Sony to make iTunes for Movies
It had to happen, and it’s about bloody time. Sony seems to be leading the way in taking the movie industry where the music industry was smart enough to go 2 years ago. Here’s what the BBC had to report:
Sony is to make its top 500 films available digitally in the next year. Michael Arrieta, senior vice president of Sony Pictures, said at a US Digital Hollywood conference that it wanted to create an “iTunes” for films.
This is a fantastic idea, and one that could spell the end of your local video store eventually. It will all depend on how the licencing will work. But, if Sony allows you to download a movie for like… $6, and then to burn that movie onto a DVD disk, then it’s going to make TONS of cash and I’ll be one of it’s first subscribers. What are your thoughts?
1. Winston replies at 31st March 2005, 10:46 pm :
You’re crazy if you think sony will let you burn said movies to DVD.
Their original mp3 players (which came out late last year - 3 years behind the iPod) didn’t even play mp3s… they only played sony’s proprietary atrac format. Even if sony is the first out of the gate with this technology, 10 bucks says it’ll be so full of DRM or proprietariness that it’ll be more annoying than cool.
2. John Campea replies at 31st March 2005, 10:59 pm :
Hey there Winston
Yeah, you may very well be right. My biggest fear is that they’ll only have the digital files work on their new PSP or other sony products.
My only real point is that IF they do it right (cheap price, allow for 1 or 2 burnings of the file) then they’ll make outrageous amounts of cash… and that’s just from me!
Cheers!
3. jason replies at 31st March 2005, 11:27 pm :
Who wants to own a bunch of Burned DVD’s? You get a blank cover with magic marker on the front…no cover or cover art….whats the point….even if it is $6 bucks or less…I’d rather spend $10 or $15 used to get the real deal in 5.1 with the extra’s….sorry….
4. Kenn replies at 1st April 2005, 12:10 am :
No way will they let you burn a DVD for under $9.99.
Kenn
P.S. Check out my short film at
http://www.mymoviefest.com/movies/740.html
5. Mark replies at 1st April 2005, 2:29 am :
It’ll be DRM’ed but if you have a Windows Media Edition setup, then you can play the movie from your hard drive whenever you want, I’ll bet this is how it’s going to work.
The question though is what the quality will be like. A movie on DVD ranges from 6GB to 9GB in filesize.
6. Richard Brunton replies at 1st April 2005, 2:33 am :
I think Sony take a lot of flak because many people in the street don’t use MiniDisc, and the whole MD range is viewed negatively, they are branded unuseable, proprietry format, etc.
However, I’ve been an MD user for some time, car, portable and inhouse, and it’s fantastic. Far more flexible and easy to use than I find the iPod.
Interesting thing is, you’ll find MD throughout the media business, but the home market winner is iPod, and that’s on the name and style of Apple alone, forget all the other factors.
My 15Gb iPod (given free from work) has poor functionality and the iTunes software is cumbersome and awkward to use. I find it far easier using Sony’s connect software for my music transfers.
What does that mean for this movie service? Well I think Sony will provide a much more robust, useable service and I think they’ve now learnt that despite the superior quality and reproduction, using your own format won’t win you any favours in the home market.
I think this will turn out to be a good thing.