Longbox and the Digital Revolution
Jul. 21st, 2009 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophileSomething I'd overlooked was the announcement of Longbox, the "iTunes for the comic industry". Will this mark the end of piracy in the comics industry? the end of the printed medium? Get a big shrug from most comic readers? Not sure, personally, I'm still of the opinion most of us want to read physical comics rather than onscreen and it'll succeed maybe to the level of e-books but not exactly take over, but as the article points out, Longbox is doing a lot of things right, including price points, apparent ease of use and so on.
The big question is, will Longbox succeed because it's able to deliver the latest issues cheaper (99 cents an issue) or is it going to be limited to older titles, like Marvel's . There's also the question of whether any of the big publishers are going to sign up for it - so far, only Top Cow and BOOM! Studios are confirmed. If Marvel and DC continue to want to do their own thing (or not in the case of DC) Longbox would appear to be defeated before it even begins.
Of course, there's also the question whether those that do read comics online will actually go back and start paying for them after they've been getting the content free on torrents for a while. And whether these people represent the bulk of those prepared to read books on their computers - obviously I'm happy with reading snippets of books online, but would I read my entirely monthly pull list on a computer instead of buying printed media? I doubt it. In my experience most comic readers are the same, but there probably are those who want to read comics but are short on storage space.
How do my friends list feel about this? Quick poll!
[Poll #1432786]
The big question is, will Longbox succeed because it's able to deliver the latest issues cheaper (99 cents an issue) or is it going to be limited to older titles, like Marvel's . There's also the question of whether any of the big publishers are going to sign up for it - so far, only Top Cow and BOOM! Studios are confirmed. If Marvel and DC continue to want to do their own thing (or not in the case of DC) Longbox would appear to be defeated before it even begins.
Of course, there's also the question whether those that do read comics online will actually go back and start paying for them after they've been getting the content free on torrents for a while. And whether these people represent the bulk of those prepared to read books on their computers - obviously I'm happy with reading snippets of books online, but would I read my entirely monthly pull list on a computer instead of buying printed media? I doubt it. In my experience most comic readers are the same, but there probably are those who want to read comics but are short on storage space.
How do my friends list feel about this? Quick poll!
[Poll #1432786]
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Date: 2009-07-21 06:15 pm (UTC)Eventually when I have enough money, I'll buy all the comics that I've downloaded and liked.