Theocacao: Why I Buy iTunes Movies

Why I Buy iTunes Movies

Brad Choate talks about some good reasons to not buy video content from iTunes, even though he himself has bought them.

There's nothing he says that's really untrue, but there is one good reason to buy movies from iTunes: I don't have to go to Best Buy. I feel like I die a little bit each time I walk into Best Buy, Circuit City or anything in the genre. It's not that they do anything wrong, it's just that I feel like the environment sucks my life energy.

I don't want to know if I can save $400 instantly, I don't want to be a member of the reward zone, I don't want 10% off stainless select appliances. I'm not interested in air purifiers, or TVs that have no interest payments until 2008.

I don't need to have my senses overwhelmed by blue and yellow or red and yellow branding. I have all the special offers and amazing discounts I can take.

I'd just like my movie, please. Thank you.

Ironically, Fry's doesn't bother me as much because they embrace the insanity. They don't try to convince you that you're going to improve your lifestyle. You know you're going there to get useless stuff cheaply.

Why I Buy iTunes Movies
Posted Sep 28, 2006 — 9 comments below

Ashley — Sep 28, 06 1901

To be fair, Fry's recently has hounded me to sign up for their credit card every time I've been there for the last 6 months. On almost every aisle there was a sales associate hawking their cards. Frankly, it's getting very old.

Justin Anderson — Sep 29, 06 1902

I have to agree with what Steve Jobs said years ago when grilled about song subscriptions and the possibility of an iTunes Movie Store. People will listen to a song they like hundreds of times over their life, so owning your songs makes sense over subscriptions. Few movies get watched more than a couple times, so owning them doesn't make as much sense as renting.

Obviously there is a market for owning movies, since DVDs are a big market, but I do think Apple will have much greater success renting movies through iTunes. Once everyone gets FiOS. All I'm asking for is NetFlix without the snail mail.

Noah Lieberman — Sep 29, 06 1903

I couldn't agree more with Justin. I love the ability to get the movies through iTunes, but I just don't watch movies more than once MAYBE twice... in which case I get better quality video, audio, plus extras for half the price by renting it.
If Apple offered rentals, I'd be buying them every week!

lone — Sep 29, 06 1904

One of the perks you get for living in Europe seems to be less general insanity everywhere :)
I mean, if a store kept asking people here to get discounts and offers and stuff like that, it'd go out of business in an hour.

(It might be a cultural thing, because even the clerks don't give a damn about the discounts, and they're either you ask them for help or they don't bother you at all. And it's not store policy for a particular store, it's just general common sense.)

Bill Coleman — Sep 29, 06 1905

I kinda know what you mean about Best Buy or Circuit City. If I just go in for something simple, I have to walk past huge isles of stuff I don't need. If you just do a quick in and out, it's not so bad.

As for Fry's, once I accepted that Fry's hates customers (but loves their money), I found them easy to deal with.

Mark Stultz — Sep 29, 06 1907

I don't know why, but I really enjoyed the Fry's bit :) I totally agree with this comment. I also find it, kind of ironic, that I always seem to move within 1 mile of a Fry's. Thanks for starting off my Friday on a good start :)

Mark

Dan Price — Sep 29, 06 1910

The whole monthly-subscription thing of some vendors is crazy. A friend of mine used to use Napster, where you could download any number of songs for a flat rate. He thought he was getting a better deal than on iTunes. But as soon as he stopped paying his subscription, his songs stopped working.

I'm not convinced Apple can make a success out of this, even though their approach seems better than most of the competition. The technology just isn't quiet there yet. For one thing, HDTV is coming of age, and movies purchased from Apple just look crappy on anything other than a computer screen.

John P. — Oct 03, 06 1916

The thing I hate about Fry's is that some products that they sell have been returned in the past, and are re-shrinkwrapped so they appear as new unopened items. This happened to me a couple years ago when I bought my iPod there, unfortunately, I won't buy a thing there anymore unless it's brand new.

Scott Stevenson — Oct 03, 06 1917

re-shrinkwrapped so they appear as new unopened item

They do mark them with a label on the outside, though.

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