What Rockula On Netflix Should Mean To Musicians
It seems when it comes to cinema, my aesthetic is either all or nothing. In other words, it has to be either really great or really crap for me to love it.
Rockula is not a defining moment in cinema – but it is a film I love dearly. A bizarre 1990 comedy/musical (with total 1980′s vibe) featuring Thomas Dolby, Toni Basil and Bo Diddley. Too strange to detail here, it has been loving described down to microscopic detail here.
It was one of those oddities that really only could have come out in the 80′s-90′s. I had a VHS copy I transferred and would show at craptastic film nights in LA. It was one of those films that was probably never going to be released on dvd – and would probably be relegated to the realm of multipart viewing via You Tube.
Last week I almost spit out my coffee when I went to my Netflix Queue and saw Rockula (along with some other crème de la merde of 80′s cinema).
This is my hypothesis on what this means. It is based only on observation and not data – but if anyone has any data on this I’d be interested to see it.
My guess is that the reason films like this don’t come out on DVD is multifaceted.
1. As the ownership of the various film companies goes through multiple consolidations there are probably thousands of films that just get lost (See London after Midnight as an early example of films lost forever.)
2. With so much inventory and ever tightening belts, film companies are reticent to spend the production costs on releasing dvds of older obscurer films if not necessary.
But my guess is that Netflix, Amazon movies on demand and other pay to stream options have rewritten the rule book. Now film companies can digitize a film (which since they own all the equipment is a marginal expenditure) and make money from it by licensing it for streaming. The revenue per film is minimal. But if you have thousands of them streaming daily it could ultimately be a significant revenue stream.
Right now licensing limits Netflix to the U.S.A. but as time goes on this will go global. If they can keep the costs down this could but a dent in piracy of physical product. Right now, the internet connection and minimum monthly fees will make it prohibitive for people across the globe – but if they were to lower the costs….
This is another nail in the coffin for brick and mortar stores. As people get more and more used to downloading books, film, and music musicians are going to have to get away from the idea that it’s all about the physical cd and expand their merch into other areas (note in the merch link – not a single reference to cds in the photo).
