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Digital distribution (Also known as digital delivery) is the principle of providing digital information and content over the Internet in the form of products or services. It has been growing steadily and increasing rapidly since the turn of the century due to the rise of consumer broadband. At the time of writing, digital distribution's main uses include: Each of these forms of information can be easily digitized--if they are not already--and transferred over a standard broadband connection. A chained book in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side, and within protective covers. ...
Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ...
For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ...
Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ...
A television program is the content of television broadcasting. ...
Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ...
Basis The major attraction for digital distribution is its direct nature. To make a commercially successful work, artists usually must enter their industry’s publishing chain. Publishers help artists advertise, fund and distribute their work to retail outlets. In some industries, particularly videogames, artists find themselves bound to publishers, and in many cases unable to make the content they want; the publisher might not think it will profit well. This can quickly lead to the standardization of the content and to the stifling of new, considerably risky ideas. The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practising the arts and/or demonstrating an art. ...
“Publisher†redirects here. ...
Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ...
Funding or financing is to provide capital (funds), which means money for a project, a person, a business or any other private or public institutions. ...
Wikibooks has more about this subject: Marketing Distribution is one of the four aspects of marketing. ...
Drawing of a self-service store. ...
By opting for digital distribution, an artist can get their work into the public sphere of interest easily with potentially minimum business overheads. This often leads to cheaper goods for the consumer and increased profits for the artists, as well as increased artistic freedom. In computer science, and moreso in computer programming, overhead is generally considered any combination of excess or indirect computation time, memory, bandwidth, or other resources that are required to be utilized or expended to enable a particular goal. ...
Consumers refers to individuals or households that purchase and use goods and services generated within the economy. ...
Digital distribution also opens the door to new business models. For instance, an artist could release one track from an album or one chapter from a book at a time instead of waiting for them all to be completed. This either gives them a cash boost to help continue or warns that their work is not financially viable before they have sunk excessive money and time into it. Videogames have increased flexibility in this area, demonstrated by micropayment models such as the one in Gunbound. A clear result of these new models is their accessibility to smaller artists or artist teams who do not have the time, funds, or expertise to make a new product in one go. Micropayments are means for transferring money, in situations where collecting money with the usual payment systems is impractical, or very expensive, in terms of the amount of money being collected. ...
GunBound (Korean:건바운드) is a free, turn-based, room-to-room multiplayer online game with many similar features to the popular Worms platform. ...
An example of this can be found in the music industry. Indie artists are for the first time able to access the same distribution channels as major record labels, with none of the restrictive practices or inflated manufacturing costs; there are a growing collection of 'internet labels' that offer distribution to unsigned or independent artists directly to online music stores, and in some cases marketing and promotion services.
Strength
Global Availability With distribution digitally over the Internet, it automatically gains one of the strongest strengths of the Internet: Availability.
In such that any one person on the globe with an Internet connection will be able to purchase and obtain a digital copy easily. All the while reducing or outright removing delivery cost, as well as traditional waiting time. But this strength in Digital distribution is often tempered by Publisher's Regional Distribution Rights, thus limited the actual availability for selected region.
Back Catalog Unlike traditional brick and mortar businesses, where there is a minimal requirement for physical products, the product does not need to be mass produced to stock retail shelves. With a single original copy, the Publisher and Developer can quickly duplicate copies to meet demands.
This can greatly cut down on the cost of maintaining back catalogs, whether it is running an actual storage facility(warehouse, file cabinet) or preserving the product(humidity control, security system). Publisher and Developers can cheaply and safely maintain a complete back catalog of products, as well as having them purchasable even when a physical copy is no longer available.
Flaws
Loss of publisher support There are drawbacks of an independent approach, not least the loss of publisher funding. This can be solved in one of two ways: - Hybrid deals where content is digitally distributed while also receiving publisher support. This usually means compromise: the publisher might get a cut of online sales, or demand that online prices are the same or even higher than retail prices. This is rarely desirable for those interested in digital distribution.
