Well I got a way to work against both... Yes you assume right. This is gonna be a constructive post!
How about offering more than what is shown in the video trailer? Not just a one trick pony, but more. The sample best be something that they can easily figure out. That will be an advantage instead of a drawback. Because they see the effect and see how it works - assuming the sample is something good and usable - they will naturally be curious about the other stuff that isn't shown. And this where the business comes in.
The rest cannot be reverse engineered as it not shown.
There is also the issue of illegal copies that is inevitable when dealing with downloads. But there is a simple solution for that as well. Do not offer it as a download. Seriously. Send the costumer a real DVD.
Although thinking about the last bit. A DVD might also be copied and uploaded to the Internet. All fairly easy.
But you know what is really hard to do. To scan each and every page of a book. And even if somebody did all the work, much fewer would read it, because reading is so hard.
Or to sum up the whole post in just three words: Sell more books!
Excellent summation. I concur.
ReplyDeleteI'm not particularly sure I agree with not showing some of the content on a video (sure for a multiple-trick DVD, but not for a few tricks). It will give magic producers another way of deceiving the people that way. Anyone remember Blinking effect by Jean-Luc Bertrand? Someone posted up a review of the contents of the DVD (explaining what the effects were) and he complained about it.
ReplyDeleteBooks definitely will help, but the motivated pirate will find a way of scanning every page of a book.
Some people have found that they can reduce pirating by bundling the DVD up with an item (be-it a gaff, or materials). And regardless of the simplicity, if people think they're getting something else in addition to a digital file, it may tempt people to buy the product. Even if it is just a bunch of rubber bands (like what is included in the Melting Point DVD)
This explains the sudden spike in my blog's traffic. While I do like the one trick pony downloads, I can agree that fewer would be better. I'm rather sure that downloads are the most profitable thing a magic company can sell, so I doubt they're going anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI am an ethical purchaser of magic ( actually I spend way too much - but thats another story ) and I ignored The Blinking Effect DVD as it was impossible to know what I was getting in the way of effects or gaffs. I still don't know if I would have used it.
ReplyDeleteThe reason magic producers are forced to cheat on their videos is because we as magicians have a fucked up sense of values.
ReplyDeleteMost "magicians" will never actually perform the crap they buy for real people. At best they are buying a toy that will amuse them, or in the case of a DVD, they are watching a magic show that ends with a peek behind the curtain. Let's face it, some of the most successful sellers and lecturers of magic are those whose methods and explanations are as entertaining as their tricks.
The audience of a magic dealer is not a lay man but a magician. So magicians buy crap that is meant to please - wait for it - OTHER MAGICIANS. If the magician isn't fooled, he hasn't seen a successful trick. Magicians are motivated by self pleasure, not the pleasing of an audience. Since most never work for real people, they have no idea what they like - beyond the superficial reaction of puzzlement which is often indistinguishable from confusion.
This is also why so much of what is being sold today is utter crap. It is built on ZERO real world, real people experience. It also explains people who say stupid things like "I refuse to use a gaff." They are placing their own satisfaction ahead of their audiences.
Well, that's not completely true. They are playing to their audience. But that audience is themself.
There is no real reason magic producers are forced to cheat on their videos. It is simply a question of INTEGRITY. Some of us have it and some of us don't.
ReplyDeleteIntegrity is like virginity. Once it is lost it is lost forever.
Realize that the same old producers of magic and touters of magic classes constantly bombarding the marketplace with their hack inventions and bullshit nonsensical master classes are calling you all fuck jerk magicians behind your backs while they laugh all the way to the bank. So all you losers go buy your Little Man and then circle jerk with Mcbride and Burger.
If you are dependant on buying other peoples crap you apparently have no creativity yourself and should take up a new profession.
Funny how you self proclaimed magicians are quick to point the finger at someone cheating on a video while you're cheating by stealing every bullshit trick you perform and word you recite from someone else.
Your all a bunch of hacks!
And that is why almost all magicians suck.
Did you run out of your medication or decide not to take it today?
DeleteThat comments already played out on Youtube.
ReplyDeleteSo you're a hack also Jay.
My apologies, I don't quite get it. If you mean that someone made that comment somewhere on youtube, then what's your point? I would imagine that you can find that comment being tossed around in millions of places on the internet, not just youtube.
DeleteIf you mean that I found that comment on youtube and posted it, hence copying it, well you'd be wrong there. I heard that comment being uttered in real life years before youtube ever was created. If it makes me a hack to repeat something that I heard, then I'm a hack along with billions of other people who do precisely the same thing.
If you mean that somebody on youtube has already accused you of being off your medication, then you might want to seriously consider that there is something wrong with you...Very, very wrong.
I think our anonymous friend is simply one of those people who, one day, suddenly woke up with the silly idea that perpetually re-inventing the wheel was the only honourable way to go... To his defense, the "did you forget to take your meds?" line and its variations have indeed become a bit of a cliché - if a good one (after all, nothing gets re-used enough to become a cliché without at least some degree of quality to it) - and totally warranted in this case. Although I'd say his using-anything-that-isn't-100%-original-personal-material-constitutes-a-crime attitude leans more on the "run-of-the-mill rebellious teenager" side than on the "mentally deranged" one. :)
Delete"If it makes me a hack to repeat something that I heard, then I'm a hack"- Michael Jay
DeleteSo we agree.
I don't mind you quoting me, Mr. Anon, but if you're going to do so then do so properly. Since you seem to have missed this in your English class, I'll explain:
DeleteUsing a partial quote should read like this, "If it makes me a hack to repeat something that I heard, then I'm a hack..."- Michael Jay
The three little dots at the end (called an "ellipsis") means that you used a partial quote. If you are going to use a partial quote and you don't include that ellipsis, then your use of that quote is disingenuous at best and abject deceit at worst.
If you should decide not to use the ellipsis (that's those three little dots that are used at the end of a partial quote), the you are obliged to use the entire quote which would look like this, "If it makes me a hack to repeat something that I heard, then I'm a hack along with billions of other people who do precisely the same thing." - Michael Jay
If you desire to be included in the big boy's conversations, then you need to learn proper grammar and etiquette.
I missed alot in my English class since I was to busy watching Miss Groves butt whenever her little mini-dress would start hiking up as she wote on the black board.
ReplyDelete