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General discussion

Molly v. Tom on the iTunes distribution

Mar 8, 2006 7:37AM PST

Ok, great argument today! MORE MORE MORE. Love that! Happy

Now, here is why I side with Tom on this one. Tom (I think) said Comedy Central will make more money selling content on BOTH their website AND the iTunes store especially since the iTunes store will DWARF the number of hits Comedy Central gets from PEOPLE LOOKING TO PURCHASE VIDEO. Molly says (I think) why sell it anywhere but your store, Comedy Central, when you can take all the profit?

Duh.

It's the exact same reason that Apple sells its computers online from its website and in its Apple brick and mortars AS WELL AS at Comp USA, MacWarehouse, MacConnection, etc. etc. They won't make 100% profit but if you sell 10 times as many computers at places where PEOPLE ARE LOOKING TO PURCHASE COMPUTERS AND IPODS and make 75% profit that's a h*ll of a lot more money than 1 times 100%.

So: 75% times ten. Or 100% times one. I'll take the money from the first equation any day.

-Kevin S.

PS Love ya Molly Happy Just siding with Tom on this one.

Discussion is locked

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I'm with you Kevin.
Mar 8, 2006 11:48AM PST

It's all about marketing and distribution. If every manufacturer sold their own item at their own store and no place else, there wouldn't be any CompUSA's, or CostCo's, or Sam's Club's, or any of the like.

-Terry

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plus
Mar 8, 2006 7:27PM PST

if your server gose down then you can still sell content via iTunes.

Philip P.

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and....
Mar 9, 2006 11:40PM PST

it's probably cheaper in the short term to distribute via iTunes since you don't have to build and support the infrastructure required to handle the volume of sales and downloads.

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(NT) (NT) Side with Tom (N/M)
Mar 8, 2006 9:21PM PST
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I have to agree
Mar 8, 2006 10:26PM PST

I hate to disagree with Molly - us females have to stick together.

But I'm sure that someone at Comedy Central has the job of doing risk-benefit analysis to see if selling videos on their site would be worth it. Since they would have to develop the entire system (store, purchasing mechanism, advertising) and I'm sure they are getting a large chunk of the profits from iTunes, I'm not surprised that they are outsourcing the video sales. They would have to be getting a miniscule percentage from iTunes to make it worth their while to do it themselves.

Just my $.02.

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Agree with Tom
Mar 9, 2006 5:46AM PST

Sorry Molly, Distribution is the business of iTunes, Production is the business of Comedy Central. As others have said it is the same as Apple with CompUSA and other distribution companies.

And, yes I know Apple has its own retail stores... but they don't sell only Apple product.

Customers/users like to browse and have choices. It is why physical shops still exist, and why Amazon does better than a publisher's own online store.

Love the show.

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Forget "Tom vs. Molly on Blah, Blah, Blah..."
Mar 9, 2006 6:33AM PST

How 'bout just "Tom vs. Molly." Notice the period at the end of that sentence. They argue too much sometimes. I can just imagine what goes on in that studio. They seem like they're about to bite each others' heads off! Lol! Poor Veronica is just sitting there quitely like a kid at the dinner table next to her arguing parents! LMAO! Oh boy! Then, five seconds later, they just "kiss and make up" and laugh about it like it never happened. Cheese 'n rice!

Anyway, I'm siding with Molly on this one, just because no one else is! Silly

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what is molly thinking?
Mar 9, 2006 10:40AM PST

Yeah, Tom is on on this one. Not sure why Molly feels so strongly about her side. It didn't make too much sense to me.