Does anyone know WHY every company out there that does digital movie distribution charges SO damn much to distribute your movie to iTunes? By comparison TuneCore only charges $30 per year to distribute a CD album, with NO per-sale commission. Does it really cost $750 to get "set up" or is someone pocketing a lot of money here?
TuneCore charges $750 for digital movie distribution!
- Thread starter Blade_Jones
- Start date
How about a little simple math.
An average CD will take up about 700 Megs of storage space:
$30 / 700megs =$0.043 per meg
A two hour uncompressed video will take 25+ gigs (25,000 megs), which is more than 35 times the amount of space:
35 x $30 = $1,050
$1,050 / 25,000megs = $0.042 per meg
So at $750 you're actually paying one-fourth LESS for storage space than the music folks.
$750 / 25,000megs = $0.030 per meg
As to the character of the company I have no idea either way, but video folks get a better deal than music folks.
An average CD will take up about 700 Megs of storage space:
$30 / 700megs =$0.043 per meg
A two hour uncompressed video will take 25+ gigs (25,000 megs), which is more than 35 times the amount of space:
35 x $30 = $1,050
$1,050 / 25,000megs = $0.042 per meg
So at $750 you're actually paying one-fourth LESS for storage space than the music folks.
$750 / 25,000megs = $0.030 per meg
As to the character of the company I have no idea either way, but video folks get a better deal than music folks.
Bandwidth and disc space is chump change in the grand scheme of things. You can buy a 2 TeraByte drive for $129.99. I can sign up with a web space provider that gives me 200 GB of storage space for $10 a year.
So the real reason is that either the distributor or iTunes is making bank. If consumers ever adopt digital movie downloading the way they have adopted music downloading then supply and demand will work itself out and the price will come WAY down.
So the real reason is that either the distributor or iTunes is making bank. If consumers ever adopt digital movie downloading the way they have adopted music downloading then supply and demand will work itself out and the price will come WAY down.
It's so much fun playing devils advocate...
They're in business to make money.
I wasn't saying that their prices are fair, only that the price difference between the music peeps and the video peeps was relatively equal, which seemed to be a point of contention.
They are not supplying just storage space, they are supplying a service. They store your product prior to distribution, provide a portal for distribution, deliver the product, take care of all of the billing and (hopefully) send you the profits minus a fee. It's kind of like when bands would self-release a single or album back in the days of vinyl. Lots of bands ended up with hundreds, even thousands, of records no one wanted to buy. At least you won't have stacks of unsold DVDs taking up space.
Again, I'm not saying the pricing is fair, but they are in business to make money. If you can find a cheaper vendor that provides similar services for a cheaper price, use them; if you can do it yourself then you don't need any outside services.
A separate issue is do you have a chance without their help? A whole other conversation...
Actually FlickRocket sells digital downloads and they take like $4 per sale or something like that. No set up fee.
Tunecore pockets $30 a year on audio albums they distribute to iTiunes and Amazon.com while pocketing NO royalties. Catapult Distribution charges no setup fee but pockets like 10% of royalties (sales). I think the REAL reason why companies are charging so much is because it's "new" and there's a belief that indie filmmakers have lots of money to burn and they are "desperate" now that stores like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster are closing.
Tunecore pockets $30 a year on audio albums they distribute to iTiunes and Amazon.com while pocketing NO royalties. Catapult Distribution charges no setup fee but pockets like 10% of royalties (sales). I think the REAL reason why companies are charging so much is because it's "new" and there's a belief that indie filmmakers have lots of money to burn and they are "desperate" now that stores like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster are closing.