No, that logo to my left is not an indication that John has sold his soul to the devil (Though I heard he is dating one of the Olsen Twins – but thats hush hush). Its not even a paid advertisement. This time I am actually impressed with WalMart.
Wal-Mart is still working out the pricing and delivery options for the [Downloadable Movie] service, which may include free or discounted downloads with purchase. Downloads would be available at walmart.com, and the company is also considering in-store burning kiosks as well.
With all the debate about the Legal Downloadable movies lately, I have had one reservation. None of the services offer a format that can be secured to a DVD recordable media. In fact, they are all designed specifically NOT to be able to be written to DVD.
This being said, I have been completely against Movie Download Services. Why would you want to pay (near) retail prices for a movie that you cant effectively keep?
Now Walmart is going to lead the way and offer a Burning Kiosk in their stores.
Now THIS is what I see the future of Movie Downloads being. You walk into the music/movies section of your favourite store, find a Kiosk, pick a movie, and it will burn it for you to take home right away. Hopefully in a case.
No inventory, no bargain bins from overstock movies that didnt sell. Just selling exactly the product the consumer came in to buy. And never being out of stock on that product.
Give it 5 years, and that crowded movie area in Walmart will just have rows of Kiosks. And the other retailers will have to do it too.
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I’m as anti Walmart as the other guy but it pisses me off that it’s ok to badmouth Walmart who, from the Rodney’s post, will also be providing DOWNLOADING of videos ON THEIR SITE, and stand behind iTunes. Both of which will be, essentially, providing the same service. Personally, I freakin’ hate iTunes. Unless you have an iPod, that software is essentially useless. And guess what? I REFUSE to spend money on overpriced merchandise that offers nothing new. There are better quality players out there that cost less. But whatever.
Personally, I don’t care who you are. If you’re offering a service that I want without the limitations of other similar service providers or with a bonus (promo items), I’m likely to give it a chance. I’m less than thrilled that this is coming to us from Walmart but obviously they’ve got people over there that understand where the industry is going.
Oh yeah… and one more thing.
FUCK WALMART!
The downloadable service is the wave of the future for mass production.
As close back as 10 years ago, did anyone think that a lot of music would now be handled by ipods, and the like?
I work with a lot of school & college kids. They all have computers & ipods, and very few of them actually buy cd’s anymore. For most of them, their entire music library is sitting in a hard drive. Sure, not everyone has a computer with high-speed internet access, but again, that’s just growing leaps & bounds, and will continue to grow.
I myself prefer to buy dvd’s from a store. I enjoy the extra-features and prefer a hard copy for myself of anything I buy. I’m not yet willing to pay 14 bucks for an ‘almost’-dvd-quality film. But then again, a few years ago, I never thought that I would have 100’s of cdr’s with mp3’s on them .
This is the wave of the future. As time goes by and more people get into this, the prices will go down, and the quality will also improve. In a little while (a year or 3) HD-DVD’s will be easily accesible via online services for your big-screen HDTV.
With digital technology, the film-watching medium will be in a constant state of change for years to come. I’m sure that something is already around the corner ready to make HD technology look like VHS does now (I’d say 5-10 years before we, the masses. are able to enjoy it though).
There are other issues with downloadable media we could discuss ad nauseum, but these issues I’m sure will be resolved evetually, and online is the way to go.
The only way for Wal-Mart to compete is to get into the online service (I wouldn’t be surprised if one day they try to buy Amazon.com). Wal-Mart really has nothing to worry about now, but in a few years, they’ll realize that their type of customers (Criterion dvd collectors, I highly doubt they’re worried about) will prefer getting their entertainment media (music, movies, games etc.) via other avenues if they don’t change. Jesus H. Christ! The biggest studio which is most prominent in Wal-Mart’s customer-demographic, Disney, has realized that in the future, most people will download their films. Not quite now or even a few years, but by 10 years time, definately!!!
Wal-Mart is fighting a losing battle unless they get into the online distribution service.
