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What do same day digital DVD releases mean for brick and mortar stores?

By Josh Holat ⋅ May 5, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

This week Apple announced that the iTunes store will have digital copies of DVD releases the same day as the hard copy release. It has also been reported that Apple TV owners will now be able to purchase movies from their Apple TV, without the use of a computer. This is all fantastic news, but what does it mean for brick and mortar stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City? Do they still hold a place near and dear to our hearts or will they soon be a thing of the past? Although I don’t believe we will see their DVD sales plummet anytime soon, this is definitely a step towards that direction.

All you need now is iTunes and you are able to get a new release DVD with the click of a button. And you know what that means. No more waiting in line just to find out that the store is out of stock! So why would anyone rush to the store anymore then? The DVD comes out, you hop on your computer, click a button, and then sit back and enjoy. Right? Not exactly. I wouldn’t say we are to that point of digital product sales yet. For one, even though there are unlimited copies of the file online, everyone will be trying to download the movie right when it is released, so Apple had better train its servers to handle quite a beating quite often. With HD files upwards of 2GB, the downloads could end up taking quite a while. Another reason digital sales aren’t yet closing in on hard copies is because people still like physical media. You can buy special collectors sets, more easily share the disc without having to worry about DRM, and even just rip a digital copy to your hard drive anyways. Will digital media ever beat that?

So what do you think? Will physical media soon be a thing of the past?

Tags: Best Buy, Circuit City, Computer, DVD, iTunes, Movie, Release, TV