Illegal LEGAL Big Finish Downloads
This month marks the arrival of a new service from the fine folk over at Big Finish. Their new downloadable subscription service aims to reduce the costs for Doctor Who (and other) audio adventures. Old Doctors, New Adventures. That sort of thing. You know the stuff� CDs, Postage, and Colin Baker turning nay-sayers into fans of the sixth Doctor for a change. Or alternatively fans turning Big Finish discs into coasters, or worse…
The numbers at this point confuse me a little. But this is what I�ve gleaned: The cost of a �12 release subscription� for the old fashioned envelope/stamp/CD product is $276.96(CAD)�according to my most recent logon to http://WWW.BIGFINISH.COM . The UK price for a 12 release DOWNLOAD is currently set at �110. Now I ain�t no math genius but the Savings don’t seem to add up. True there might be some discrepancies given that my gander at the BF website reveal prices in two different currencies� one written in a news item announcing the price of the DL service (UK funds), and another given to me by web-based compu-overlords who know that I am in Canada and make the handy dandy conversion for me into CND funds. A look at an individual release (randomly picking #100) goes for $29.34 on CD while the Download is $14.99. Half the price. While yet another advert on the site states that the first 25 Big Finish DW releases are going for �9.99 on CD, or alternatively �7.99 as a download! A �2 saving. Pounds here, Dollars there. Slight savings, vs. half the price… Confused? I am. Feel free to enlighten me.
It should be noted that there will be additional savings over and above the base costs as there will be a lack of shipping fees. For a full list of benefits, offers, specials and pricing check out their website.
There�s also the question of who will be going for this service. Will it be the fans who just listen and toss the adventures? Those who enjoy (or hate) these audio escapes on a cursory, transient level? Or will the fans who want something in their grubby little hands be converted to this �new� service and technology? Mind you that they�ll be giving up the pleasure of having something to hold, look at, put on a shelf, catalogue, and arrange based on continuity and/or release dates. I know one or two completists who will not be happy with �just� an MP3. Or perhaps a whole new Who market be revealed.
On a personal level I wonder if this service is too little too late. BF were the bright spark, the light at the end of a dark corridor during a portion of Doctor Who�s long sleep. Do they have a place in today�s Doctor Who market? Is the price low enough to really pack in the sales? Perhaps there�s a renewed interest, an Anti-New Who/RTD backlash, or just new fans discovering new Who in the guise of old Who?
I can�t say for certain, but I am sure Big Finish�s balance sheets can�.or will.
What do you think? After-all YOU ARE THE MARKET.
Posted by Rod on Sunday, February 3 at 10:42 pm
8 Comments...
I think you raise a lot of interesting points Rod. The whole economics of downloading is mystifying at the best of times. iTunes will put a whole album up for $9.99 Canadian that might retail for between $14-$20 cdn in a record store. But I’ve also seen on iTunes box sets that cost $60 go for $9.99 too!
The thing with Big Finish is that the audios are expensive product in terms of the production side of it, and probably a fraction of that is the actual pressing and packaging. The advantage of the download system should be that they get the product MUCH cheaper than buying it on CD—so there should be big savings as opposed to slight savings. But I don’t know if they can afford to give listeners that.
I agree that Big Finish is too late with offering this service. They should have been offering a downloadable service five years ago as a way of combatting or offering an alternative to the black market that’s existed on torrent sites. iTunes and eMusic and other sites have proved a valid alternative to the old Napster in terms of music. Big Finish should have been figuring out ways to license their stuff with those sources (or starting their own MP3 service) ages ago.
Posted by Graeme on 02/04 at 10:36 AM
I’m still a Big Fish customer (though I pick & choose now to avoid the 8th Doc ones) but I buy through WhoNA instead of the Fish directly. And I’ll be sticking with CD until they phase those out (if they’d ever do such a thing). (Once I have the CD, it’ll get MP3d if it’s McCoy and/or one that I really love.) (What’s with the questionable content filter filtering the letters tee are you???)
Posted by trinalin on 02/04 at 02:38 PM
It still seems too expensive to just download. Call me a Luddite, but when I buy anything, I like to hold it and eventually dust it.
I no longer buy BF CDs. I can’t keep up with the novels and DWM as it is.
Posted by Sean on 02/04 at 06:44 PM
I for one, have never bought Big Finish before, but plan to do so now that they have downloads.
To paraphrase Negroponte (Don’t mind, me I took a couple of courses from the Digital Technoculture Stream of Trent’s Computer Studies department
) it makes a lot more sense to ship atoms than it does to ship bits.
Posted by Kari on 02/04 at 09:03 PM
I probably will buy a few downloads as well, if only for the instant gratification. But I might wait until they work out the princing discrepancies on the website.
Posted by Melanie L. on 02/05 at 09:41 AM
Prices for the downloads are set based on what that particular market will bear. This means cheaper downloads for those of us in Canada, the US, Australia, etc. It also means that comparing prices between markets is of little value. Nick Briggs gives a good explanation in the first Big Finish Podcast.
Posted by Mike on 02/20 at 03:29 PM
If the downloads aren’t crippled in some way—in that they can’t be burned as audio files—then I don’t see the problem. I’ve wanted to listen to the BF adventures for years, but with their failure to get proper (or any) distribution in Canada, I’ve had to make do with a couple I paid rip-off prices for through collectors shops, and the very rare DWM disc that I find on those very rare occasoins anyone bothers to stock DWM issues.
If the files are DRM’d and you can’t archive them or transfer them to proper audio CDs, then $14.99 is way too much to pay, And it’s definitely way too much to pay if there’s any sort of “license” involved.
Posted by Alex on 03/26 at 03:37 PM
I love the DW radio series, partly because I’ve been a fan since I was quite young. They’re perfect for driving, or the workshop, or just on a migraine day when you are bored but cannot bear to open your eyes. I’ve listened to almost all of the 6th and 8th Doctors, and I’ll tell you, Paul McGann is now my absolute favourite Doctor! (And I’ve learned to like Colin Bakker.)
But the price is pretty prohibitive. Subscription means you also get (and pay for) Sylvester McCoy, who does not have a voice that is terribly pleasant as a radio persona. When a full resolution TV episode of DW which costs millions to make is available through iTunes at around $4, I find it hard to justify a few hundred bucks a year for the audio dramas.
Big Finish needs to address that. How do you make someone into a real fan if you’re asking for a few grand in audio files to get caught up. The whole 7 seasons of the current Doctor Who on Blu-Ray is about the same price as 12 radio dramas from Big Finish. WTF?
Posted by Greg on 11/25 at 05:35 PM
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