11/28 Consumerism Commentary: A Personal Finance Blog Since 2003

Please add updates@feedmyinbox.com to your address book to make sure you receive these messages in the future.

Consumerism Commentary: A Personal Finance Blog Since 2003

Alternate Ways of Rewarding Content Creators
November 27, 2009 at 11:56 am

I’ve been thinking a lot since the last time we talked about my ongoing internal troubles with stealing entertainment. In general, my habits are tending more toward avoiding theft, even accidentally. I want to make sure that the creators know that the thing they made was good, and I want to help them make more.

The no brainer: “new media” creators

I’m proudly displaying DVDs for Homestar Runner (we also bought some figurines and a car window cling of The Cheat), Tiki Bar TV and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on my shelf. Those are great shows that would never have found a home on traditional television, so it’s up to people like me to reward them and help them make more.

I’ve also been meaning to pick up The Guild on DVD. Wait a sec.

*click* There. Done.

My wife and I are also both subscribing for $5 a month to The Sound of Young America, and I’ve recently started buying some iRiffs here and there (these are like the fan-made commentaries we talked about earlier, but usually by people you’ve never heard of).

All of these shows have different business models, because “new media” (the linguist in me really hates that term) is still figuring itself out. The important thing is that they make it convenient to enjoy the things they make, and that they make it easy to reward them.

Where are you, high-def movie downloads?

We have the technology in place right now to make blu-ray obsolete. I’ve streamed high-def movies through my TV provider’s DVR, and through Netflix on the XBox, and I bought “Terminator 2″ in HD through iTunes (which I have connected to our TV). That last one even came with “extras” like a blu-ray disc would. So it seems absurd to me that “the market” still wants me to get a blu-ray player. I don’t need a separate device to play HD movies. I can already play them.

Besides, a blu-ray disc usually also costs more than its DVD equivalent, which makes no sense to me, because they both contain the same thing: one movie.

The sad truth is that it is easier for me to download the blu-ray high-def version of a movie for free, illegally, and store it on my home network than it is for me to stomach the idea of buying a blu-ray player (not least of which because I was rooting for HD-DVD, since that format was region-free). But I don’t want to be a thief. So, lately I also started buying the blu-ray versions of movies that I already downloaded, and which I know we’ll watch again and again. “Galaxy Quest” for example, and the new “Star Trek” movie. In fact I just ordered “Star Trek” at the same time I bought “The Guild” a few paragraphs ago.

But this isn’t what I want to do. I want to pay directly for a digital—software—version of the movie. I don’t want “the market” to think that actual blu-ray discs are more popular than they are. The only place I know I can do this is inside of iTunes, and as of this article there are only 286 HD movies available to buy. And for the life of me, I can’t see any rhyme or reason to which movies are there on the store. It seems totally random; not the kind of movies I want to enjoy many times over.

The downside: not rewarding bad content

All that being said – and I hope you agree I’ve made some improvements – I still don’t feel right paying for something that I didn’t enjoy. Earlier this summer we managed to go out to three movies in a row that weren’t any good. After that, I decided to be a lot more strict about getting reviews from places like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes before heading to the theater.

And I’m trying to be more patient when things seem iffy. I was excited to see “Drag Me to Hell”, because I’ve always liked Sam Raimi’s work (yes, up to and including “Xena: Warrior Princess”), but I waited for it to be available to download (on Netflix or otherwise), and I’m very glad I did, because wow, did I not enjoy that movie. In fact I only saw about 60% of it before I thought of something better to do.

Thankfully, the guys at Rifftrax are making an alternate commentary, which should help erase the memory of watching it raw the first time.

Photo credit: Lan Bui

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

The Consumerism Commentary Podcast is in full swing with new episodes every Sunday. Listen and subscribe now!

Alternate Ways of Rewarding Content Creators

ING Direct Offering $121 Bonus for New Checking Accounts
November 27, 2009 at 9:20 am

Here’s a Black Friday sale I can appreciate. ING Direct is offering a $121 bonus for opening an Electronic Orange checking account today, Friday, November 27, 2009. This is a one-day only sale.

According to ING Direct, consumers pay $121 in overdraft fees, on average, each year. Rather than charging overdraft fees, the Electric Orange includes an overdraft line of credit. This is different than the overdraft protection you find at most banks. As long as your overdraft is within the limit of your line of credit, you pay ING Direct interest on the amount of the overdraft.

ING Direct is also offering a 2% APY “Added Value” certificate of deposit. This is a 12-month CD and the 2% interest rate is 0.25 percentage points above ING Direct’s regular 12-month CD. Qualifying for this rate requires customers to leave their deposit at the bank in full without making any withdrawals.

In a sea of advertising encouraging consumption, it’s good to see a Black Friday special focusing on savings.