Illegal Downloading

The idea of a 'Spotify for Film' is a nice one, although pretty much impossible to implement. Spotify is already an ethical disaster in terms of supporting artists - and that's despite the fact music rights are generally simpler, the raw data significantly smaller and the overall costs generally far less than film. For consumers, it's a no-brainer, obviously, but it sadly comes at a cost to the people who deserve more (even Spotify themselves are hemorrhaging money). At least live music allows musicians to make a living in a 'free music' world, even if it puts significant pressure on independent to mid-tier artists to keep themselves active and visible.

Trying to match Spotify's almost all-encompassing scope in film would be a logistical nightmare in the first place. And for a consumer-friendly subscription service it would then be restrictively over-expensive to actively maintain. That's not just rights issues either - I believe it would almost inevitably lead to a substantial decrease in the variety of films being released in the first place, since there'd be a far less sustainable market overall. Even a service as large as Netflix can't manage anything more than a tiny fraction of the catalogue of cinema. Subscription based film streaming services are going to stay limited in scope, barring dramatically increasing their subscription fee or radical - and I mean radical - alterations in the way films are made, funded and distributed. It's a nice idea, but IMO nearly totally unfeasible.

It's always the independent artists I think it's important to consider, because the huge studios will continue to adapt and prosper. In film, the digital marketplace has not evolved sufficiently to support world, classic & independent cinema. One of the reasons I continue to spend so much money on Blu-Ray and cinema trips is to support the companies ensuring great films are translated, restored and released in the first place. It's already a struggle for these distributors and filmmakers to keep doing what they're doing, and illegally downloading won't help. Really the only time I'd be inclined to download anything is if it genuinely simply is not available legally in any way, shape or form.

It would be amazing to see a more robust digital space for films outside the mainstream, and I'd be first on board if there was. A 'Steam for films' is an intriguing prospect for sure (although Steam do already have a tiny film section!) - difficult to implement, but would be a great way to perhaps start a 'premium' location to distribute niche and leftfield films outside the theatrical and physical media space. Something with a 'library' and more sensible ownership options. Ultimately, I think the problem facing that sort of prospect is as much a consumer one as it is the backwards studios - paying for digital film is simply not something a very large proportion of the audience is used to, perhaps even prepared to, [ay for especially when you can pay 8.99 a month or nothing. You can't blame them in that regard, but beyond a major shift in attitudes, I think it might be up to smaller companies to try and win over the enthusiast audience that continues to prop up the Blu-Ray market with a more attractive offering.

On a tangential aside, happy to hear Arrow Films are going to be supporting Second Run films from here on out. Think it's beyond fantastic these smaller companies are working together to make sure there's still a significant choice of film out there