Imagine I’m a pirate. OK, good, we can continue. Then you know that music is free. Movies are free. DVD’s are free. Software is free. There are more ways to get free things from the internet (or NetFlix if you’re savvy) than you can shake a stick at. It’s easy to the general user, and much much easier to the geek.
Now, I’m also a huge music fan. I have a gigantic collection of CD’s from way back. I have some vinyl, I have some cassettes. I have an 8-track or two laying around. One of the 3 Tenors is my butler. I like to collect things. If Radiohead comes out with a new album, I’m going to get it at the store (and order a copy from each country in each format). In that case, I’m not going to pirate a thing. Not even a little. If some band that’s just OK (or even quite good) comes out with an album…. Well… That’s another story. Gas is expensive. I don’t need to hang at the music store anymore. Why don’t I just buy it on iTunes? Well, you see, I like to own the music that I ‘own’. DRM is a joke, I don’t need some garbage copy that I have to re-encode to use elsewhere (thus lowering the quality further). Besides, some guy just posted it on BitTorrent at 320Kbps. Easy peasy. Yay, now I can listen even if the internet goes out! Talk about consumer enablement!
Don’t even get me started on games… I’m an avid PC gamer (and PSP gamer, but Sony deserves what they get from hackers). I refuse to buy any game from any store ever again. Why? SecureRom… StarForce. Thanks, EA, now my PC locks up when checking if I have optical drives. Thanks for the memories. This is why GameCopyWorld was invented.
Hmmm… Doesn’t sound like I’ve reformed. Well, I have (sort of, see the title). There are 2 services that seem to actually GET IT:
eMusic: They’ve been around forever, but just reopened with new plans (and more music to choose from). It’s an indie paradise. They don’t have everything, but it’s $10/month for 30 songs (to start with). That I’m willing to do. You own the songs, and they’re in MP3 format at generally 196Kbps or higher (VBR). You still don’t get the cover art and booklet, etc, but at 33c a song, you’re doing pretty good. Hint to other record labels: Offer this kind of service and pricing and you’ll also gain me as a customer.
Steam: Of course you know who Steam is. They sell Valve games (and more… BioShock anyone?). You set up your account and download the game from their client. It also provides automatic updates, and you can reinstall as much as you want without worrying about where your CD or your CD key is. Sure, it has it’s problems (occasional slow downloads, install problems), but it’s a small price to pay to get your games without your garbage-ware. Hint to EA: Do this, you jerks.
So I’ve actually bought a couple of games and a couple of albums. And I didn’t even have to. They could have been found elsewhere or with some patience, but why? In these cases, it made sense to spend the money. It feels kinda nice to own things. Now excuse me while I go fill out the missing pieces in… other ways…