First, a brief apology - I'm behind in my Big Finish reviews. Trouble is, while I've been working from home for the last week, enabling me to put some actual work into the blog for a change, it means I haven't been doing any commuting. No commuting, means no iPod listening (except when I'm doing the housework), so I've not been listening to any of the plays. Never fear, though, I hope to have reviews of The Bride of Peladon, Condemned and Dead London sometime soon.
But 1st February marked two important events. Number one: Big Finish redesigned its web site again so that it's almost usable. Almost. They have a slight issue with labelling. You'll see. And they could do with hiring a proofreader (hint, hint).
Number two: it's started to sell its plays as downloads. No more ripping to iPod for me then. Woo hoo.
Almost.
Let's look at the pricing. Price of a two-disc play on CD: £14.99. Price of a download: £12.99. Hmm. Okay, so, you're not having to pay P&P either, but that's not a huge reduction. £2 less and I don't get the CDs, the box liner notes, etc? (Well, I haven't bought any yet, so maybe you get them as PDFs).
I don't feel “incentivised” by that. All the same, I suspect that'll be the way forward for me from now on. How about you?
Updates and related entries
February 28, 2008:
I give the Big Finish downloads service a try, plus news of their Web 2.0 efforts
February 4, 2008 | Reply
Even worse:
Price of Bride of Peladon on CD from Amazon: 9.89
Price of Bride of Peladon for download: 12.99
Hmmm, not a very well thought through business model.
February 4, 2008 | Reply
Most downloadable audiobooks seem to be quite highly priced at the moment.
Companies like Audible charge you almost as much as the actual book - despite the fact that they only have to acquire one copy, which can then be copied by their customers.
Unless producing the physical CD and cover book only costs £2 then I can't see how Big Finish can justify that price. I'll probably still buy them though. It would make more sense to get the CD, but downloading is just that bit quicker and easier.
February 4, 2008 | Reply
That makes it even less appealing!