IP Democracy: Indie Films Caught in a Technology Transition

The New York Times’ Brian Reesman has this piece today about how the demise of Tower Records and other retail outlets that sell DVDs (and music, of course) is hurting the DVD sales of smaller, more artistic films. Now that Wal-Mart and other giant retailers have the market to themselves, shelf-space for films is limited to mass market titles — the little guys, the indie films, get booted off the shelves if they don’t sell.

As independent retailers dwindle, larger chains focused more on mainstream titles seem to “control and set the arbitrary taste for the entire market,” said Matt Kennedy, former president of Panik House Entertainment, which specializes in international genre movies like “The Curse of the Crying Woman” and “The Pinky Violence Collection.” “Not getting a title into one of these stores can be the death of a small label, but so can getting one in. If you get an order for 40,000 titles and only sell 4,000 because it was left boxed in the back, misfiled by category or never entered into inventory, it can mean bankruptcy.”

What’s interesting about the piece is that it only barely mentions the rise in online movie distribution, which should be a boon to the indie film crowd. After all, the Internet can fulfill even the tiniest niche in books, art and music.

The problem is that online film distribution stinks — studios lard DRM technologies into movies sold online and few popular web-based film distributors allow consumers to burn the films onto DVDs.

So, until the online film market gets better, “small” movies are getting the shaft. Big retailers don’t want them and fans don’t have good alternatives online.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on March 4, 2007 11:08 AM to IP Democracy