- Utilizing the new business models that online distribution allows, as described above.
The loss of advertising is another issue that stems from the dropping of publishers, one that does not yet have a genuine solution. Videogame theorists have come closest by suggesting a model where trial versions are offered for free and ‘unlocked’ for a price once the hook has been made – the game effectively advertises itself. However, this still does not solve the issue of attracting consumers in the first place!
DRM - Main article: Digital Rights Management
Digital work is easy to duplicate without any loss of quality and with the direct nature and lower prices of online distribution, piracy has a far greater impact than it does for traditional media. Digital Rights Management is the current solution to this flaw. It allows distributors to 'protect' their content from unauthorized redistribution. When someone tries to duplicate their purchase for another they will, depending on the DRM solution used, either be unable to, find that the product reverts to a ‘trial mode’, or risk the other user hijacking their product entirely for themselves. DRM is only one form of copy protection: it is defined by being dependent on a networked service rather than, for instance, a CD-ROM validator. Digital Rights Management (generally abbreviated to DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to any of several technologies used by publishers or copyright owners to control access to and usage of digital data or hardware, and to restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work or device. ...
Although it is effective at preventing casual piracy, few if any DRM solutions have prevented all unauthorized copying, either because they are broken into by crackers or because the media allows them to be circumvented, for instance by re-recording audio to another computer. This makes its use in traditional media on store shelves resented by the consumer. Perhaps due to this there recently has been a gradual shift away from using DRM to punishing thieves towards rewarding customers, with digital distribution's new business models playing a part. Software cracking is the modification of software to remove protection methods: copy prevention, trial/demo version, serial number, hardware key, CD check or software annoyances like nag screens and adware. ...
Proof of Purchase Proof of Purchase laws were not created with ephemeral products in mind. This has led to many difficult legal problems for digital distributors, relating to refunds and returns, sales themselves, and the transfer of product ownership. A proof of purchase is typically some portion of the package of consumer goods, and is defined by the products manufacturer. ...
Examples
Music: iTunes - Main article: ITunes Music Store
The iTunes Music Store (iTMS) The most widely-known example of digital music distribution is the wildly successful Apple iTunes Music Store, which has arguably cemented itself in popular culture. Users can download albums for $9.99 (large albums may go up to $15) or individual tracks for 99 cents. iTunes works with major record labels, and independent musicians and labels can place their music on iTunes using an aggregator. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into ITunes. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1037x602, 192 KB)Taken on a PPC Mac running Mac OS X 10. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1037x602, 192 KB)Taken on a PPC Mac running Mac OS X 10. ...
A two cent euro coin In currency, the cent is a monetary unit that equals th of the basic unit of value. ...
iTunes uses an activation DRM model where any number of computer can be activated any number of times, but only five computers can be authorised simultaneously. Music can also be moved to an iPod: an iPod can be linked to only one account, but one account can be linked to multiple iPods. Artists without a Record Label can work with third-party distributors to have their music available through stores such as iTunes.
Video games: Steam and Games on Demand - Main article: Steam (content delivery)
Valve Software's Steam service became one of the best-known digital distribution outlets for video games following the release of Half-Life 2, which required access to the service in order to run. Users are able to purchase and download game "packages" consisting of up to seventeen titles. Initially, Steam's sales profits were divided between Valve and their usual publisher, Vivendi Universal. This ceased to be the case as of September 1, 2005, when the contract between the companies expired. Other games developers are able to use Steam to distribute their products. Steam is a content delivery, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications service and platform developed by Valve Corporation for digital entertainment. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x646, 311 KB)The Steam Browse Games interface, used to purchase new titles or register existing ones. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x646, 311 KB)The Steam Browse Games interface, used to purchase new titles or register existing ones. ...
Valve Software is a Bellevue, Washington-based video game developer made famous by its first product, Half-Life, which was released in November 1998. ...
Half-Life 2 (HL2) is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game that is the sequel to Half-Life. ...
