Japanese anime industry being killed by free downloads

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Reavyn

Honestly, dropping the price of it wouldn't change the fact that it is illegally downloaded. When they dropped the price of CD's here in the states it didn't change the fact that illegal downloads are killing the music industry. Most people pirate because they don't want to pay for what they want. I'd love to own a lot of different CD's from Japan, but I can't afford them, yet I won't download them either. And I'd say that 85% of the anime I've watched I own. about 10% of them would be from tv, and only 5% I've watched via places like youtube and such. But I usually end up buying the ones I watch online also.

I would say that in Japan, it would make a difference. Anime is aired at very high quality on television - most people aren`t so much downloading as they are recording things, in my opinion. There isn`t quite the same strong pirate culture as there seems to be elsewhere. The average Japanese kid isn`t surfing for torrents... It seems like 99% of the sites out there offering Japanese stuff for download are not even Japanese.

People tend to like to own things, and will gladly buy the things they like out of pure fandom. However, there is a point where the average buyer is locked out and only the most hardcore fan can afford this stuff - that is where the price point is currently set. For one, CD→MP3 doesn`t hurt all that much in terms of quality if you`re listening on a small portable device... And with anime, things are the other way around. The copies being sold are of much lower quality than those being shown on television. (Except for the relatively rare BD releases.)
People are watching anime on large high definition televisions. The idea of paying a huge amount for an inferior copy simply isn`t appealing to a consumer. Especially when you can record the show in full quality if you have an HDD recorder.

I think it would be somewhat similar to having digital radio stations playing songs in full CD quality, with a legal CD recorder being built right into your stereo and easy access to (illegal) full quality stuff for free - But in the store there are only low quality tapes which they are charging $50 a song...
Unless you are a die-hard fan and absolutely MUST have the minute of artist talk they threw in as an extra to make up for the low quality and high price, chances are you`re not going to feel a strong urge to pay that much.

I am not for illegal downloading, and would LIKE to buy a lot of things, but it simply isn`t feasible at the current prices... Or rather, is very hard to justify dropping that much money on a poor copy when I can legally record and keep a copy at full quality on my HDD recorder.

I think that the original article was more concerned with the rapid spread of fan-subs, and their effect on sales of anime outside of Japan though... Fan-subs have nothing to do with things inside Japan.

[seiki]

$60 for one episode? thats insane i would never pay that much for an episode I won't even pay $24 for four episodes. What would cause such a difference in price especially since what we can buy in the us has been re recorded to be in english or at least subtitled. That dosn't even make since.

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by seiki

$60 for one episode? thats insane i would never pay that much for an episode I won't even pay $24 for four episodes. What would cause such a difference in price especially since what we can buy in the us has been re recorded to be in english or at least subtitled. That dosn't even make since.

Not every series is that high, but it`s a very common price point.
The reasoning is that if people are willing to pay that much, there is no reason to lower the price. And there are fans who are willing to pay nearly anything in some cases - check the prices for the special and regular editions of Ichigo Marshmallow OVA. I believe there was one episode on the DVD with the special being 17000 and the regular 12000. And they sold.
I think the difference in price is really what the market is used to and expecting. You gawk at that much per episode, but it`s the norm so no one gawks here. They just think a bit more before picking one up. CDs here are also generally high ($40 album is a normal price point).

[seiki]

Thats really high. I always thought that prices were pretty high here. Hmm so it just seems to me that pricing like that should be illegal but I guess as long as people are willing to pay that much it won't really go down. I don't buy anime unless it is truly a good deal which is unusual. I watch it on tv or the internet or borrow it from a friend. I don't download it because i don't need to and besides those torrent sites are a waste of my timelol. Viruses everywhere.

[burkhartdesu]

I don't know anyone who actually spends money on anime these days (In America)-- mainly because the American releases are substantially less 'popular' than the downloadable Japanese versions.

[SSJup81]

Originally Posted by seiki

Thats really high. I always thought that prices were pretty high here. Hmm so it just seems to me that pricing like that should be illegal but I guess as long as people are willing to pay that much it won't really go down. I don't buy anime unless it is truly a good deal which is unusual. I watch it on tv or the internet or borrow it from a friend. I don't download it because i don't need to and besides those torrent sites are a waste of my timelol. Viruses everywhere.

Some people just put up direct downloads.

That aside, I download anime, if a series catches my interest. I don't usually keep it, though. After I watch it, I delete it. If I really enjoyed it, I put it on my "to eventually buy whenever it gets an international release" list. Unfortunately, there really aren't too many series I feel are worth owning that I've seen and the stuff I want on DVD, isn't (older series mostly). Same goes with music.

Years ago, before it really hit me, I used to download whatever. I knew I wasn't going to hear Japanese stuff on the radio here and it was much to expensive to import. I then got to the point where I'm sampling more so than anything else, but, unlike anime, I do tend to keep music. I mostly pick and choose which artists/groups to support and buy stuff for since I can't buy everything. I guess you could say that that's a "to buy eventually" type thing too.

I feel that if someone is truly a fan of a work, that he or she will invest money to buy something to support the franchise, even if it's years down the road. Unfortunately, these types are probably far and in-between.

[Ryzorian]

Wow, things are much more expensive there. They ship them in 4 episode DVD's sometimes 5 episodes here. The Americanized versions sometimes seem to cut out alot of what's actually being said.

[MMM]

I think it is best to read the whole article, as something seemed suspicious to me in the snippets Niyusu clipped. Illegal downloading is only one part of the problem, but it is a major problem for the exporting of anime. The two issues are 1) high priced DVDs and 2) thanks to the Internet fans are aware of what is happening in Japan, and they don't have the patience to wait for an official English release. TV Tokyo joined up with Crunchyroll so that for 7 bucks a month you can get official subtitled releases on your computer of anime faster then the fansubbers can sub them. That is a great deal! And this will probably be the future of the industry. Digital DL is the way of the future, and the industries are starting to see that.

And yes, I did start a thread that talks about this subject:

To all you who DL anime and manga for free

[seiki]

That sounds good are they doing that now then?

[nobora]

Maybe theyre downloading it illegaly because the japanese are making it too expensive