The Future of Digital Media

Free media can't work for all media content. To a certain extent paid content will continue to exist. Yes, it can be said that paid content is diminishing as many physical products have been converted into digital such as music, movies, games, books and advertisement. But my opinion is that digital media is only convenient for certain products and not all, such as music and movies but not games.

Why? Well music and movies are downloadable files but games tend to be large files that either a. take to long to download or b. take up too much space on your drive. Therefore, most people are still more likely to go out and buy the game  because it's more convenient and fast for them to get access to the game. Some consumers enjoy purchasing it on the release date for the thrill of being one of the first to play the game and beat it. They are probably even more inclined to purchase it if it comes with an incentive for buyers on the release date, which usually consist of free game additives or merchandise. It has been rumored that Xbox will come out with a new console that won't have an optical drive meaning that all the games will have to be downloaded from the Xbox Marketplace. But when I interviewed 5 guy friends they all seemed to be unhappy about this. Only two had said to ever purchase a game through marketplace and claimed that it wasn't the same amount of satisfaction and excitement as purchasing it on opening day. Only one seemed to like the concept because he said it would help him consume less physical space to store his games while the other 4 disagreed by saying that this was the reason they enjoyed purchasing games. They liked showcasing all the games they had to friends and family that would come over to play and basically showing off their collection of games.

The movie theater industry is also another form that proves that people still enjoy paying for their content. Most people (like myself) tend to line up on opening day and pay $13 per person and even more if it's for IMAX or some even go out and watch the same movie twice just to watch it in IMAX the second time around ( I did this when The Dark Knight was release in theaters).  Although it is true that majority of the revenues that the movie industry is receiving comes from online content there is still a little over 1/3 of it that comes from box-office revenues. The demand for physical content still exist which then results in paying for what you want. Take collectibles for instance. If you are a Star Wars fan you will want all the original episodes on DVD, the original movies and if they play the move in theater for every anniversary you'll go out and watch it and even more so if they come out with a version that has been digitally enhanced and played on IMAX. This shows that there still exist a level of loyalty with fans.

The same concepts apply to the music industry. If you are a true Jay-Z fan you will want to own every album he's ever made. Possibly because you admire the covers and the graphic work that goes into it or just because you want to hold a collection either way you are willing to pay for it for those reasons. Also some fans purchase CDs and stand in long lines to have the artist sign it for them and own a signed copy as well as get the opportunity to meet the artist.

Although free content has made our lives easier as well as portable and many will continue to use and obtain free digital media, paid content and physical products still hold an emotional and loyal connection to consumers. Therefore it is unlikely for paid content to cease to exist completely.