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Post by earl on Jun 29, 2015 18:44:28 GMT -5
I think the thing Amazon could do with comics that they do with other books and music is do print to order. I'd think it would be relatively easy to make a pretty good print from file comic book and I would think it would be possible to do it at a price point that is competitive.
The thing is that the stuff that people want is Marvel or DC comics in some of the print to order things, but I think if they made compilations of indies from the last 30 years that could work.
Quite a few writers have started with the print to order and caught on through Amazon, so I would think comics could work in that setup.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Jun 29, 2015 20:03:11 GMT -5
If Amazon bundled a free comixology subscription in with Prime membership, that might finally be the tipping point necessary to get me into digital comics. Hell could very well freeze over...
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Post by Trevor on Jun 29, 2015 20:19:35 GMT -5
If Amazon bundled a free comixology subscription in with Prime membership, that might finally be the tipping point necessary to get me into digital comics. Hell could very well freeze over... I'm sure that won't happen (giving the full Comixology Unlimited to all Prime members), but how about something small to try to get people hooked? Give all 50 gazillion Prime members a Comixology Unlimited Lite account for free. Something like 5 free books a month, or one title with access to that title's entire backlog. This might create some new fans, or get fans not sold on digital to climb aboard the full subscription plan. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 21:05:38 GMT -5
All depends on what operating costs are vs. revenue for Marvel. Is getting approximately 36% (average dollar share of direct market) of the revenue from a Comixology and eliminating costs more profitable than getting 100% of revenue minus operating costs for Marvel Unlimited, plus all the added traffic to other Marvel services like the Marvel store where you can buy Marvel merchandise, the print subscription page, the links to the current books offered individually at $4 a pop (again 100% revenue if through Marvel not a piece of the pie via Comixology) plus ad revenue from licenses advertising Marvel products on the Marvel site that gets all the traffic and hits from having the MU service housed there. There's a lot of ancillerary revenue Mrvel/Disney makes form having Marvel Unlimited on the Marvel.com site that is not reflected in the subscription price paid by customers. They lose all that as well as a good chunk of the monthly sub revenue by going to Comixology's monthly service. Is Amazon big enough to bully Disney into accepting terms they don't like? What happens if Disney pushed back and says give us better terms or no Disney related products will be sold to/distributed through Amazon? Could Amazon survive the loss of that much of their revenue base? Amazon is going to have to court Disney/Marvel into this, not force them. They don't have the leverage needed to make Disney take a deal that is not better than what they already have with MU. -M As far as the ads go, Marvel could start padding their digital comics with in house (and otherwise) ads in order to generate revenue and traffic to their online marketplace. If Comixology would allow it. At the very least a single one page in house ad seems fair enough. As far as Marvel vs Comixology in digital distribution, I think Comixology has the clear advantage. Sure, Disney is a huge corporation. They aren't in the business of digitally distributing comics though. Ford VS Disney in a dispute over standard options on the next Focus, Ford is the winner of the argument unless Disney buys Ford. It seems to me that COmixology is rapidly growing in the digital comics market, and has been on that trajectory for about four years now. Marvel will not go out of business if they opt out, but their absence will be noted, and I don't think it would be beneficial for them. Lind of like a mainstream pop act opting out of iTunes. I also think if Marvel were to try to go head to head with Comixology over digital distribution and Comixology wanted to actually engage in a digital turf war, Marvel would lose. Marvel has a lot of fans. A lot of readers. But as far as I know Comixology does not release sales numbers like Diamond does. I suspect Marvel's dominance there is less than we'd expect. And with DC on board, a huge chunk of the superhero crowd would subscribe anyway. So the losses would be minimal. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 21:12:46 GMT -5
But the ad revenue they are getting is form other companies, not house ads. That's lost revenue if they go in on the Comioxology thing and stop Unlimited. The ads are not in the comics, they are on the Marvel site where they sell their books and host Unlimited, which will not get the traffic it gets now if Comixology become the gateway instead.