Vivendi Universal (VU) is a French company active in media and communications with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications and the Internet. ...
September 1 is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years). ...
2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
As Steam is mainly used to distribute multiplayer games, it uses a connection-centric DRM model, whereby games can be downloaded multiple times, and to multiple computers. A separate account is required for each simultaneous connection to a game server. Sharing of accounts is discouraged; full access to the account is required for play. Valve retains the right to disable accounts that violate their access policies, and have done so in the past.
Digital Rights Management (generally abbreviated to DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to any of several technologies used by publishers or copyright owners to control access to and usage of digital data or hardware, and to restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work or device. ...
Jumboplay [1] much like Valve Software's Steam, Jumboplay runs on a subscription based service call Games on Demand which uses digital distribution to allow users from South East Asia to download games through a single game portal with DRM encoded player software. Valve Software is a Bellevue, Washington-based video game developer made famous by its first product, Half-Life, which was released in November 1998. ...
There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...
Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ...
Game portals are distribution channels for games. ...
The acronym DRM can stand for: Digital Rights Management - Technologies to give content providers control over redistribution and access to material. ...
On March 2007, Dragonback Media [2] formed a partnership with Sony Picture Entertainment [3] to launch the service for AXN Asia and Animax. At the same time, forming partnership with MTV Asia to power MTV Games [4]. Professionals speculate as possible expansion of their service to include digital distribution for Music on Demand. AXN is a satellite television network owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on 21 September 1997. ...
Animax ) is a Japanese anime satellite television network, established and owned by Sony Corporation, and dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. ...
This page is a candidate for speedy deletion, because: please use Wikipedia:Sandbox for testing. ...
A music distribution model conceived with the growth of two-way computing, telecommunications and the Internet in the early 1990s. ...
Films: Cinemanow and World Cinema Online - Main article: Video on demand
Cinemanow uses Microsoft’s Windows Media Video format to digitally distribute films. It uses permanent purchase ($9.99), rental ($2.99) and subscription ($9.95 or $29.95) models. Cinemanow uses an activation DRM model. When you download a movie its license is added to your computer’s repository, one of only three chances you get to do so without having to e-mail and request more. If you want to view your content on another computer, or format your existing one, you must use up another license download. Video on demand (VOD) systems allow users to select and watch video content over a network as part of an interactive television system. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x742, 263 KB)The Cinemanow homepage in Windows Media Player 10 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x742, 263 KB)The Cinemanow homepage in Windows Media Player 10 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Windows Media Player (WMP) is a digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices. ...
Windows Media Video (WMV) is a generic name for the set of video codec technologies developed by Microsoft. ...
World Cinema Online ([5]) also uses Microsoft's Windows Media Video format to encode, encrypt and digitally distribute films. Their offering is aimed at the Independent Film Enthusiast & uses rental and ownership models as does CinemaNow. Given less constraints by studios, a lot more flexibility is offered in their DRM - allowing users more "Fair-use", and to watch films on their Laptop, round a friend's house, as well as their original desktop PC. Security is still a priority to protect filmmakers, and each time a film is activated on a new PC - the user must enter a username and password. When all the licenses expire - the customer has to request more.
Windows Media Video (WMV) is a generic name for the set of video codec technologies developed by Microsoft. ...
Books: Adobe eBooks -
The official Adobe eBook store was shut down on June the 3rd 2005, having fulfilled its goal of catalysing other eBook stores. This has left eBooks with no centralised location. They are sold at many websites, including: An eBook (also: e-book, ebook) is an electronic (or digital) version of a book. ...
eBooks use an activation DRM model, where a one-time operation allows the user to view all of their eBooks on up to six computers at a time. Depending on the author’s wishes, an eBook may restrict printing, copying, even in some cases the Adobe Acrobat reader’s narration feature. eBooks can be created and sold by anyone. An eBook (also: e-book, ebook) is an electronic (or digital) version of a book. ...
Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software by Adobe Systems. ...
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