Good God, do you know how many stores that I regularly visited to buy DVDs in New York City are now extinct? And decent rental places? My boss at the video rental store back when I was in high-school was already predicting the end of physical copies for rent, felt he was saddled with a dinosaur of a company. Maybe he should have renamed it Qwikster.
The irony is, now that I'm on the cutting edge of entertainment technology, I'm pretty close to where I started. I knew that obscure Italian horror movie from the 1970s was probably waiting for me at my local upscale video rental store; and if not, there were several good shops that might have it at a decentish price for immediate purchase, if I just *had* to watch it (and those urges happen, and that's OK). But the fastest way now to watch what I want, when I want, is the illegal option. And while I don't download pirated content, it's pretty much the option of choice for millions of people. And you know what? Chances are, that pool of contraband flicks doesn't include said obscure Italian horror movie from the 1970s, and even if it did, it could be a shitty connection or dead link. 500 people streaming "The Hottie and the Nottie," nobody seeding "4 mosche di velluto grigio." It's beginning to look a lot like Blockbuster all of the sudden.
Which is why the movie studios and rights-holders need to stop standing in the way of progress and just facilitate getting everything on one or two (no more than three) different full-service streaming platforms for the public. Figure out a good deal that recompenses them in a manner that maybe they're not quite accustomed to, but is at least decent -- and that might be Netflix, Amazon, or some new application that's just a glimmer in some venture capitalist's eye as I write this. And then just put everything on this service, a complete library, and give me the ability to access this library instantly for as cheap and easy as possible.
Basically, I'm looking for magic. I want to access my movies at the speed of magic.
My wife and I have a slew of DVDs that we rarely watch. We don't get rid of them, because they're either out of print, in a shitty aspect ratio on instant watch (I'm looking at you, Starz Play), or, in the offchance something we like goes OFF instant watch, we want to be able to watch, if the mood takes us. In other words, while I may not watch Lawrence of Arabia anymore than once a year or so, I would rather keep a physical copy around, in case it's not available to watch instantly.
ReplyDeleteIf the studios started partnering up with Netflix or what have you, I'd probably jettison my entire DVD and Blu-Ray library, save for the out of print titles.
I have to say, considering I've been collecting movies since before I was ten years old, that sounds like a weird thing to say.
On the other hand, I keep a lot less books (prose-only and comics) after I read them, and really only hold onto the ones that I would want to re-read. I don't own ANY CDs anymore - everything I've ever had has been added to my iTunes library and a backup drive.
I don't know if it's just the effects of getting older or what, but I just don't really care about collecting anything anymore. It's not an issue of depression or anything, my priorities just shifted. I guess what's weird is that that tends to happen with life changes, like becoming a parent, or a death in the family, or something like that, but nothing like that has happened.
Maybe its just the technology that's changed my priorities.
I'm going to stick with the streaming only to watch it slowly deteriorate into a catalog of movies that nobody has ever heard of and then canceling my subscription after watching them all.
ReplyDelete