A large number of people cutting their subscriptions
and starting to pirate will force streaming sites to innovate,
make a better product and bring back not only those ex-subscribers,
but bring in the huge market of people who never cared about
supporting the industry in the first place.
If I'm correct in that assumption,
then it means that pirating in the short term would be a lot better for the industry the consumers and the streaming sites.
Literally everyone is happy.
I call it:
"Operation: I'll show you a real anime strike".
Alright, so why is this necessary?
Well,
we've been doing the whole support the industry don't pirate shtick for years.
Like seriously, I found videos back from 2010
telling you to support the industry.
But despite all the time that that argument has had to form and spread, piracy is still very popular.
And while it's definitely true that this mentality had an effect,
what you should really be asking yourself is:
Is that good enough?
About six months ago when that crunchyroll controversy went down there was a straw poll
on /r/anime that asked if people canceled their subscriptions in response.
Over 50% of people confessed that they didn't even have a Crunchyroll account.
And granted they might have been using a different legal streaming site,
But let that sink in;
Crunchyroll is by far the most popular legal streaming site.
This is a board for people who are big fans of anime and furthermore people who don't care about crunchyroll
I.e. people who are less likely to have a subscription
are going to click on this thread a lot less than others.
How big is this number...
really?
By the way a good a time as any to mention it
There's this guy named AniNews who did a great unbiased statistical breakdown on streaming
and that guy actually does business and doesn't have an IQ of 86, so
if you don't listen to me, at least go watch that video.
The streaming industry is certainly not dying. Hell, It's growing. I won't deny that
but I'd bet my bottom dollar that that's only because the anime community itself is growing exponentially faster.
But the people who have been here for years and have never bought a streaming service probably never will.
Again, we've been using the same moral argument on our peers for a very long time now.
The fact of the matter is for a certain very large group of consumers
no amount of moral shaming will work.
And while a lot of youtubers see that as a problem with those consumers,
I see that as a problem with the streaming services.
The main reason that these people will not buy these services is simple.
There is literally no reason outside of a moral one to do so
Illegal streaming sites do pretty much everything legal ones do, sometimes more.
Some of them even provide convenient download buttons if you want to get the episode file.
And the ads aren't even that big of a deal, worst case scenario you have to close the pop-up and go fullscreen.
Boom, it's exactly like legal streaming sites, so you didn't have to pay for it,
and you didn't have to dick around with signing up only to find
they didn't have the anime you wanted to begin with.
And again not saying that it's not a shitty unethical reason, it absolutely is
but that's beside the point.
Until this group has an actual reason to buy these products,
they simply won't
If you think you can ban piracy, be my guest.
If you think you can convince these people to go legal, be my guest,
But you've had 11 years, and you haven't even got 50%.
And after all this time, I've started to find it a little hard
to defend these sites because for some peculiar reason
The only thing they haven't tried is innovation.
The only thing that will not only fix this problem,
but put us into a new age of humongous growth for this industry,
is someone coming up with and implementing a new revolutionary idea
that lets streaming sites compete with piracy.
And I get some people might think well pirating can just do everything streaming sites can do.
Not necessarily
like just off the top of my head
how about letting me link my account with MyAnimeList.
That'd be a good start, every time I finish an episode you can update
my account to include what I'm up to and every time I finish a series
you can add a text input bar under the video
where I can put my thoughts and ratings and immediately have it update on my list.
Best part is illegal streaming sites can't copy this
the last thing MyAnimeList is going to do is sign a deal with an illegal streaming site
they'll sign one with Crunchyroll though.
Also, I know I keep saying Crunchyroll. It's just the site I'm most familiar with.
But this applies to all legal streaming sites.
Now MAL linking is just something small and simple
but it goes to show that illegal sites can't mimic everything.
Granted, they could create their own MAL, but it would never pick up.
The whole community is already established
and it doesn't involve registering an account with a shady streaming site.
Anyway. That's just something I thought of before even starting research on this video.
Imagine what you could think of with a whole boardroom of people.
In fact I already got a couple ideas to build on this so stick around
but my point is that the beauty of innovation is that anything is possible
and until you try you don't know what crazy solution or idea could potentially solve all your problems.
Huge industries and even technology as a whole has been built on the back of people being in
rough situations and just trying something new.
But the quote-unquote rough situation is key.
See the only problem is that this is never going to happen.
The streaming market has completely stagnated.
In most businesses innovation is considered a risk
and companies that are progressing smoothly don't take risks.
I went through Crunchyrolls press releases, and there's not a hint of a new feature.
The closest thing we've gotten to an innovation was them holding a fucking convention
which doesn't exactly compel new customers,
in fact I'm pretty sure it's just an excuse to sell a shit ton of stuff.
I mean for God's sakes we still don't even have a buffer bar on Crunchyroll.
It just actually exists if you pay for extra premium you get the beta features.
Yeah, you have to pay for the beta.
That's not the point of a beta test.
Oh, and if that's not enough of an indication that they're
not prioritizing site improvement, that feature that already exists on every other site
has been in beta for eight months.
And looking around all the other streaming sites will give a similar result.
These sites get the license to stream the anime and then they stream the anime.
