"I messed up" says Netflix CEO. funny; the Netflix change didn't bother me at all - those disks just sat around forever, while I added more things to my streaming q.
Chumps. Pisses me off all over again. They thought they were big + important enough to drive consumer preferences, rather than delivering what their customers wanted. Would have made sense if (and will when) the quality and selection of streaming were anywhere near DVD. Netflix streaming is really iffy on my setup (whereas Hulu is just fine).
However, I am glad to have them back. Could be a lesson in there somewhere for eMu: if your customers are that pissed off, maybe you're doing something wrong!
What enrages me about that article is that he's making it sound like he's cancelling the price increase. But the email he sent out and the text in other articles says that netflix will, in fact, cost more.
There are no pricing changes (were done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.
In effect, he's saying: "Boy oh boy, we sure screwed up, all righty! Naturally, we're not going to lower the prices back down to a reasonable level, but we're sure this conciliatory e-mail will more than make up for that."
Oh, you're kidding me. "There are no pricing changes" means that the recent price hike is still in effect? So other than the stupid new name, is there anything that's not the same as it was going to be before this announcement?
One commenter on the Netflix blog put it well. This is a non apology apology. I'm annoyed that they are splitting into two different services, with two different websites. I don't have a streaming tv and rarely used it on my computer, so just clicked DVD only at the start of September. I think that someday down the line I will have a tv that could stream.
I have always wondered how Netflix made money on 10 buck subscriptions when round trip postage on a DVD has to be something close to 3 bucks a pop. Do that a couple three times a month and there is not much left for salaries and overhead.
I am sure they had plenty of of low volume users subsidizing the whole thing but just ask eMu, that is no way to buy a bigger yacht.
There was no way that prices were going to remain unchanged for much longer.
I don't use Netflix so I don't know if this is relevant to the discussion and I don't have a dog in this fight but this point has been sticking in my craw since Netflix began and this seemed like as good a time as any to get it out
I think it is time to watch what Amazon does. In the UK we have Lovefilms, which operates much the same as Netflix, with both postal DVDs and also on-line films. The difference is that it has been incredibly succesful, so succesful that it has been bought out by Amazon for an amazing sum. My prediction is that they will be rolling out something in the States soon....
No new uploads on emu yesterday - at least in the UK. Noah seems to be blaming this on air conditioning problems in the office -
This could be related to some database problems we had over the weekend. Our AC unit has been causing some problems for us. I'll confirm when it's back up when I get more information.
I have always wondered how Netflix made money on 10 buck subscriptions when round trip postage on a DVD has to be something close to 3 bucks a pop.
Naah, the postage is more like $0.80, but their profitability formula includes a bunch of other factors, including warehouse staffing. Supposedly they have to collect around $2 per DVD shipped - here's a story about it, though it doesn't give a source for those numbers. Of course, they'll be going up with the next USPS rate increase, which promises to be bigger than usual. (USPS is also ending Saturday delivery, which might actually help them.)
Amazon prime here now competes with Netflix by offering streaming movies. I think the future of movies is mostly going to be streaming. I'm surprised Netflix doesn't offer paid streaming of select new stuff yet.
Well, woo-hoo! I'm finally one of the 'privileged' who gets please-come-back emails from emusic. It took 6 months, but I've received two emails in the past month - the $11.99 deal for .99 first month. I'm halfway tempted to cash in on the .99 then cancel, but probably won't bother. I'm getting along okay without emusic after all - and I wasn't sure I would when I first cancelled.
It seems to me that emusic's new setup is just not conducive to a subscription service. They'll never be the Amazon/ITunes clone they wanna be while sticking to the subscription model. And, quite frankly, it gives me a headache to think about re-joining and going through the torture of their dysfunctional search mode to find stuff I want.
