Time Warner CEO: We Know You're Pirating And That's Fine

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Somebody understands what I have long called "Grateful Dead Marketing".  Most bands produce and album and then view going on the road as a necessary evil in order to promote the album and push sales.  The Dead flipped that on its head and made it all about the live show.  It's all history now- we all know the subculture, and cottage industry that have grown up around the Dead.  They set up a place in the center of the arenas they played specifically to make it easier for bootleggers to record- and share- their music.  As more people discovered the Dead- they came to their shows, and we all know about people who "followed the Dead" for years.

So, check this out:

HBO grows by gaining subscribers, and it gains subscribers mostly by word of mouth. In the old days, that word of mouth included neighbors inviting neighbors over to enjoy their HBO subscription, or even cases of people stealing cable just to score HBO.

Well, in their 30 year experience, all that "content theft" has done nothing but help HBO gain subscribers and create more high-investment content.

It's somewhat funny that sites like The Pirate Bay are not only driving more viewers to subscribe to HBO, but Bewkes goes so far as to say that they actually save a fortune on advertising costs because of this word-of-mouth side effect of bittorrent.

Here's the full exchange from the end of the conference call, made available by Time Warner here.



Read more: www.businessinsider.com/time-warner-ceo-people-pirating-game-of-thrones-is-better-than-an-emmy-for-hbo-2013-8#ixzz2bcIk2buA

[Sum Dum Gai]

Makes sense.  My mom never paid for premium channels while I was growing up, but I swear we had HBO and Showtime at least half of every year anyway because they were always giving it away for several months at a time trying to entice new subscriptions.  It probably worked pretty well too, because I always remember being pretty bummed when our free premium channels would go poof.

[chiver78]

it's not just the Grateful Dead that not only promotes the live show over their studio releases, but encourages the sharing by offering their own recordings of shows for sale at about the price of a drink at that show.....unlike other artists these days.

that said, I'm a child of Napster (literally, I am a Northeastern Husky grad - Napster was developed and published from one of our dorms). as a serious music fan, I feel that Napster and other sharing mechanisms can only help their fan base. I've discovered more "unknown to me" bands thru Napster, my music cruises, and from sharing between friends that I've met thru both fronts. anyone that is just looking for a specific song isn't going to buy a whole CD whether they can preview via free sources or not.

I'm not sure this is a good analogy to use in Time Warner's tacit approval of piracy.....just saying.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

I have fond memories of Napster. I'm surprised I never got "nailed". Napster was just the next evolution of what we all used to do anyway- make tapes. C'mon, you all know what I'm talking about. Tapes being passed around is how I found out about Black Flag, GBH, Suicidal Tendencies, Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, REM, Midnight Oil, Red Hot Chili Peppers- way, way before "Under The Bridge" - try "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes", Violent Femmes, Public Image Limited, New Order, The Fall, The Replacements, and just about everything else I used to listen to. And yes, I ended up buying some of it and going to shows-- and I NEVER would have bought any of it blind. I think of tapes- and Napster, et al as "free samples"-- a proven ploy to sell.

[chiver78]

from Napster to mIRC to icq back in the day, I'm surprised I never got nailed too.

the best "preview" site I've found in the past year or so is a website called Turntable.fm.  the user interface looks like a club with a stage at the back of the room. there are spots for 5 "dj" avatars with the rest of the people in that room appearing as avatars on the floor facing the stage. the 5 users that are onstage will spin songs for their playlists - a queue that is pieced together from songs selected from TT's library as well as from uploads that users add to the site. uploads aren't added to the general library, but any user can "steal" any song - including uploads - to add to their own playlists. TT playlists cannot be offloaded to any other media or other music sites (Pandora, Spotify, etc) and all playlists are subject to licensing restrictions. my friends and I have routinely lost songs from our playlists as TT culls the unauthorized content. most times, we're unaware there's a restriction until we see that we've lost content.

all that said, I've been able to preview artists that are booked on upcoming concert cruises, as well as check out completely new artists that friends introduce to the various "rooms" I hang out in. I've gone on to buy CDs of these artists as well as gone to see them at shows when they come to Boston.

if you're a music fan, definitely check it out. there's all kinds of rooms across all genres. something for everyone!

[djAdvocate]

interesting.  theft as marketing.

[EVT1]

PBP listening to Black Flag  

[Deleted]

Arggggggg!

[Sum Dum Gai]

Ahh mIRC... I spent a HUGE chunk of my teens on there.

[Deleted]

maybe dark can let some kids shoplift his toys and it will boost sales

[Sum Dum Gai]

Ha!  We are planning on giving some product away during the grand opening and we'll have items out of the packaging to be played with in the store in order to hopefully boost sales.  I was talking to a toy store owner in Texas that does board game rentals.  For $3 you can take a board game home for a few days and try it out.  He said his game sales jumped 25% after he started doing it.  Free or cheap try out periods have been around so long because they work.

[jkapp]

Aug 11, 2013 14:22:10 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Ha!  We are planning on giving some product away during the grand opening and we'll have items out of the packaging to be played with in the store in order to hopefully boost sales.  I was talking to a toy store owner in Texas that does board game rentals.  For $3 you can take a board game home for a few days and try it out.  He said his game sales jumped 25% after he started doing it.  Free or cheap try out periods have been around so long because they work.

Thta's actually pretty smart for board games, especially when you're trying to find a game the whole family can play.  It sucks when you buy a game and find out your 8 yr old can't figure it out, when it was the 8 yr old you specifically wanted to include in the gaming.

[Sum Dum Gai]

I like the board game rental idea, but it does require more work on the toy store's part.  Somebody has to process returns and check that all the pieces are there, process the late fees, etc.  Most new board games are $30-50 now, so a tryout period before shelling out that much makes a lot of sense.

We're planning on charging $3 for a 3 day rental, so you could check out a game on Friday and return it Monday.  We'll charge a $1 late fee for each day that it's returned late.  If the game is returned unplayable, you pay full retail to replace it.  If it's missing a couple easily replaceable pieces that don't affect gameplay we'll charge a nominal amount, probably a couple bucks.  If the late fees ever equal the retail cost of the game, you bought it, and the fees stop accruing.  It'll all be drawn up in a rental contract that would have to be signed and a credit card will be kept on file for the fees.  So, if you check out a game and really like it, you could just keep it, and pay the normal retail price for it.  Or you could just rent games as you wanted to play them.