorrow to make room for the next song. Covers and remixes are used frequently to draw on the emotional attachment many young people have to hearing the songs when they were children because their parents were listening to it.

The Internet will save the music industry from itself because there is too much Internet and not enough industry people to try to control it. Other forms of media such as video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band help because many of these games feature independent groups for people to play their songs. Even Rock Band’s (and Guitar Hero to a lesser extent) ability to download more songs for a couple of bucks each offers a new revenue stream for these artists. Even if there are a gazillion people downloading music, the digital age will save music as a whole.

MP3 players (and corporate interference) have made radio irrelevant and MySpace has made independent music more available to the masses. Video games are trying to cash in with the various music games selling microtransactions on top of the base price of the game. For Electronic Arts, it’s working really well for Rock Band. Some feel that this will be the future of gaming and that physical media will soon be obsolete. Even some people at Sony have said that the Playstation 3 will be the last system to actually use physical media and that direct download will be the future of gaming.

Sony is serious about digital distribution. Patapon 2, one of the most anticipated PSP games of the year will be released via online download only. The game will also sell in retail stores with a box but will only include a code to download the game instead of an actual UMD disc. There is also a rumour that Sony will be announcing in June a new PSP system that will not have a UMD drive and will only be able to play games via digital download.

There are a couple of problems with this model. Right now as it stands, most retailers sell the systems at cost and make their money off of the games and accessories. Considering that the PSP doesn’t have any additional controllers or hardware (other than a microphone to use with Skype and a couple of games and a few other gadgets), If the company stops producing games to be sold at retail, what is in it for the retailer for them to sell the systems for Sony? Why would I want to go to the store and buy a code for Patapon 2 (which costs $5 more if you go to the store and buy it) to download it when I can skip a step and save money by just doing it from the PSP store. The retailers are already smarting because the Playstation 3 is currently being considered a flop compared to the other consoles. There are not many reasons for retailers to help Sony move product unless Sony throws money at them.

Sony isn’t alone when it comes to digital distribution as both Nintendo and Microsoft have their hands deep in direct download titles for their home consoles. Although Sony does have some piracy problems with the PSP; for the most part, digital distribution is not a direct result of piracy but because the games industry has had the foresight to question whether or not consumers are going to continue to be willing to pay $60+ for an epic game. Nintendo’s booming popularity with the Wii and it’s abundance of cheap, easy to play games has also been a catalyst towards this change. The reason why companies are eyeing their smaller games for digital distribution is because the consumer is trained to believe that buying a retail disc brand new should be worth at least $50 both in terms of quality and the sticker price. Games that are released initially at a low price point may be seen by consumers as an inferior product.

Where the game companies at least have a clue, the movie industry doesn’t. It used to be simple. A movie was released in theatres, if you didn’t catch it, you rented it a year later and several years later you might be lucky to catch it on TV. Pay-per-view, cable/satellite, DVD, and the Internet changed that whole dynamic. Pay-per-view directly hit into the bottom line of rentals (in the early days, there was a delay between the rental date and the PPV broadcast but that no longer exists). As the cable grids grew bigger, the amount of movie channels available grew as well. DVD was superior to VHS and brought a near-cinema quality atmosphere if you had the proper setup. Then there’s that pesky internet with pirated movies available for download.

Movies are far different from music. If you download a mp3 from the internet, you’re not really taking that much away from the musicians because if you like the song, there’s a chance you may go see them when they play in your town or buy one of their posters. Movies are a different beast because if you download a movie, unless it is a major franchise, there is no real way to put money in the pockets of those who made the movie unless you buy the DVD (which you probably are not going to do if you’ve already downloaded the film in the first place). I know that there are exceptions to the rule but they are few and far between.

The idea of digitally distributing DVDs has been a complex issue because of bandwidth issues (a DVD quality film can be several GB of information and Blu-Ray is much larger). Granted, you can download films off the Internet or through set-top boxes/video game consoles but it’s still takes up Internet bandwidth and it can get to be quite pricey after a couple of videos. In Canada, we also have the issue of distribution rights because there are not as many distributors in Canada and many American companies usually sell the rights to their films to some of the Canadian distribution companies like Alliance Atlantis. This is one of the main issues why direct download systems like that for the Sony Playstation 3 remain a United States only feature because of the legal issues surrounding the distribution.

Another issue that the movie industry should be thinking about is that customers are becoming fatigued with the change in formats and choices. For many people, they don’t need a Blu-Ray machine because they don’t have a TV or sound system that will really benefit from a Blu-Ray player. For many, DVD is good enough and the idea of even paying more than a couple of bucks for a download seems silly to some because it’s not like they can hold the movie in their hands. If it is not a tangible product, psychologically it doesn’t have as much value. Even if you do have a state of the art system, Blu-Ray has the huge issue of needing constant upgrades to the firmware to play the newest films properly. While this may be fine for tech-savvy twenty-somethings, my parents would go nuts trying to understand why the movie they paid money for will not work in the fancy machine. Then there’s all the digital options. Movie watching used to be a lot more simpler.

Each medium has it’s different way of approaching the Internet. Music seems to only want to use it to protect itself from piracy and if you don’t use it exactly as they tell you to use it, you’re a criminal. The video game industry doesn’t need to use it but does because it’s the only way consumers will buy cheap games with smaller production budgets. The real mess is with the movie industry because they don’t really know what they’re going to do with the Internet. Too many companies are going into too many directions and the funny thing is that the infrastructure still needs to improve and be more accessible to all (at a decent price) before a standardized version of delivering films to home televisions can be decided upon.

Before we just had television stations buzzing around our heads. Now we have the entire world floating around us invisibly. I think I have a headache.

Montreal News

Guy Lafleur has been found guilty of being less than truthful when giving statements in court as a witness. A Canadiens player doing something he is not supposed to do? No wonder today’s team is so messed up.

International News

In Europe, they take May Day seriously. I wonder how they feel about World Give Money to Me Day?