Naah, the postage is more like $0.80, but their profitability formula includes a bunch of other factors, including warehouse staffing. Supposedly they have to collect around $2 per DVD shipped - here's a story about it, though it doesn't give a source for those numbers. Of course, they'll be going up with the next USPS rate increase, which promises to be bigger than usual. (USPS is also ending Saturday delivery, which might actually help them.)
I'll split the difference with you and call it something close to 2 bucks round trip. With presorting and volume mailing maybe they can get the cost of outgoing mail down to less than first class postage say 30 cents a pop. But those postage paid return mailers are single serving deals and no presort and no volume so full postage on those of at least 44 cents and those postage paid business permits are not cheap, maybe 75 cents to a dollar more on top of postage. Call it $1.49 a pop. Say the average customer uses 3 mailings of DVDs a month so that is nearly 5 bucks. That's half of the monthly subscription and we haven't even wined and dined the Hollywood studio execs sos we can get access to the first run studio releases before the competition.
@juj you're assuming that the average Netflix customer is a rational actor, anecdotal evidence in my life points in the other direction as myself, friends and family are quite lucky to do 3 mailings a month. Honestly, we managed in our heyday maybe to send and receive a disc a month maybe every 2 weeks if we were lucky, most times we sat on a disc for up to 7-8 weeks. Seriously, we paid to be a warehouse. Netflix is a gym membership.
I feel like Netflix falls into the gym membership model we used to talk about eMusic. It gets underused by many, many people. Then you have me, who by choice and budget has no cable subscription. I go quickly through my one dvd. Last month I went through six different DVDs which is about average for me.
Honestly, we managed in our heyday maybe to send and receive a disc a month maybe every 2 weeks if we were lucky, most times we sat on a disc for up to 7-8 weeks.
Ah, so it was you who made me wait almost a month for Disc 1 of Season 3 of The Wire! I should have guessed...
Thankfully I already saw most of the Deadwood episodes when they were aired, so no problem with holding onto those for a few extra weeks.
Anyway, I agree with most of what JackedUP is saying - Netflix is almost certainly running scared, profitability-wise. But I'm pretty sure they're a long way from actually operating at a loss, and still will be even after they split the business into two operations - even with the recent exodus of subscribers.
It was probably a pure-numbers decision to split the company. The amount of profit they make on streaming is probably so much higher, maybe even in the "obscene" range, it's like night and day - and that's what they want shareholders to see. The DVDs-by-mail operation may tank eventually, sure... but as long as it's under a different name, the stock price of the main "Netflix" operation should stay reasonably high, and everyone will continue to get their huge bonuses on schedule.
I agrre with elwood here. We are members of a similar organisation here Love Films and out latest DVD has been here snce the beginning of August. Usually if we havn't actually watched a fim in a month we send it back, but this time we have not even got round to that!
I'm back in the fold. A buck got me $12. I've already got a couple albums lined up.
I'm interested to give the player a new spin. Boy, they really screwed it up before. I used to go on the new releases page every week, rain or shine, whether I had an active account or not. But when that thing went to hell with the new version, I just stopped visiting the site altogether. Hopefully some of my initial testing will prove that my optimism isn't unwarranted.
I'm getting worried! This thread is nearly a year old. When all the changes happened we (ie those of us in Europe) were 'promised' that we would get the majors within the next year. Well that time is almost up, so is anything going to happen? My hope is that it will not. I'm quite happy paying a set price per track on my grandfathered plan and I don't want the majors. I'm fairly sure the other European emusers probably feel the same, but I am also fairly sure we do not represent a majority of European members of emusic. If/when it happens, to quote a phrase "Well that may be the end of eMu for me..."
Yes,I am fairly sure it is on the way soon.Adam Klein implied as much in a Music Weekly article a couple of months ago. That is why it concerns me so, as I for one don't want all the implications of that, ie, higher costs
Greg, you could start now making yourself an Album Pricing SFL - you know, whopping big double/triple disc box sets, the 100 Best yadda yadda, anything where the prohibitive cost of so many tracks made it impossible to get something you might have otherwise really wanted. This will take some of the sting of the conversion away temporarily - until the list runs dry. I was carrying a number of albums several years that didn't get an album price until they went to the cash system that I was very glad to get. Might help a little.
