RedBox pulling their rental machines out of Canada

[ernie]

I used to download everything....until about a year ago when I got the HBO/internet provided cease and desist letter.

So Amazon prime, Netflix, and Hulu for me. I borrow friends copies of HBO shows.

And yes VCR rentals from the Red Rooster. Remember that fondly.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

I'm old enough to remember renting the movie and the VCR at the 7/11!

They had it for 0.99 for like every Tuesday or something like that. Those where the bad good times.

[Buff]

We rented our movies from Food City (iirc) in Temple on the corner of Temple Dr and 52 street. When I moved to Lethbridge in 1986 I was surprised that there was a store devoted to just movie rentals.

[Yellefan]

Originally Posted by Buff

We rented our movies from Food City (iirc) in Temple on the corner of Temple Dr and 52 street. When I moved to Lethbridge in 1986 I was surprised that there was a store devoted to just movie rentals.

And did you refill your fountain fresh pop while you were there too?

[polak]

Video Max Gas in Bridlewood is still around and I'm pretty sure they are still renting movies on blu ray and dvd. It was 3 bucks for new releases last time i went which was at least a year ago.

[northcrunk]

Originally Posted by ernie

I used to download everything....until about a year ago when I got the HBO/internet provided cease and desist letter.

So Amazon prime, Netflix, and Hulu for me. I borrow friends copies of HBO shows.

And yes VCR rentals from the Red Rooster. Remember that fondly.

I loved Red Rooster. I grew up in Abbeydale so I would always hit it up for cheap toys and rentals sometimes. Rainbow video was so much better. Monty was the man.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

I can rent pretty much any movie I can think of on Shaw now but the user interface is goddamn awful and it makes me angry to use.

Which box and interface are you using?

My favourite tool with the VOD is that you can go online where they have a list of everything they offer and add things to your 'Favourites' that you can then select from the box. Might be easier for you.

[polak]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Doesn't mean it's okay to steal it. Louis Vuitton purses shouldn't cost thousands but it doesn't make it okay to steal one.

Why do you think there's such a massive counterfeiting market for LV purses?

When the people like a product, they will find a way to own it (or a nearly identical duplicate) even if the price point is too high.

Its not right but its a part of doing business. You better hope your product is too complex to knock off, is priced correctly or you accept the lost revenue.

... Or you can go the music industry route and try to fight it. That worked oh so well for them...

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by Gundo

I miss the saloon style swinging doors that separated the porn section from the rest of the movie store. It could be packed and as soo. As those squeaky swinging doors shut behind someone everyone stopped to just stare at the dirtball who walked out.

Back on topic though, can't be that suprised they are pulling out of Canada. VOD has all much made rentals obsolete.

I remember being with my kid in a video store when she was about 6 or 8 or so and we were walking past the swinging doors. There was a sign above that said you must be 18 to enter the area. She says "when I'm 18, I'm going to go in there". Now, she won't have that opportunity. So many things I looked forward to her doing when she grew up that technology has ripped from her little hands. basterds.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Speaking of Louis CK, he came out with a new special last month.

https://www.louisck.net/purchase/liv...e-comedy-store

I bought that. It wasnt his best stuff but I admire his honesty.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by polak

Movies still get the majority of their revenue from theaters. I personally still see movies that I would pay money to see in theaters. There is no way I'd pay 7 or 8 bucks to watch a movie that I didn't want to see in theaters. The movies most casual people pirate, are movies they normally wouldn't pay anything to see anyways. (There are the hardcores that pirate everything. I've never met anyone like that though so hard to comment).

Lots of people pirate everything. I know a family guy, professed law and order type. He has hundreds and hundreds of pirated movies. That's what his family does for fun - watch movies. He hasn't paid for a movie, in any format, in years. Funniest part is the guy is a software developer and he can't see the hypocrisy between what he does for fun and what he does for a living.

I know another guy who is a huge music fan. Used to buy 50-60 CDs a year. Once he discovered Limewire and similar services, he stopped buying music altogether. Now he does most of his listening on Youtube and spends zero on music.

Originally Posted by polak

Music was due for a market correction and the artists have adapted just fine. They make their money from shows. Lots and lots of it.

Big acts make lots of money from touring. And of course, ticket prices for live shows have gone through the roof.

But there's more to publishing a professional-quality song than an artist. You need producers, arrangers, and editors. Often performers don't even write the songs they play. So how are all those supporting professionals supposed to be paid?

