Speaking of Believers
[ B.O.Y.S.: Boys On Your Screen (The Message Board) ] Written by Sensitive Stephen am 25 Jan 2001 16:56:24:
As an answer to: The Believers written by St. Mule am 25 Jan 2001 13:50:07:
The way I see it, SM, the merchandising path of DVDs is going to be quite similar to that of music CDs. You and I are both old enough to remember when audio CDs hit the scene. (Hell, we're both old enough to remember eight-track tapes, but that's another story!)
Music CDs were a little slow to catch on at first, but then they picked up dramatically as the price of players came down and most consumers bought players. Then, consumers wanted to buy the "software" to drive their newest toy. It was not enough for music publishers to offer the latest releases on CD--they started digging deep into their old catalogs and reissuing thousands of worthy old recordings to great commercial success. Very narrow specialty niches were also well served: people who wanted CD recordings of the Andrews Sisters, or the Bulgarian National Symphony, or the noseflute stylings of Zamfir.
There are differences, of course. The cost of mastering a DVD must be higher than mastering an audio CD, I would assume. But the production costs can't be all that much higher than CDs, and the demand from consumers for DVDs is going to go through the roof. In the last month, how many BLs bought a new DVD player or received one as a holiday gift? I know of four, and I don't know all that many people.
So I think I'll pass on the laser disks for now and wait patiently for the second coming of Harley Cross on DVD. You might say that I'm a believer. :o)
--Sensitive Stephen