keyser soze wrote:
Russybcool wrote:
voxish wrote:
I'm sure there are lots of people who want to watch sport generally (I've heard that Sky Sports is brilliant for that) but that's no use to people who want to watch MK Dons specifically and nothing else and don't need to move to the Sky platform. I'm hoping that it'll just be that you pay your £12.99 (or whatever) for a day pass or some new PPV or maybe just a contract-free monthly pass for the season - they probably calculate that a percentage of people who do this will cave in and upgrade. Good for them (and Sky) but not so good for casual viewers. Still no clarity on audio streaming for listeners outside the 3CR area. We'll see how it pans out in practice.
I read audio won't change. I think there will still be the I follow passes for audio. When Now TV started it was brilliant and even the last play off campaign I would be able to buy a weekly pass to watch both play off games and I think it was £20. That's gone. If I want to watch the play off I will have to pay £25.98 to buy two single passes or £30 for a month which can be cancelled at any time. I don't watch Premier League or any other football for that matter. The only other sport I watch is pro-wrestling and that is on TNT so I don't get to watch that much. It is the way of the world I am afraid. Wait till it happens to music (and it will) Spotify is lucrative and of course greedy bosses will gate off their artists so you have to pay money to each record company to listen to different types of music. Video games have also tried (and so far failed) to bring in their own services that in itself has its own set of issues, especially one of ownership as if it is streamed and the companies take their products "off the shelf" do you really own it?
I am not happy about it. I am not interested in Sky. They have ruined football for the most part. Sure, the clubs get a little bit more money, but at what cost? And just wait till you have your fixtures moved at a whim. We saw 2 seasons ago how Wednesday fans were screwed cause our game with them was moved to 7:45. Imagine that most weeks.
Interesting post and I mostly agree but I don't share the concern about music. The financial model in music has already fundamentally shifted. In Ye Olde Days, record sales (albums mainly) was the cash cow. Live gigs were reasonably priced and quite easy to buy (you saw an advert in the back of the NME that Thin Lizzy were playing Wembley Arena. You sent off a cheque or postal order to the Wembley box office and they posted back your tickets). Live gigs were almost treated as adverts for records, as the record sales was what counted. Now, that's totally inverted. Few artists make money off of recorded music and the streaming of their music now generates demand for their live gigs. One night on the main stage at Glasto now is like having a hit album. A successful tour can make you a millionaire. Crack the sales AND gigs AND merch thing and you become a billionaire, like Taylor Swift. The middlemen now suck blood out of gig tickets (hello Ticketmaster!) rather than record sales (hello HMV!).
It's no accident that vinyl sales are through the roof - and there's also a revival in CDs. The only trouble with touring is that large gigs are very expensive to put on and take a huge strain on the performers, King Crimson for example documented their final tour in the US last year and it looks like it'll be their last, I think Fripp enjoys his home comforts and Toyah too much! Even though touring is quite luxurious for big bands and a far cry from what it was in the 1970s it's definitely not a normal job! But live gigs are way more fun (and you can buy merch too).
Anyway I digress - I think I'd be part of the target market for the likes of Tidal, Spotify etc and the quality of streaming is now definitely up to hi-fi standards however I already own most of the vinyl and CDs with decent kit to play it on. I don't listen to content randomly so bands I want to listen to quite likely wouldn't be available so I'd need multiple subscriptions - which aren't cheap. I don't care about eg Burt Bacharat's Greatest Hits any more than sheep shearing from Australia, basketball from the US or log rolling from Canada!
Edit - ticket resellers are leaches on the music industry, basically legalised touting. I get supply and demand but they're complete crooks - and they play both ends as well taking a cut from selling your spare ticket and selling it on at an obscene profit to desperate buyers. I prefer to use the Dice app for gig tickets now, it's all online and seamlessly efficient (and not overpriced).
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