Following in the footsteps of Radiohead, the folks behind 10 MPH have embraced the pick-your-price distribution model for both physical DVDs and digital downloads. Both downloads and discs have minimum fees (10 cents, $6.99) which seems reasonable to ensure a small company’s expenses are covered. More on the movie:
The film 10 MPH chronicles the story of two friends and aspiring filmmakers that ditch soul-sucking cubicle jobs to claim a more fulfilling life by making a film about a cross-country journey by Segway.
Having had a “soul-sucking” cubicle job or two over the years and being an indie film fan (who’s seen the possibly similar Straight Story), 10 MPH piqued my curiosity. But I never added the film to my Netflix queue for whatever reason… The instant gratification of a download (unencrypted MPEG4) is appealing and I made a purchase this AM. I may never get around to actually watching the movie, so I only offered $2.22 (one of the pre-selected options). Hopefully this is sufficient to offset their bandwidth fees (780MB download) and, if I enjoy the flick, hopefully there’s an option for additional “donations.” Actually, the ordering process was more efficient than Radiohead — so, I could just easily “repurchase.”
Thanks for the support! Google blog alerts tipped me off to your entry. I hope you get the time to watch the film.
Keep it slow…
Hunter
“…I only offered $2.22…Hopefully this is sufficient to offset their bandwidth fees.”
If they are using Amazon’s S3, their costs are in the fractions of pennies to store and serve the files. From Amazon S3 pricing page:
Storage – $0.15 per GB per month of storage used
Data Transfer – $0.13 per GB of data transfered
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261
Thanks for the info Dave. I’ve downloaded the movie and payed 2.22. Since I NEVER would have bought it at regular price, I figure they just got 2 bucks from me that they wouldn’t have before.
10 MPH is a terrific film. It’s really inspiring. We interviewed Josh (who rode the Segway in the movie) for our Segway Today podcast, and it was interesting to hear his behind-the-scenes take on the whole experience.