6000 units, 2 million plus torrents. Just sayin'
If publishers want to minimize piracy they need to offer their products both conveniently and for a reasonable price.
(/cranky old man on)
Piracy has been around since the days of magnetic tape (audio cassette mix tapes and VCR dupes), but with the advent of digital storage and transmission making things so easy and effortless, we've got a large part of the Internet generation that values nothing because nothing's worth paying for because everything's "free" ... somewhere on the Interwebz.
As Zeek mentioned above, why did it take 25 years to get a finally get a score released for the Goonies? I've previously listed all of the great scores from the 1970s / 1980s / 1990s that have been finally released in the last ~5 years. It's because there is a market (albeit a small one) for original scores, and a few small companies willing to fill that niche market. We collectors realize that, and are willing to pay for these limited runs.
It used to be if you didn't have the money for something you wanted, you had to wait until you DID have the money to get it. Now? Click-click-download and it's yours. The reason it costs so much is because so few are willing to pay... pay anything, that is.
I'm quite sure that La-La-Land took into account piracy in setting their prices, because in the time it takes to upload 15 CDs on the day their box set gets released, it will be on Torrent and other sites.
If even ½% of those 2 million (10,000) were willing to pay, that would more than double the initial pressing of 6,000 and spread the production costs (re-mastering and manufacture) around to more customers.
More payers >>> the price goes down for all.
And to the 2 million: We 6,000 say, "You're welcome" ... not that we expect any thank-you's.
(/cranky old man off)
