[Lynk Former]

Your solution wouldn't kill the industry, but it would certainly generate revenue. Streaming is certainly a viable option, as is on-demand programming or even a dedicated cable channel for recent or currently running shows. DVRs and tivo have changed the way people approach their TVs for media delivery--they receive an archivable backup of almost anything they watch. Packaged sets will likely still be in demand, no matter what other delivery structures are in place--use your remote to purchase sets of the show you're watching?

I think the easiest solution for anime fans, seeing as they like to use PCs to download their anime, would be streaming. I was talking specifically about anime fans rather than digital distribution in general.

I think at root most of the people who download weren't going to be customers in the first place. In a way the industry isn't losing money on them--they were never going to pay for the product. The trade-off is that some of them end up becoming customers eventually, spending money they wouldn't have if they hadn't become exposed to the show through downloading.

Let me rewrite this for you to make a point...

Most of the people who watch TV aren't going to be customers in the first place. In a way the industry isn't losing money on them--they were never going to pay for the product. The trade-off is that some of them end up becoming customers eventually, spending money they wouldn't have if they hadn't become exposed to the show through television.




Now, of course the difference is that anime isn't that big on TV. So the best solution I can come up with is streaming anime online, using fansubbers to translate them because that's what people seem to prefer, and have it available for that large online community to view.


You're right though, people who don't want to pay for it, won't... but I like hearing those same people say they love anime, and support the industry when in reality, they don't.

And I would be fine with that idea around 15-20 years ago when piracy wasn't so easy. But piracy is extremely easy to do nowadays (refer to one of my previous posts in this thread for an example) and the US anime industry has gotten smaller because of it.

I kind of wonder though... what would people who are new to anime think of this? They enter this new world of anime and they see a path where they could get all of their anime for free and oh so easily, or they could go down a path where they could choose to pay for anime... I wonder which path they would choose to go down.

The trend is that each new generation of anime fan chooses piracy over legitimate products.