Will Things Get Worse Before They Get Better?
Digital music and movies are a way of life these days. If a person wants a new song or album, chances are they’re downloading it from iTunes or Amazon. If they want to watch a movie, it’s NetFlix or on-demand via their television providers. Digital avenues for these media have become so successful that it has crippled brick and mortar stores and rendered physical copies virtually obsolete. Remember huge chains like Tower Records and Virgin Megastores? They’re gone. You can still get a CD at Best Buy, Target, and other chains that sell more than just discs, but other options are becoming increasingly rare.
The DVD and Blu-ray market continues to be strong, as people enjoy owning an impressive film library, and the availability of high-definition digital content is severely lacking. But this is all going to change eventually, and many opinions believe that physical media will be a thing of the past before long. Comics will always have a print market as long as collectors keep buying hard copies, but the aforementioned trend for music and film should indicate that casual readers will gladly jump on the virtual bandwagon of digital comics, ushering in a new age for the industry.
Sounds great, right? But if publishers aren’t careful, it’s not going to happen any time soon, and the market could take a dive before hitting a boom. How so? Think back to eleven years ago. Compact discs were the standard for music, and DVDs were hitting their stride for movies, while VHS was gasping its last breaths. Physical copies were the norm, but digital demand was growing, as high-speed internet became prevalent, especially on college campuses. File sharing programs like Napster, Scour, Kazaa, and Audiogalaxy met these needs, and pirated media became a phenomenon. The recording industry and motion picture industry were getting hit hard by the sudden availability of pirated materials and the ease with which the common computer user could acquire them for free.
It was extremely simple for the average user to create pirated material, as cd-ripping software became standard, and mp3 became a household term. The industries went after the file sharers, and while it seemed that whenever one service shut down another arrived to take its place, eventually piracy took a downturn. Although file sharing hubs and websites still exist, and pirated media is available for those who really want it, it is not nearly as quick and easy, or as prevalent as it once was.
As a result of this, the record and movie industries recognized that there was a demand for digital content, and began making it available for purchase via legal channels. The main reason this worked is because the companies realized why piracy became the norm in the first place: Price. CDs were going for 19 dollars and movies were $20-30. Why pay such exorbitant prices when one could pay nothing? Would-be consumers didn’t even feel bad taking music and movies for free because for years they felt that the music and movie companies were stealing from them. So when iTunes and other online venues for downloadable media became successful, it was because they were inexpensive. If there’s a song you like, you don’t want to spend close to twenty dollars (now more like thirteen, thanks to Best Buy offering fair prices) on a full album, but you don’t mind spending a buck and getting what you wanted. If you want the whole album, you can get it for $9.99. If a consumer wants a physical copy, they likely have the means to create their own with a CDR and burner. It’s a great deal, and it’s worked extremely well.
This is where comics companies need to be careful. Comics piracy has already existed for many years online, but with the advent of publisher-provided digital content for the masses, the potential for piracy has increased exponentially. Currently, DC is charging the same amount for a newly released digital comic as they are for the print version. If they don’t change this quickly, they will get hit hard. Why should a reader pay full price if they can pay nothing? Music is music, movies are movies. Formats have changed for these media over the ages, but comics are different.
People buy comics for reading and collecting. People who buy digital comics are accepting that they are not getting the resale potential that hard copies provide collectors, so why should they pay the same amount?
DC can make a killing in the digital market and truly revolutionize the industry, but they need to be willing to sacrifice on a per-sale basis in order to increase sales overall. People will be much more likely to try a new book and stick with it if they don’t have to leave the house or pay the full cover price. The comics industry should learn from the mistakes and progress of the music industry to reproduce its success. Otherwise, it is doomed to repeat its failures.