-M
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 21:14:16 GMT -5
But the ad revenue they are getting is form other companies, not house ads. That's lost revenue if they go in on the Comioxology thing and stop Unlimited. The ads are not in the comics, they are on the Marvel site where they sell their books and host Unlimited, which will not get the traffic it gets now if Comixology become the gateway instead. -M An in house ad in the back of a Comixology comic directing people to the marvel site would still result in people seeing those paid advertisements hosted on the site. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 21:47:14 GMT -5
But the ad revenue they are getting is form other companies, not house ads. That's lost revenue if they go in on the Comioxology thing and stop Unlimited. The ads are not in the comics, they are on the Marvel site where they sell their books and host Unlimited, which will not get the traffic it gets now if Comixology become the gateway instead. -M An in house ad in the back of a Comixology comic directing people to the marvel site would still result in people seeing those paid advertisements hosted on the site. Except with people buying the products elsewhere and Marvel getting less of that revenue, traffic is down some and revenue from the site is down. If traffic is down, then they have to charge less to advertise on the site, so revenue goes down even more. You can bet Disney accountants will take all of that into account and factor into it the potential growth and revenue down the road vs. current revenue losses, projected effect on loss of direct market sales and possible retail outlets, etc. etc. etc. when making their decision to be a part of it or not. I am not saying it won't be a better move long term for them, but they will factor in everything when making the decision. They won't just jump in because Amazon says so. Disney is one of the few corporate entities Amazon cannot push around. -M |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 29, 2015 22:10:04 GMT -5
I'm thinking that Marvel will offer the newer titles and hold back most of their archives for MU.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jun 29, 2015 22:12:57 GMT -5
I'm thinking that Marvel will offer the newer titles and hold back most of their archives for MU. I hope not, I'd be more interested in the back issues than the current books. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 29, 2015 22:17:01 GMT -5
Does anybody know how much work goes into digitizing all those Marvel back issues? Those books look flawless in the digital format.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 22:19:02 GMT -5
An in house ad in the back of a Comixology comic directing people to the marvel site would still result in people seeing those paid advertisements hosted on the site. Except with people buying the products elsewhere and Marvel getting less of that revenue, traffic is down some and revenue from the site is down. If traffic is down, then they have to charge less to advertise on the site, so revenue goes down even more. You can bet Disney accountants will take all of that into account and factor into it the potential growth and revenue down the road vs. current revenue losses, projected effect on loss of direct market sales and possible retail outlets, etc. etc. etc. when making their decision to be a part of it or not. I am not saying it won't be a better move long term for them, but they will factor in everything when making the decision. They won't just jump in because Amazon says so. Disney is one of the few corporate entities Amazon cannot push around. -M Traffic is going to drop anyway. This is regardless of Marvel keeping MU or not. Comixology is going to eclipse them in subscriptions for many reasons. Now they can still sell ad revenue on their site, and they can (possibly) still place ads in their Comixology comics to direct traffic to that site and those ads in order to hold onto whatever ad revenue they had, but this is the direction things are going and I don't see much of a choice on Marvel's behalf but to work with it. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 22:19:41 GMT -5
Does anybody know how much work goes into digitizing all those Marvel back issues? Those books look flawless in the digital format. I haven't looked at them but I'd assume they're not simply scans of old comics like the pirated versions, right? Possible remastered or something? |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 29, 2015 23:01:51 GMT -5
Take a look at the scans thread. i posted some from Hulk issues. They look bright and sharp.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2015 23:09:41 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm positive those are not simply scans of old comics. That's remastered material. I'm wondering if it was remastered specifically for digital or if it was something they did for their reprint collections first?
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Post by JKCarrier on Jun 29, 2015 23:13:31 GMT -5
I just recently subbed to Marvel Unlimited for a year and I am finding I like the experience. There are frustrations that certain things I want to read (older stuff not new) are not available, but there is so much available I can make due. I was curious about that. How deep is their back catalog? Do they have the anthology titles, like Marvel Premiere and Marvel Spotlight? Short-lived titles like Claws of the Cat or Skull the Slayer? Any of the black and white mags? If they mostly have recent titles and the usual popular "classics", I doubt I would bite. |
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