Best case scenario they copy across some ideas from other mediums forums news, etc,
but that isn't innovation and it's certainly not enough
to persuade the average user that they need the service over pirating.
The irony of this whole situation is that
We did this
I'm 90% sure the only reason these sites make any revenue at all
is because of the community that's supporting it out of the goodness of their heart
God only knows that's why I did it. In fact. Let's do a straw poll.
Check the description, let's see if we can get some mildly accurate data for once.
I mean granted. There's slight advantages.
I guess you don't have to deal with ads,
and I guess you can reliably get 1080P
and I guess you have a neat little autoplay function that adds nothing compared to
actually signing up and paying.
Crunchyroll still has complaints about bit rates anyway
and I'm not incapable of making 4 extra clicks just to watch another episode.
But being able to download an episode now that's an actual honest-to-god feature.
That's like a big thing, but crunchyroll hasn't added anything to sweeten the deal in ages
despite the huge amount of good it could do,
they like add extra anime and give you the ability to read manga but that doesn't compete with piracy.
Anyway my point is that fed wolves bear no claws.
I think you know good intentions.
We've given streaming sites enough money to the point where they don't try to innovate.
Which makes sense really, the bottom line is that they are not a charity, they're a business.
They're not gonna put your money to a cause, the money IS the cause.
as far as they're concerned their site is good enough to attract customers
even though it's not and we're just doing it because it's ethical.
And they're only concerned with maximizing profits rather than try to take on piracy
like they should be because we're paying them to support the industry
and if there's a way of strengthening it they should be setting aside
a decent chunk of revenue to research and innovation.
But from their mind more and more people keep coming in. they don't need to do anything considered a risk.
Now, you can kindly ask these companies to add new features if you want,
and I'd be delighted if that actually works
but realistically if you want to see innovation and progress you need to cut your account
and switch back to piracy at least until you
genuinely want the product you're paying for.
Also for the record. I'm not gonna cut anything myself,
I'm gonna keep my Crunchyroll and anime lab accounts.
If only as a counter-argument to the people saying that I'm looking for an excuse.
My personal feelings are out money aside
This is something that I believe you as consumers, a huge conglomerate of people should do.
I think you should pirate.
But I think as the one trying to convince you I should not.
All right now back on topic. now one thing that's worth noting and probably a decent
Counterpoint to piracy being the only thing that can push this industry forward is the idea of the competitive market okay?
Here's the part where I get kind of in depth with economics and market theory or whatever the fuck
It's called see that's how an experienced I am with this. I'm gonna try my best here. I might botch something
Hopefully someone will call me out if I do, and I'll like heart your comment or whatever okay?
So a lot of people probably thinking well anime strike and Netflix probably aren't doing well on the streaming success and one streaming site has
Already died shouldn't that be the quote-unquote competitive market and struggle that incentivizes innovation
And this is important because there's a bigger problem the newer and smaller sites have to face the make competing with the bigger sites damn
near impossible
See innovation is nice and all but if I can't sell you the product
Itself the core part of what you want all the pretty bells and whistles won't make a difference
The concept that screws up this competitive market in streaming is the exclusive license the idea?
Is that a studio or whatever Fox sells you the rights to stream their anime on your platform?
But in order to get an edge on the other platforms to give you a reason to come to their site in particular
Streaming sites bid for an exclusive license ie they buy the rights to be the only service to stream that anime
isn't that like a
huge problem because
when most competitive markets give you a variant of a product like a phone or a watch that has the core feature of sending and
Receiving calls or telling the time streaming services don't give you a variant of the same product unless you consider the product
Entertainment which is way too vague if I have crunchyroll and Made in Abyss looks interesting, but Made in Abyss is only on anime strike
I mean well fuck. I can't just go watch the crunchyroll version of Made in Abyss. I can't just swap it out
No, I have to buy both products
there's no sense in switching from crunchyroll to anime strike because then I also want to watch hero academia going from hero academia -
Made in Abyss it's not like switching from an iPhone to Samsung. It's just
crunchyroll and anime strike and not competing markets when they're using exclusive licenses they're two subscription-based companies selling
Literally completely different products like when was the last time you saw someone walking around with two phones or two watches
you can't call streaming services a
Competitive market if you have to buy two of them the essence of a comparative market is the consumer being able to alternate between two
Brands and decide which one is best for them, and then the losing product must innovate to win back the popular vote right now
Though bells and whistles be damned the most popular streaming service is decided by who has enough money to afford the most popular anime
Licenses which generally speaking is crunchyroll because it was first to get its foot in the door of the streaming market and now the only
Thing that can enter the market is bigger corporations like Amazon or Netflix that can compete for these exclusive licenses
You know would make it a competitive market though
If all companies could stream every anime they were willing to buy the license for in that situation the consumer would choose which
Streaming service. They liked best rather than basing it on what anime they ultimately wanted to watch. Do you see what I mean?
