Embracing digital

The march toward digital is an inevitable one. I usually find myself split between the analog (physical) formats of last year and the digital ones of today. For example, this month marks the second anniversary of turning off our television reception: no over-the-air, cable, satellite, or anything else. Nothing. Instead we've bought movies, tv shows, and music from iTunes. And it has been really nice.

I'm not advocating a full switch to digital formats in an instant because, frankly, I don't see how it is financially viable. CD and DVD sales are declining while digital sales are increasing, however, the financial picture is not one that leaves the music or movie industry with as much revenue as they have now. In short, I think they're going to make less per unit in the future and they need to figure out how to make up the difference otherwise.



Which brings me to last week. I received a gift card to Blockbuster over the holidays and decided to redeem it this week buying a new Borne Ultimatum DVD, but alas, they had sold the few new copies they had. I left empty handed.

A few days later I decided I'd buy the copy of Casino Royale that I saw while browsing the new DVDs and returned to the store. Alas, they had sold the copy of that DVD as well. I left empty handed again.

This is the problem with physical copies. I wanted to spend money and was ready to buy at least one, if not both movies. But instead I have neither solely because there was not a physical copy at the same time and place as my physical money.

Digital doesn't have this problem. Sure you have to worry about unauthorized duplication, but beyond that, it has an astronomical advantage over physical distribution. Any time or place (proximate to an internet connection, of course) a customer has money, the digital copy is available. Figure this out and the movie industry will make up their shortfall.