Having both digital and physical copies

[Bradywurtz]

IMO i think they should follow the way of iTunes match.

You should be able to buy the physical copy, then be able to match it up on their servers (comixology) to be able to have the digital copy as well. And I'd gladly pay 25 bucks a year for this little option, ONLY if it's just like iTunes Match in the sense that i can actually download the digital copy and keep it personally instead of making it a propriety file that can only be opened with their app or program (this way i can save it on a backup hard drive of thumb drive if i wanted to).

if they made it to where it's basically a pdf file, but with special coding in the background to where when it's opened with their app you can do the nice panel by panel viewing, that would be perfect. that way, if comixology ever goes down, you still have the pdf files of the comic that can be read normally by just zooming in and moving around with your mouse (or finger if on a tablet or mobile device).

and if comixology ever did go down, you know there would be some knockoff programs for free that would imitate the same panel by panel viewing feature that comixology has going for them so you can view those pdf files with those programs.

This is how i enjoy my music. I like buying the physical copy for sentimental sake and for personal reasons. but i also enjoy the pleasure of having digital copies that can be available at any moment when i need them. i usually keep my latest 6 cd's in my car to listen to, but on the rare occasion when i want to listen to something old, i can always pull out my iphone and pull it up in a flash. and it's a nice digital backup of all my music just in case something would ever happen to my actual CD's (fire, stole, lost, etc...) or just a good backup just in case something happened to my laptop or hard drive that was storing the actual digital backup's of the music. if my hard drive broke and i lost all my backup's, it's ok, cause itunes has all my music remembered on their server so i can just download them right back onto my laptop then do whatever i want with them.

I think this is the most sensible way to go. it would appeal to everyone. iTunes has been dealing with how to properly go around this whole physical/digital copy of media for a while and i think they've figured it out in a way. and i know comics are new to this, so they should take a look at other media platforms and take note from them; see what's worked and what hasn't

[Prisoner 6655321]

I don’t view myself as a “collector” pre-se. I don’t care about what printing a book is. But if I pay for it, I want to own it for real and I want to be able to do whatever it is I want to do with it (other than say, copying it and handing out copies). Same thing goes for music. If I pay for music I only buy vinyl. This is because the quality is better for home listening if you have a decent system (and I do) the artwork on the album is higher quality and If I wanted to I could transfer those songs into MP3 and have them on my pc or MP3 player or whatever. I expect the same sorts of rights whenever I spend money on any media content really. Also, as has been mentioned, you’re only really paying for the right to access specific material on a server.

As for the movie analogy I justify going to the movies and paying for it this way; when going to see a movie in a theater I am only partially paying for the content of the film I am also paying for the experience of going to and spending time in the movie theater.

[Jim Thompson]

All I gotta say is good luck with that!

Agreed. Stealing music is pretty common now. That ship has pretty much sailed.

[glennsim]

I will admit, I don't buy a lot of music on ITunes. I've tried to ahem, help myself to music other people have purchased, and ran into an issue of a popup asking for the iTunes password of the original owner when I tried to play it. So if there's a way to do it more that way, that might be better for some people. I just don't know what all is involved in that and how much more difficult it is for the publisher. Do you have to have an internet connection to play this music so that it can verify the password?

[allstarmatches]

I have gone over almost completely to digital. For stuff I really like and want to have in a more permanent format, I'll eventually get collections, but (1) I'm over most hardcovers, and (2) I'm over skinny collections of 5-6 issues. I want thicker, softcover, full-color collections.

I don't worry too much about comixology crashing or files being lost. The stuff I like the most, I'll get physical copies. The rest I'll have read and (hopefully) enjoyed, but probably wouldn't be going back to over and over again in any event.

[Jim Thompson]

I have gone over almost completely to digital. For stuff I really like and want to have in a more permanent format, I'll eventually get collections...

Yeah, this is how I'm going about things, too.

[Bradywurtz]

I will admit, I don't buy a lot of music on ITunes. I've tried to ahem, help myself to music other people have purchased, and ran into an issue of a popup asking for the iTunes password of the original owner when I tried to play it. So if there's a way to do it more that way, that might be better for some people. I just don't know what all is involved in that and how much more difficult it is for the publisher. Do you have to have an internet connection to play this music so that it can verify the password?

that's from a long time ago when itunes use to have a really tight hold on who and how you could play the music you buy from them. they stopped doing that a while ago. when you buy a song from apple now, it's just a .acc file (or .m4a, can't remember), but it's DRM free, you can do whatever your heart desires to do with it. there's no lock or coding going on with the file. and you can easily convert it to a .wav or .mp3 or .aiff INSIDE itunes. so they're not making anything proprietary with their music anymore. buy a song from itunes for .99 and you can take it whereever you want and do whatever you want with it. copy it, burn it, rip it again, take it off itunes and never use itunes again.

and i think that that should be the approach that comixology should use. it should just be a plain file everyone can use and share that's standard, but at the same time, if used with their program, you can do the nice panel by panel viewing of the comic that makes it so much fun to read.

[Fused]

that's from a long time ago when itunes use to have a really tight hold on who and how you could play the music you buy from them. they stopped doing that a while ago. when you buy a song from apple now, it's just a .acc file (or .m4a, can't remember), but it's DRM free, you can do whatever your heart desires to do with it. there's no lock or coding going on with the file. and you can easily convert it to a .wav or .mp3 or .aiff INSIDE itunes. so they're not making anything proprietary with their music anymore. buy a song from itunes for .99 and you can take it whereever you want and do whatever you want with it. copy it, burn it, rip it again, take it off itunes and never use itunes again.

and i think that that should be the approach that comixology should use. it should just be a plain file everyone can use and share that's standard, but at the same time, if used with their program, you can do the nice panel by panel viewing of the comic that makes it so much fun to read.

Oh wow, I didn't know that. I've only purchased a single music track since they did that and never again because of it. Good to know. And what you said about Comixology adopting those practices is what I've been preaching. In 100% agreement.

[glennsim]

that's from a long time ago when itunes use to have a really tight hold on who and how you could play the music you buy from them. they stopped doing that a while ago. when you buy a song from apple now, it's just a .acc file (or .m4a, can't remember), but it's DRM free, you can do whatever your heart desires to do with it. there's no lock or coding going on with the file. and you can easily convert it to a .wav or .mp3 or .aiff INSIDE itunes. so they're not making anything proprietary with their music anymore. buy a song from itunes for .99 and you can take it whereever you want and do whatever you want with it. copy it, burn it, rip it again, take it off itunes and never use itunes again.

and i think that that should be the approach that comixology should use. it should just be a plain file everyone can use and share that's standard, but at the same time, if used with their program, you can do the nice panel by panel viewing of the comic that makes it so much fun to read.

Well, that explains why some of them worked and some didn't.

But of course, the fact that I am now listening to that music (the ones without DRM) is a reason why it probably would be a bad idea for Comixology.