It’s a juggernaut that’s going to blow wide-open in the coming years, boys & girls, and for better or worse, we can’t stop it.
I hope to God someone sues WallMart out of the water if they don’t immediately drop the line they’ve taken with Itunes. Using their monopoly position to force exclusive deals with content providers is the hight of evil, destroying any chance of a working free market. The EU has been decent at it, with Microsoft and Itunes getting some stick, but it’s about time the us government did their part too. Sadly I find that unlikely. WallMart will go on bulldozering over any opposition without anything but cardboard walls (non goverments pressure) standing in their way.
Keep the good work John ,
The mailbag edition was the best and all your posts for the weekend were amazing.
You may need a vacation Campea cuz you are a hard working man….
LG
Of course, iTunes will continue to be the behemoth that it is. I don’t think anyone’s really making that argument. The difference is, despite how prevalent many computers are in the home, not every household has one, and I’m sure there’s a study out there to show that the percentage of WalMart customers who have a home computer may be even smaller. WalMart is responding to the needs of ITS CUSTOMERS, not every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Skyler. On that front, WalMart wins.
Option 1.
Drive to Walmart (which I detest), “conveniently” located in the suburbs 15-20 minutes away. Stand in line, avoid getting hit by shopping cart-wielding, stretch pant-wearing, overweight women. Wait for kiosk to burn movie to an easily scratchable, non-replacable DVD. Drive home. Watch it on TV connected to DVD player.
Option 2.
Open iTunes (or similar software) on my computer. Download movie. Backup movie file to other hard disk, ipod, etc. Watch movie on notebook computer, iPod or TV (via iTV or similar device).
Pretty sure the future looks a lot more like #2.
… sorry, back for another quick note …
WalMart was the first (and only that I know of) retailer who also pushed for individual episodes FOR SALE of hit TV shows about three-four years back. I specifically remember that, in select markets, they were shucking stand alone disks of the GILMORE GIRLS series premiere. Clearly, their video folks saw that there would someday be a substantial market for this, and I said to friends and family back then that they were intent on taking a chunk out of Apple’s iTunes line. Eventually launching their own logo with exclusive performances is a great idea. I wish ’em luck. Very few retailers are actually trying to drive this kind of change for the benefit of the consumer.
5 years? Hell, give it 2 years, if music is any indication. Right now, WalMart is small market testing kiosks where you can purchase in store a customized music CD. If that catches (and I suspect it’ll hold for awhile before it does become truly profitable), video will follow very quickly, even if the quality is sh*tty.
I am sure that once it was on a dvd you could import it just as well as you could with any movie. However it is not specific in the article, just that Walmart intends to include the ability to move your paid file to dvd.
Personally, I see no value in watching a movie on a 2 inch screen, so to me, that feature would be a waste.
Video files are pretty malleable. I’m quite certain that if you really wanted to burn the file onto DVD, you could figure out a way to overwrite/circumvent file protections (some third-party software does this for you). But if you wanted to do that anyway, you might as well download movies illegally.
Also, Rodney — do you know if you could import the Walmart videos onto an iPod video? If not, I think this service is a total waste.
And never have a physical copy of the movie you spent your hard earned money on.
The only “bullying” Walmart did was not carrying Disney’s HighSchool Musical because they let iTunes release it before Walmart could sell it.
Its not bullying to withdraw support of one studio’s individual release because they gave their competitors the movie before it could be sold.
I would have done the same thing if I was in Walmart’s shoes. As consumers we vote with our dollars. If you dont like walmart, dont shop there. That is your right. But dont try to put Walmart down for using their dollars to vote for which products they choose to carry.
cool brag, but you forgot to mention Wal-Mart bullying studios into not doing business with iTunes. Wal-Mart is no good.
And why would someone go to Wal-Mart to burn a DVD when they can walk 2 min and buy the whole package? I’d rather just sit at home, not drive anywhere, and buy it from iTunes.