There's no room for innovation in this current market
Ultimately the most important thing is to be able to watch the damn fucking show and these sites are exploiting that rather than doing some fucking work
And making the actual product they sell
Better and what's worse is this wholly exclusive license bullshit makes it even harder
For illegal streaming sites to compete with illegal ones because these thoughts can't even guarantee
They'll have what you want to watch. If these companies cared anywhere near as much as we do about the industry
They would have all formed a pact to not use exclusive licenses and thereby make piracy a much less tempting fucking option
I mean fuck I go through this shit every season there'll be something I'm interested in I'll search it up
Only to be met with fucking disappointment. I feel like I bought half a fucking product
What do you expect me to do switch every season buy them all there's no rhyme or reason to which
services will have which anime so what's the point picking one site over another the only reason people buy a
Single one of these products is so they can say they've helped the industry and for everything else they just pirate anyway
No wonder some people choose to not buy these shitty
inconvenient services no fucking wonder
All right, let me cool down a bit
Hmm if you're interested in any of the anime I talked about and many more
They're all available on crunchyroll crunchyroll is a legal streaming service that allows you to watch unlimited amounts of anime on your tablet mobile
device computer and Wii U for the low low price of
$6.99 a month or just get two free fortnight's of premium membership by using my promo code at crunchyroll.com slash all Jews
must die no fucking real sponsorship
Can you fucking imagine
Back on the topic of competitive markets again
I just want to say not really a business expert, so take what I say with a grain of salt
Hopefully any news will appear in the comment section at some point and he's doing a business degree and has looked into all this stuff
So if he shows up I'll pin his comment even if it's criticism. Hopefully that'll give you a nice rounded opinion on all of this
But from my point of view and what I've researched you should just stop supporting anything that buys exclusive licenses
It just dilutes the market forces competition with money rather than
innovation and it only gives more power to illegal streaming sites that by comparison have immensely larger and more popular catalogs
Exclusive licenses need to fucking die and as of right now all these streaming sites
Do it instead of innovating so you should probably just pirate.
In doing so they'll be forced to stop buying exclusive
Licenses be forced to create a better product and as a result not only will you come back to their site
But people who have never felt the need to buy a streaming service that odd
60 percent will now want to as well alright anyway
I think it's everything so now. I'm just gonna hit you with another example of potential innovation just to prove
It's possible so you know what a big uncapitalized market is
Clip watching a lot of people have this kind of perception that you watch show and then you're just kind of done
But if you look at YouTube people upload all sorts of clips of their favorite moments from anime and these clips get
Insane views did you know the video of the biggest twist from the second season attack on Titan has 9 million views in four months
The thing is YouTube can't capitalize on this properly because of the automatic copyright system so a lot of these flips have parts cut out
Of them or they have these stupid fucking borders or the audio is sped up. Despite how shit they are though
They still get crazy views you can find random 240p one-piece clips with stupid watermarks from seven years ago. With like
1.7. Million views it's not even like an important scene
There is a huge demand for people who want to go back and experience their favourite moments of a show hell
I've gotten into new animes sometimes via random clips
I found recommended to me imagine just being able to press a button on that clip and start watching the show it came from
Immediately, better yet if you're able to link your account with Mal
Then crunchyroll will be able to detect exactly which clips are spoilers for you
So basically that new feature would be letting users crop and place together clips using times
They can give the clip a name whether it be a compilation of certain moments or what happens in the scene and then place some
spoiler information
Then the clip will be added to a pile for that particular anime and will be first recommended to people who have watched up to
The latest episode that the clip uses from there people will evaluate how accurate the spoiler warning is and how spoilery the title is
And based on that it'll either be recommended to people who haven't watched the series or kept
exclusively for those who have one neat thing is that this is great for space and efficiency since all the clips are just pointers to
the original episode bol and all they'll have the quality to outperform the clips on YouTube and the spoiler tagging and mal backing means that
Illegal sites won't be able to copy it without establishing their own version of mal which again
They won't because mal already has a huge community backing it and no one wants to sign up with ghost town let alone the ghost
town of a dodgy illegal streaming site illegal streaming can give the consumer everything
They could possibly want to watch
but they can't help them choose between mal integration and high quality clips you can not only do that but provide a
Fantastic service for consumers to relive their favorite moments if you want to start competing with piracy
I want you to stop thinking of cruncyroll as a place where you come every week to see anime you're currently watching and instead
as the URL you type into your browser when you're bored or
Procrastinating by the way, just so we're clear if you ever do implement this feature don't put a fucking pay wall on it
I see you thinking it don't do it
You've missed the point of bells and whistles if this isn't accessible through crunchyroll's normal Premium, Membership
Jesus Christ anyway regardless of how the industry is doing right now the point is that we can definitely do better than this
between the exclusive licenses and the amount of money
They're getting from people who just want to support the industry
Streaming services aren't trying to improve their product to the point where it can compete with piracy it is possible
And we are capable of making it happen, but it requires a bit of tough love and illegal activities
But if we got this dumbass flightless bird off the ground we can put reins on it too
Look if you genuinely enjoy these services and want to pay for it do it, but if not don't
Encourage bad business practices, please stop defending the poor helpless giant corporation. It's not a baby
It'll find a way to get your subscription back again
It has been 11 years and the streaming industry is now firmly grounded
There is no room for a moral argument anymore in the long run. This is better for everyone