[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by LizAEBN

Paul, Griffin:

I think you both have valid points, but I also think you both have some things wrong. The RIAA did a lot of its own damage, in part because it has LONG pushed mediocrity to the top (payola scandals, anyone?) and freely engages in cultural appropriation with little to no regard for the culture from which it sprang (see: mountain folk, delta blues, and Harlem jazz for early examples of US music industry identity theft; musical progression and exploitation of founders is fairly prevalent and easily recogniseable). Combine this historical approach with a late-80s determination to grab consumer funds at the highest possible rate by doing away with singles at a reasonable price point (and blaming it on technology costs due to the advent of the CD-era), and you have a receipt for eminent disaster.

There are a lot of similarities between the industries - from respective consumer missteps (though on markedly different time lines) and reactions to alleviate self-perpetuating problems.

Agreed, but the music industry rarely understood it's product and saw the easy money in churning out pulp. From the boy or girl bands of today and back to singers like Mary Poppins. The problem is it was easy money. The public bought them. but it makes no difference, the theft would still carry on, until it's stopped.

Paul, you do good stuff. You have an amazing portfolio, and your tenure in the industry is remarkable. For the last two years, though< I have seen you have an almost word-for-word knee-jerk reaction to problems plaguing us. We can't take the approach that we must change the consumer's thinking - that never works. What we must do is begin thinking in a new way, to provide the consumer something s/he is willing to buy.

Thank you. Can I suggest you go read my replies about fitting our industry more to the customers to win more back. Try the Zoo today. The problem will be some will never buy if they can steal. It's cultural, but if you remove the profit margin you diminish the problem. (Another knee jerk. LOL)

Sure, the content itself is commoditised almost to the point of being worthless - and we have ourselves to blame to some degree here (HellPuppy and others have made excellent points on this same board about entry costs). The question isn't how do we limit the content at this point - it's not possible, because even if we, as an industry,wrap our material in DRM from here til doomsday there is still a girl out there that's taking pix with her $50 digital camera and posting them online 'cos it gets her off.

And read the countless posts where I have warned that most dumbed down the content we sell to a level where there is little point in buying from one site or the next. The level of content production has never been so bad. We are just as bad as the music industry and suffering from it.

The question is where do we shift our thinking to make it worth the consumer's hard-earned dollar?

This one is simple. We spend less on shifting traffic around and more on the content of a members area. We don't stop spending on traffic, we just re adjust the amounts.

The problem today is few sites are really worth joining. They are just points to download video content from. There is little to distinguish one site from the next and often one scene from the next. The main reason Tubes get more traffic is they are free. They are also better for the surfer. No joining, no risking your CC details, no spam, no lengthy joins, you can come and grab it when you like and if you don't like one scene go for another, an immense selection in the same niche and genre from different producers.

We have been infatuated with the myth that it had to be exclusive and recently it has to be HD. Truth is the opposite. The customers we are losing don't have the patience to see everything, they want 1-3 scenes to get off and get on with the day, they don't care if it's HD. They want the selection and choice.

The problem is we don't know how to compete, in general we dream Tubes will close.

Yes you are spot on saying we have to find what the customers will buy. I have opened my site and give away a free one hour live show every night. I'm adapting.