Conversely, you should prioritize albums with a few long tracks now so that they don't disappear as a bargain. You've started listening to a lot of Jazz, so this shouldn't be a trivial issue. Indeed, it might be worthwhile to go on a shopping spree of 10+ minute tracks whose albums you'd be willing to complete at a later date.
Thanks BT - sounds good in theory and I have been doing a bit of that anyway. The problem is that if I want to download any tracks over 10 minutes I have to download the whole album to get them, which, generally I am happy to do
That new emu player works great for me now. I've used it twice for new jazz release marathon sessions and tried my damndest to break the thing and make it screw up, but it worked nice and smooth. Whatever they did to improve it worked for me. Understandably, that might not be the case for everyone. I'm a Mac (Leopard) using Firefox (recent version).
Comments
However, I am glad to have them back. Could be a lesson in there somewhere for eMu: if your customers are that pissed off, maybe you're doing something wrong!
We'll be cancelling our account this weekend.
In effect, he's saying: "Boy oh boy, we sure screwed up, all righty! Naturally, we're not going to lower the prices back down to a reasonable level, but we're sure this conciliatory e-mail will more than make up for that."
I am sure they had plenty of of low volume users subsidizing the whole thing but just ask eMu, that is no way to buy a bigger yacht.
There was no way that prices were going to remain unchanged for much longer.
I don't use Netflix so I don't know if this is relevant to the discussion and I don't have a dog in this fight but this point has been sticking in my craw since Netflix began and this seemed like as good a time as any to get it out
Carry on
We paid $10 a month to be a warehouse facility for 1 disc a month.
It seems to me that emusic's new setup is just not conducive to a subscription service. They'll never be the Amazon/ITunes clone they wanna be while sticking to the subscription model. And, quite frankly, it gives me a headache to think about re-joining and going through the torture of their dysfunctional search mode to find stuff I want.
@scissorMan
I'll split the difference with you and call it something close to 2 bucks round trip. With presorting and volume mailing maybe they can get the cost of outgoing mail down to less than first class postage say 30 cents a pop. But those postage paid return mailers are single serving deals and no presort and no volume so full postage on those of at least 44 cents and those postage paid business permits are not cheap, maybe 75 cents to a dollar more on top of postage. Call it $1.49 a pop. Say the average customer uses 3 mailings of DVDs a month so that is nearly 5 bucks. That's half of the monthly subscription and we haven't even wined and dined the Hollywood studio execs sos we can get access to the first run studio releases before the competition.
Again I say, how do they even make money
Ah, so it was you who made me wait almost a month for Disc 1 of Season 3 of The Wire! I should have guessed...
Thankfully I already saw most of the Deadwood episodes when they were aired, so no problem with holding onto those for a few extra weeks.
It was probably a pure-numbers decision to split the company. The amount of profit they make on streaming is probably so much higher, maybe even in the "obscene" range, it's like night and day - and that's what they want shareholders to see. The DVDs-by-mail operation may tank eventually, sure... but as long as it's under a different name, the stock price of the main "Netflix" operation should stay reasonably high, and everyone will continue to get their huge bonuses on schedule.
And that's what really matters, dammit!
I'm interested to give the player a new spin. Boy, they really screwed it up before. I used to go on the new releases page every week, rain or shine, whether I had an active account or not. But when that thing went to hell with the new version, I just stopped visiting the site altogether. Hopefully some of my initial testing will prove that my optimism isn't unwarranted.
Conversely, you should prioritize albums with a few long tracks now so that they don't disappear as a bargain. You've started listening to a lot of Jazz, so this shouldn't be a trivial issue. Indeed, it might be worthwhile to go on a shopping spree of 10+ minute tracks whose albums you'd be willing to complete at a later date.