Originally Posted by polak

One thing to add, if you're not selling enough copies but your product is routinely pirated, maybe you've overestimated how much people are willing to pay?

I'll turn that around: If you don't value something enough to pay for it, why do you expect other people to put resources into producing it?

If consumers think that the only people who will take the hit from open digital access to entertainment is the big bad producers, they're kidding themselves. When the dust has settled the entire mid-list of music, movies, games, books, etc. will be devastated. All that will be left is a handful of mega-hits, and a vast sea of amateur material created by the very young and people who have private patrons. Professionals who need to earn a living are no longer going to work in the entertainment industry, and the consumer will learn belatedly how much value those professionals added to the end product.

[Hessen]

Maybe it's a smaller town thing but a video rental store opened by my place in Okotoks a few months ago. I also ran into a lady at Walmart who was buying multiple copies of new movies. She knew it looked odd and told the cashier she owned a movie rental store in Turner Valley and her shipment hadn't come in. She said business as pretty good.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by polak

Why do you think there's such a massive counterfeiting market for LV purses?

When the people like a product, they will find a way to own it (or a nearly identical duplicate) even if the price point is too high.

Its not right but its a part of doing business. You better hope your product is too complex to knock off, is priced correctly or you accept the lost revenue.

... Or you can go the music industry route and try to fight it. That worked oh so well for them...

All you've done is offer an explanation as to why people steal, which is fair, but it still doesn't explain why it is ok.

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by Buff

We rented our movies from Food City (iirc) in Temple on the corner of Temple Dr and 52 street. When I moved to Lethbridge in 1986 I was surprised that there was a store devoted to just movie rentals.

You couldn't physically hold the movies at Food City though. It was a flip-up cover thing so you can read the back.

I rented there but also Video Vibrations. Same complex as Comic Quest & 7-11 so we'd hit up the three places on our walk.

[polak]

I said its not right but its the way it is.

In reality, did you think making any sort of art would be safe from industry changes? What musicians do (and this is coming from an aspiring one) is not some sort God protected profession. The reality is, the product is super simple to duplicate in this day and age. Just like one day all the Oil and Gas companies will have to fundamentally change their business or close shop, the music industry needed to change. Most labels pay their bills by taking a cut of live show fees now (EMI made a killing buying 50% of Deadmau5's touring revenue for 2 million). The model has changed and adapted.

The business of anything isn't fair. Anyone working in a field with a fragile business model (like music in the 00s) is exposed to it. Right now you have millions of people losing their jobs or being affected by saudi arabia deciding to screw everyone over. Lifes a fickle bitch. Just cause you make music or tv doesn't protect you from that. Especially when the current status quo has everyone who is successfully involved in that business making more than most of us can dream of. Lots of headroom to cut artist salaries if the bottomline ever started to become an issue. It has to be the only industry where you could probably save hundreds of millions if the top earning 10% took a 10% paycut.

California dreaming isnt meant to last forever.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by polak

I said its not right but its the way it is.

In reality, did you think making any sort of art would be safe from industry changes? What musicians do (and this is coming from an aspiring one) is not some sort God protected profession. The reality is, the product is super simple to duplicate in this day and age. Just like one day all the Oil and Gas companies will have to fundamentally change their business or close shop, the music industry needed to change. Most labels pay their bills by taking a cut of live show fees now (EMI made a killing buying 50% of Deadmau5's touring revenue for 2 million). The model has changed and adapted.

I don't think anyone would dispute that the entertainment industry has to change to adapt to technology. The people being naive here are the consumers who think they'll be able to keep getting content easier and cheaper (often free) without any loss of quality or choice. Crazy as it sounds, the digital entertainment landscape of the future may be worse for consumers in some respects, not just producers.

Originally Posted by polak

Lifes a fickle bitch. Just cause you make music or tv doesn't protect you from that. Especially when the current status quo has everyone who is successfully involved in that business making more than most of us can dream of. Lots of headroom to cut artist salaries if the bottomline ever started to become an issue. It has to be the only industry where you could probably save hundreds of millions if the top earning 10% took a 10% paycut.

Okay, you don't really understands how these businesses work. Most artists don't earn anything close to a living wage, and only a tiny fraction earn the big dollars. But since all the public knows about are the 1 in 10,000 who make it big, they have a distorted notion of the money involved.

And that model where the to 10% take a 10% pay cut that is distributed to the middle? That's the old studio model of music, movies, TV, etc. Even most professionally supported and produced music, movies, and TV never made money. The studios would spread the risk by taking a bunch of good ideas, spending the big money it takes to get them produced, and then crossing their fingers and hoping one of them turns into a big hit to earn back that investment and keep the whole machine going.

