If you look at it, cassettes are the precursor to the IP tomfoolery we face now, because even back then, people were starting to copy cassette tapes for distribution. It was clunky, it was rather unwieldy, but people got their music. The industry did care for a bit, but their financial muscle and marketing people beat the cassette tape pirates by embracing CDs (Correct me if I’m wrong). Same goes for VHS tapes.

and as for animé, it’s a rather niche market, but loaded with people with cash. It’s like a cornucopia of money. As long as you play the right cards, you will get a constant flow of cash. I hate to say it, but otaku are suckers for stuff.

In know about animé online. Nico Nico Douga, HiguKai on animate.tv (mostly becase no one wanted to air the show), and of course, Ayu Mayu Theatre. I remember a few others being streamed online, and there was the AIR movie being available online for a limited period of time. And a couple of series whose names I can’t recall (Dai Mahou Touge?). And Toei’s rolling out a subscription service that lets the subscriber grab any series he likes off the Toei site (or similar site run by Toei), as long as it’s on the server.

I’m also aware that putting your stuff online has the risk of people not paying for what you make. You can’t stop people from thinking about themselves, but you can at least stretch your hand out and beg for donations. It’s not as honorable as earning the cash yourself, I’ll admit, but when you need to survive, you have to do anything in order to live.

And as for making it big, well, you have to be different. There’s no guarantee of fame, but if you work at it, you will eventually make it big, and even then, it doesn’t last very long. Thomas Edison had to go through a lot of failed experiments before finding the right kind of filament for the light bulb. Sir Alex Ferguson had his fair share of goof-ups, and there was little accident at Munich in 1968 that killed the Man U first team, but Manchester United preserved to become the club it is today. If you work hard enough and be grateful for everything that has happened to you, you wil eventually enjoy the fruits of your labour.

There is still that much a difference. ok let me ask you. Have you heard of the anime Saishuu Jiken Kujira or Ayu Mayu Theatre ? Probably not, because its not on any traditional media, They are only online. Simply put, Because of the fact people can CHOOSE online, and there are so much things thats trying to grab your attention. It is more or less impossible for any group be it music or anime to make it big as everyone is trying to make it “big”.

It’s not about distribution or whatnot, it’s about people refusing to look beyond themselves.

Once we start looking beyond our selfish, narrowminded views, we can start tackling the minor issues.

We have the technology for simultaneous broadcast. We have the hi-speed lines to transmit that information. All we need is the human factor. Until we can learn to put asideour self-centered nature, we’ll never get things done.

Also, shia, I’d better clue you in on how the traditional music industry works.

In summary, a musician signs a contract with a licensing company, which in turn does all the marketing, recording and assorted and crap, and then proceeds to take the lion’s share of the profits, leaving the musician with a fraction of the cash (and there was plans to remove even this bit of cash that is rightfully thiers in the first place). Even after deducting the costs like promotion and whatnot, there’s still a ton of money to be made by fleecing musicians who don’t know better. (This is also how patents and that category of things known as the IP industry works.) That’s of course, assuming the sucker was highly marketable in the first place.

In the new model, the musician does his own marketing, pressing, recording, and sometimes, distribution. Sometimes, the musician enlists the help of marketing firms and sites like Myspace to deal with either the promotion or distribution. The companies providing these services take a cut from the money that is made, no more than 20% of actual profits. But all the money goes back to the musician.

On contrary to all Anime is on Free To Air channels. Only the main ones are(Bleach, Naruto and whatever that is from Shounnen Jump). Others could be on Cable channels or Pay Per View channels.

A short peek at moonphase has more than 70% of anime being Late night anime.

The reason why Any Normal(normal as in Invested by some company) anime is made is because of the hope of Return of Investment on the show itself. (Profit)

How can companies that Invest in Anime get their $(domestic)?
1. Advertisement slots in between Anime.(where either they sell their own products or other people who want to Advertise on that time belt)
2. DVD and merchandise.

Lets look at the costs into production for a anime of average quality.

http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/28413/2006254248846267011_rs.jpg

The on the link above is taken from a leaked source of the cost estimates of producing 1 episode of Bamboo Blade.

the bottom of the balance sheet shows 9,554,000JPY as a cost estimate. that would be around 84,500 USD per episode. Meaning Advertisements and Merchandise/DVD sales must reach 1.09 Million (per 13 episodes)to even have a chance of earning anything.

Is even breaking even now wrong?

Still remember recently Radiohead the band sold their digital album online with a “pay as you like” approach?

http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1883

a short summary only 2 in 5 paid for their music, where a the Average Dollars Spent per All Downloads worldwide is $2.26 USD.

I sum up the rest, only 2/5 of the people paid, but there are 1.2mil people who visited the site, where a undisclosed high amount of people downloaded the album. Netting them in my estimate > 1 mil USD. But then again, Radiohead is a rather established band with more than 15 years in their industry. Compared to relatively unknown anime. I don’t think cost of anime can break even this way.

The reason why anime licensors can’t just do direct sales of subtitled anime online is because of a few reasons.

1) They don’t believe it can sell well enough to cover their costs.
2) They have old fogeys who believe in brick and mortar operations.
3) Traditional media IE (DVD/TV rights ) Rights are diminished(less people would want to watch Clannad on TV/DVD if there is a Online Distribution Channel(this leads to them unable to sell TV/DVD rights for regions))

Why can’t Anime be aired on my TV like 1 week after broadcast in japan?
Simple reason, Logistics. Production can screw up and they might not even make it in time for Broadcast in japan(Case in point : Tokyo majin gakuen)
TV broadcast requires tapes and the translation/subtitling process is nearly impossible to make it so. AND I don’t think your TV station would want to take the risk of having a slot they have to reschedule due to the tape being late.

There is no simple solution to solving this at this moment, because its a symbiotic relationship where the animation licensor companies get less part of a deal. But both can’t break free because if they did , they wouldn’t survive.

We can only see how this thing carries on for now

Sadly, we don’t live in that said ‘perfect world’ and will have to choose between the slow/money-consuming/legal licesnsed-release VS prompt/friendly/pay-per-donation/not-so-legal fansubbers.

Now who’s up for forming a company that will (1)save by NOT doing unnecessary dubs (2)form an alliance between fansubbers~paidsubbers & licensees (3)releasing DVD box-sets of ‘collectors level’ and ‘average consumer level’ so the poor and stingey can afford 2D/Moe/much more!

QFT.

Oh, this is the biting wit I have been searching for, Lupz.

‘So, despite the fact that no one really gives a shit anymore (except the self-righteous fansubbers and money-mongering corporations), I’m going to write down some thoughts I had while I was taking a shit and reading Full Metal Panic.’

HAHAHAHAHA.

As you said, licensees and fansubs are tearing at each other’s throats right now because one blames the other for poor sales and the latter blames the former for expensive and poor quality products.

While I think the responsibilities doesn’t lie fully with the licensees, they should take the first step forward to acknowledge fansubs instead of dismissing them. I believe only when that happens will the fansub debate have any hope of seeing a positive ending for everyone.

Whatever happened to posting about anime and how awesome it is?