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4 edits | Here's the bottom line: Here's the bottom line:
On one side of the room is 'Old Hollywood' who wants you to pay 20 bucks a ticket to see their movies. That's the ONLY way they want you to see them! Same thing with the music industry-the RIAA and record companies want to sell you little metallic disks at 20 dollars a pop.
On the other side of the room is the rest of us. We want our content when WE want it and in a form that WE want to use it.
WE want to be able to buy ONE song for a dollar instead of being forced to pay 19 dollars more and get a bunch of songs we DON'T want! WE want to be able to listen to music on our phones and music players. WE want to be able to see TV shows and movies at OUR convenience and at realistic prices (and also be able to drink our own drinks and eat our own popcorn!).
NOW---most industries would realize that the 'Customer is King!' For example, restaurants know that if they serve food that customers don't want, they will be out of business. Circuit City learned the hard way that if you don't serve the customer well they will vote with their feet.
BUT the movie and music industries are arrogant f**ks. They don't CARE what the consumer wants. They say: "Our way or the highway". AND they have discovered something else (from the Mafia by the way): If you (can) get a politician and/or judge or two in your pocket, you don't HAVE to market to consumer desires-you can force the consumer to have to do it your way. I guess that Circuit City didn't have any politicians in their pocket so they could direct law enforcement to bring guns and raid their competition out of business.
I guess it's much easier to take a few million dollars and bribe Congress and the courts to force the consumer to bend to YOUR will then to actually market TO the consumer!
Even better, you can get the Govt. to crush any upstart competition FOR you (for free!) -an unexpected bonus!
And this is exactly what they do.....
Here in Pennsylvania, wine and liquor sales are a state monopoly. The stores open (and close) when THEY want to (and they all closed at 8PM on New Year's eve!). They're closed on every holiday, including minor ones ("bank" holidays). They are open 10 AM until 9 PM Mon-Sat and Noon - 5 PM on Sundays. The store clerks mostly have bad attitudes (again-WE are there to serve THEM, not the other way around), are all unionized, make over $60,000 a year with overtime, and have vacation, health and pension plans that most of us would envy. It's almost impossible to get something that they don't stock (and the stock varies from store to store). And we pay some of the highest prices in the country.
Sound familiar? It's JUST like the model the RIAA and MPAA want!
No competition. Take it or leave it.
Yet, where there is competition it's a completely different story. In NJ Stores are open 8AM until 11 PM every day including major holidays. Stock is great and prices average 30% lower then PA.
It's completely one sided: Our way or the highway........ |