As a useful by-product, it kept mid-range bands/shows alive by providing the infrastructure to foster modest careers. Bands or shows that took a couple albums or seasons to find a small audience and eventually generate a small profit.

That's the system that is dying. Since studios no longer have any reliable source of income for most of their catalog, they have become exceptionally risk averse and impatient. They can no longer sign and support 10 bands, hope one becomes a hit, and three more break oven. Now, the model is a 10,000 wanna-bees throw their hats in a ring with no support, and one gets plucked by the fickle hand of fate from obscurity to fame and fortune. If you don't win that lottery the reward is nil. Nada.

Some people will always throw their hat in the ring because they have a creative impulse, or extraordinary ambition. But each of those special snowflake artists needs several anonymous professionals to turn their creativity into a product that the public wants. Editor, technicians, mixers, producers, etc. Without steady paycheques, those people are gone. Some artists have those technical skills. Most don't.

[polak]

Yea but you're still looking at this from "love of the art", "lets support as much music as we can" point of view. Which I admire and appreciate.

Unfortunately, the industry is now more fickle. Artists have to make their own way. Trust me, I come from an EDM production background and nowadays in EDM, your "demo" better be ready to play on the radio as is when you send it to the label or unless you're sitting on some unreal track that is a sure fire hit with the right support, you can forget about it getting anything more than "needs more work" from the label (if you're really lucky, probably just get ignored). That means every kid who starts messing around with music these days will most likely also have to learn the production side of things. No one is forcing them to pursue a career in music. If they don't want to or can't learn the production side of the business then there is a whole landscape of "real" jobs they can look into.

I don't disagree that it sucks that the music industry is going this way but it's just the way it's evolving. Artists need to do more than just impress an A&R guy at a club. They need to promote and make themselves visible and produce a damn fine demo to make themselves appealing to a record label. It just means more work on their behalf and that less of them will make the cut. Hey, wouldn't we all like to be CEO's?

I wouldn't act like it's impossible to make it these days. If anything I think it's better this way. Nowadays it's us, the people, who decide who gets the spotlight, instead of 4 or 5 guys from a label sitting around a table deciding who gets the backing. I can't speak for all genres, but the music I listened to is almost exclusively promoted by blogs, youtube channels, facebook shares and sites like Hypem and Soundcloud. I freaking love it. I think if you want to see how "making it" in the music industry today works, you can look at acts like "Kygo" and "The Chainsmokers". Kygo started out as a kid making remixes of songs, just like a million other people out there, but he had a unique sound, nothing else really sounded like him in the dance music world and the people took notice. Sure, he had to put in the leg work, get his remixes radio-ready, promote them himself and there are probably a lot of quality musicians lost at this stage of the game, but Kygo was able to get his work out to some blogs who started sharing his music, all of the sudden he starts rising up the Hypem charts, his facebook and soundcloud build up millions of views and the record labels then start to take notice. The guy was able to get a major label deal and a world tour from just his remix work. Don't get me wrong, his sound is unique and it came at the perfect time but he's proof that the musicians that have the talent AND the desire and smarts, can still make it today.

I guess that might be hard for the strung-out "sunset strip" bands of today (if they exist) but hey, adapt or die. The industry has changed.

[CliffFletcher]

No, you don't really understand where I'm coming from. It has nothing to do with suffering artists. Nothing to do with fairness. It's about the effect on the consumer of the new entertainment paradigm.

Originally Posted by polak

Trust me, I come from an EDM production background and nowadays in EDM, your "demo" better be ready to play on the radio as is when you send it to the label or unless you're sitting on some unreal track that is a sure fire hit with the right support, you can forget about it getting anything more than "needs more work" from the label (if you're really lucky, probably just get ignored). That means every kid who starts messing around with music these days will most likely also have to learn the production side of things. No one is forcing them to pursue a career in music.

If I snapped my fingers and made every song or CD in your collection from an artist who wasn't skilled at arranging (or promotion) disappear, I'm fairly certain it would leave a pretty big hole.

Consumers will suffer under the new model too. It's market fundamentals: as the value of a product declines, the resources that go into its production will decline. Fewer skilled people will work in entertainment in the future. That will affect the end product.

[Swift]

Casablanca Video may close next month - http://globalnews.ca/news/1827400/jo...en-in-calgary/

[JiriHrdina]

Sad but using her retirement fund and moving to that location was just a bad idea.