Ghost Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I only watch a couple of live events during the summer, but I watch far more archive material in total during the rest of the year. +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2muchcoffeeman Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 A face saving face lift. The face, having been lifted, will be saved. I LOLed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 (edited) As others have pointed out here, DCI has done precisely what you describe. They have looked at their internal data on recent traffic and sales, seen that live coverage gets more traffic than archives, and concluded that people are less interested in archives to whatever proportion their data suggests. How stupid is that? Is anyone surprised that live events drive recent traffic? The last time DCI did anything significant with archival media was when they released the legacy DVDs back in, what, 1999? Live coverage brings us fresh new material frequently, but there is nothing being added on the archival front, and no effort to even stir the pot. Thousands of video and audio recordings sit and rot, while the Fan Network archival stream selection has remained unchanged since inception. Coverage of the current season is heavily promoted from May through August, while there is zero promotion for the Fan Network archives at any point in the year. Put simply, what DCI does is: - promote A and ignore B (maybe even promote A at the expense of B) - watch as A receives more traffic than B - take the resulting data as proof that there is no interest in B "Market research" requires that you look beyond your internal sales data and consider (like the phrase says) the "market". DCI does not even look beyond their own one-sided promotional efforts, and the conclusions drawn from such myopic analysis are nothing but self-fulfilling prophecies. When you think of it that way, it is a bit odd in practice. I suppose, however, you can look at it as - live streams/current season stuff IS the selling point - live streams/current season is what drives new customers (went to a show and liked what you saw? subscribe to see the whole season's productions; excited to see if Crown becomes a new DCI Champion, or if BD break the Champ record score? subscribe and don't miss out on the action. Want to track your friend/family member's corps as they perform across the country? subscribe) - the archives are "bonus material" to the current season's "main content." The subscription price of FN essentially goes towards the cost of sending a videographer (or full team) to record a show & stream it live, so it makes sense if DCI sees that as the content that drives subscription purchases is the main focus of marketing & the main selling point. You're right about market research, and I can't remember much, if any, FN has done recently. I have no clue what the main demographic is (i.e. is it mostly 'legacy fans' or fans closer to MM age), or what the stated interests of the majority of FN subscribers is, etc. It's possible that DCI has always feared copyright enforcement would mess up the archive aspect of FN and purposely stayed away from promoting that due to the inherent instability. Also, IIRC FN started for the express purpose of promoting the current season: it started with audio recordings of shows, and then moved to live streaming, and then (again, IIRC) added archives of past shows. So from Day 1 it's possible FN was always seen as DCI as a promotion tool for the current year, and then added archival stuff as added benefit. I agree that comprehensive market research would benefit DCI and might make their decisions in this matter easier (i.e. if most subscribers say they're not that interested in archival stuff maybe DCI can drop it with minimal subscriber backlash), and without it we'll never know what the customers collectively think/want out of the service Edited January 21, 2015 by perc2100 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 To tell the truth, I could care less if DCI offers streaming of archived years. As long as they're available *for sale,* I'm a happy camper. I'd have no problem with FN just being live streaming of the current year, and then a storefront with older audio and video downloads. Mike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 To tell the truth, I could care less if DCI offers streaming of archived years. As long as they're available *for sale,* I'm a happy camper. I'd have no problem with FN just being live streaming of the current year, and then a storefront with older audio and video downloads. Mike And I'll go one step further as I contemplate my vast collection of legacy BETA, VHS, CD, DVD, and now BluRays. I've felt a twinge of regret over the years wondering why I'm buying all these media when darn-near everything I want to see in on FN (so long as the corps is still active). I must admit to a twinge of satisfaction at having all of this media when the FN was chopped off at the knees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xandandl Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Garfield, Clever business tycoon that you seek to be, I'm sure it won't be long until you are re-incorporating as a museum or archive of said media collections. Perhaps you'll be another branch of the Smithsonian bringing you tax benefits and allowing us, your DCP friends, membership for a fee. I certainly wouldn't be surprised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 (edited) Garfield, Clever business tycoon that you seek to be, I'm sure it won't be long until you are re-incorporating as a museum or archive of said media collections. Perhaps you'll be another branch of the Smithsonian bringing you tax benefits and allowing us, your DCP friends, membership for a fee. I certainly wouldn't be surprised. Clever. Yes, when the Garfield wing of the Smithsonian opens to all who want to come listen and watch old drum corps recordings, all of my DCP friends will be charged 1 penny each for lifetime membership. Of course I alone get to determine who is a DCP friend and who is not. This is among my top lifetime business goals, and is right up there with my plan to charge to use my land line phone when the sun-catastrophe zaps out all the cell phones. I even bought a long phone cable to extend my rotary Bell telephone out to the street stand I built several years ago. Instead of lemonade I'll sell phone calls. Brilliant! As I said in some other thread, the Dutch had the tulip bubble. This cell phone thing is going to pop and then I'll be a bazillionaire, if I could just figure out who I might call who also has a rotary Bell telephone. Edited January 21, 2015 by garfield 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xandandl Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornTeacher Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 (edited) Garfield, Clever business tycoon that you seek to be, I'm sure it won't be long until you are re-incorporating as a museum or archive of said media collections. Perhaps you'll be another branch of the Smithsonian bringing you tax benefits and allowing us, your DCP friends, membership for a fee. I certainly wouldn't be surprised. Did you actually intend "seek to be," or was that rather a typo for "seem to be?" Of course, it could be both. Edited January 21, 2015 by HornTeacher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xandandl Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 you know those money and numbers guys, they always want more. They even invent things like "imaginary numbers".... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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