Brian Wood addresses the controversy over Dark Horse digital pricing:
Over the last few days Dark Horse was compelled to clarify what their digital plan was, in terms of pricing, correcting the perception that their comics would be sold digitally at $1.99, much less than the print versions. I have access to the CBIA, a retailers forum, and the pushback was intense, and included overt threats of drastically lowered orders and even total boycotts of the line. Did I mention everyone is bleeding? I get the frustration… No sane creator, or publisher, wants to see comic shops hurt. We all have emotional connections to them, to the idea of them, and we count owners and employees as personal friends. We aren’t looking for digital to steal customers away from shops, but rather to be an additive thing, to be an additional source of income. To simply switch a current print consumer to a digital consumer does not solve any problems! It benefits no one at all. It will not save us.
He mentions the idea that digital pricing is being kept artificially high out of fear of upsetting print retailers, saying that “the price that fair-minded readers WANT to buy digital comics at is starkly different from what’s they are currently set at,” which I think is entirely true.
I’m saddened by the idea – not put forward by Wood, I hasten to add, but by others online – that Dark Horse changed an initial plan to sell digitally at $1.99 in response to retailer upset; at the time of the official (misunderstood) announcement, I was excited to see what seemed to be Dark Horse following Archie’s lead in terms of day-and-date pricing and move into what feels like a somewhat delayed but ultimately inevitable future. Maybe one day…
December 7th, 2011 at 10:38 am
The price of digital music albums isn’t that much different from the price of the physical CD, so I don’t know if there’s much of a precedent for lowered pricing on the digital version. The difference would be the collect-ability of comics, but the speculation of the 90s kinda killed that. I often have a hard time even giving away my recent books.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:20 am
@Weeji
Most albums I download are at least a few dollars less than the CDs, and that’s just online. In stores the CDs are even more.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:28 am
With the industry bleeding readers, at some point the issue is going to be “them or us.” At some point, publishers will have to do what’s best for them so they can still publish and won’t even be able to consider the needs of retailers.
It’s happening already, really, given all the jobs we’ve seen cut over the last few months.
December 7th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
There is no physical product so it needs to be cheaper compared to the print version. Movies, music and TV all had to suck it up in a transition period. Maybe high value graphic novels and special editions is the way forward for retailers. Digital has to be cheaper from print that is a must…
December 7th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
If prices are kept artificially high to satisfy vendors, then the writing really is on the wall. Smart retailers will be figuring out how to survive the 99c digital issue. Tablet readers are dropping below $200 bucks now. In five years, the 99$ colour tablet will be standard, and when that happens everything will change.
People have less money to spend, so they’ll spend on a single system that will do more of what they want. That means less physical books.
The technology will only keep getting cheaper, meanwhile studios facing losses and layoffs will sacrifice vendors to save their own staff.
Retailers should probably fight this by tooth and claw, squeeze ever last penny out of the business and then prepare for what’s next.
SG.
December 7th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Personally if it means $.99 or $1.49 issues I would like to see every comic shop close their doors. I haven’t been in a comic shop in years and I am still enjoying all my comics on a weekly basis without spending $3.99 an issue. Drop the price to $.99 and $1.49 and you have my money again.
Quit protecting the stores and move into the 21st century!
December 7th, 2011 at 7:48 pm
@Nicholas – Agree!
December 8th, 2011 at 9:42 am
Honestly, I think Marvel’s recent print / digital combo is a step in the right direction for all concerned. It should (hopefully) keep readers going to the shop on a regular basis to get the periodical and removes some of the sting of $3.99 an issue by offering it in two formats.
If only there were a way to do it without the polybag though…