Music piracy rose to epidemic levels at the beginning of the 2000s (although, according to Wired, those days are now over). There were many causes of this growth in piracy — high speed internet access, easy-to-use P2P software — but perhaps the biggest accelerator of music piracy was two-fold: the emergence of devices that allowed us to easily copy and then consume music (namely CD-burners, and then MP3 players) away from the computers we downloaded them on, and the reluctance of the record industry to embrace new technology.
In other words, once people had the hardware for consuming digital music, the record industry failed to give listeners the digital music they wanted at a reasonable price and in an easy-to-access centralized location. The same factors that lead to mass music piracy are now in place to disrupt another flavor of media — comic books. The excitement and media attention around Free Comic Book Day yesterday shouldn’t deceive anybody about the fact that there’s trouble around the corner.
Why is the comic book industry set for a piracy tipping point? After all, people have been able to illegally download comic books on the Web for years. Why should it suddenly accelerate? One factor: the iPad.
Before the launch of the iPad, people who illegally download comic books read them on their computers — compared to a printed comic book, a decidedly inferior experience. However, with the advent of the iPad and the tablet form factor that closely mimics a comic book, Apple’s tablet is liberating illegal comic book downloads from the computer monitor and allowing them to be consumed in a much more appealing and natural way.
I first noticed this last year when I was talking to a friend who was complaining that his local comic shop was out of a specific issue of a comic book he wanted. I suggested to him that he buy it through Marvel’s iPad app. However, Marvel’s app didn’t offer the issue in question. That’s when another friend asked what issue the first friend wanted. The next day, friend #2 emailed him a CBR (Comic Book Archive) file containing a pirated copy of not only that issue, but every Marvel comic that shipped that week.
That instance highlights everything that’s wrong with the legal — and limited — ways to get digital comics on the iPad and exemplifies the mistakes Marvel, DC and the other comic book publishers are making right now.
Open up the Marvel or DC iPad app, and you’re presented with a range of comic book issues and series, but there’s no rhyme or reason as to what’s available. People who want to read their comics digitally (collectors and fans) don’t want to have to wait months to get an issue that was on a comic book newsstand last August. They also don’t want to pay the $1.99 to 2.99 per issue that comic books currently cost on the iPad. Granted, iPad comic book prices are much better than the $3.99 cover price you find on the newsstand, but that doesn’t overcome the selection problems.
That leads to the second part of the problem: price. Digital content is, for the most part, a 99-cent economy. We want our music, our TV shows and our apps to be 99 cents (and between Amazon and iTunes, we can mostly get those price points). Younger people, namely teenagers and college students, who comprise a large part of the demographic of consumers of comic books particularly want those $0.99 digital issues. Why? Because they don’t have the incomes that adults have, and if they can’t buy what they want easily and cheaply, they are much more likely to pirate something.
The comic book companies might be able to get away with their seemingly blas
iPhone 5 & iPhone 4 News Reviews and Hd Wallpapers
iPhone Series story -Publishers’ choice: Will the iPad be the hero or villain of the comic book industry?
Comments Off
