DVDs on demand

[acroyear]

Steve Jackson Games Daily Illuminator - April 18, 2009:

Warner Brothers has released 150 titles from its archives in DVD. This in itself is not unheard of; what's new (or at least unusual) is their method of manufacturing and distribution. Customers will order the discs direct from WBShop.com, who presses to order. WB avoids any inventory hassles, and movie buffs get access to hundreds of films that have traditionally been collector's items.

The POD concept isn't new, of course -- we've used the technology ourselves several times. But applying it to DVDs is.

Once again, it's how some things should have been done in the first place...

Other companies are doing similar things, like instead of pressing 100,000 copies so that 100,000 stores can each get one (but not sell 'cause the 100,000 people who might want one are all located near only 1,000 of those stores), they're pressing copies and just sending them to the online warehouses. As in, instead of going to B&N, you can only get it at BN.com or Borders.com or Amazon.com.

Now, the only problem with these approaches is that whole, if I don't know it's out there, I'll never know I can buy it. Much is (or used to be) discovered merely by browsing, but increasingly with stores only carrying the "guaranteed sellers", the *good stuff* simply isn't stocked anymore.

Comments

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

WB has been doing a big marketing push online lately. I've been getting a lot of e-mail traffic from them.

[uncle-possum.livejournal.com]

"Now, the only problem with these approaches is that whole, if I don't know it's out there, I'll never know I can buy it. Much is (or used to be) discovered merely by browsing, but increasingly with stores only carrying the "guaranteed sellers", the *good stuff* simply isn't stocked anymore."

And, thus we may find the development, at long last, of the sort of "bibliographic" apparatus that was developed in the late 19th century for books: Publishers Weekly started listing every book published in the US, beginning in 1873; Books in Print started 1947 iirc, and the "US Catalog" in the 1890s. There have been efforts by the library community to produce similar things for microfilm, films, TV programs, etc. for some time, maybe this development will encourage support for a complete, accurate, and comprehensive listing of all recorded (or at least DVD) video/films. Curiously, the industry doesn't seem all that interested in such a thing.

On the other issue, more and more, too many public libraries are also carrying only the "most popular" books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, etc. using the same principles as businesses do.

[kiltboy]

If there's a movie I want that is out of print, I check Pirate Bay. Lot's of movies. And having to spend $50 for a family of three to see a flick? They've made enough money off me.