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Hey, Answerman! - Anime Economics 101

I've heard that a mangaka will get 20% per manga sale in the US. But as Brian said it depends on contract to contract.

Still not sure what you're driving at. You don't need to know who you can buy it from. You just need to search on amazon or elsewhere online or look around in certain stores, neither of which requires you to know who distributes it. You just need the name of the series.

I can see where directly advertising the DVD release after the stream as they sometimes do would be somewhat helpful but for the most part, I still don't see much reason that free streams would boost sales anymore than fansubs

and if the fansubs are still out there than you've still got all the negative elements as well.

So if streams themselves are actually generating revenue then great. If not though then I have to wonder if they're really making much of a difference.

PBsallad wrote:

I've heard that a mangaka will get 20% per manga sale in the US. But as Brian said it depends on contract to contract.

I have no doubts that the US publisher might pay 20% of their sales as royalties to the Japanese publisher, but I don't think that affects the contract that the author has with the Japanese publisher.

ikillchicken wrote:

Still not sure what you're driving at. You don't need to know who you can buy it from. You just need to search on amazon or elsewhere online or look around in certain stores, neither of which requires you to know who distributes it. You just need the name of the series.

Yes, same as the supermarket could just leave the candy in the candy aisle and the magazines in the magazine aisle, but for some reason also sell them at the check-out line. The more steps between impulse and purchase, the lower the fraction of impulses are converted into sales.

The ad-streams aren't generating a tremendous amount of revenue directly, because they need a substantially higher viewership to do so. But there's no way to get to a higher level of viewership other than growing from an existing foundation.

And in the meanwhile, even if they do not generate substantial revenues directly, since they are self-funding and will generate some net sales relative to bootleg streaming sites, why wouldn't you? Its not that often you have a way to advertise that covers its own expenses by carrying someone else's advertising.

"Anime Economics" as it stands now is tied directly to government interventions in the market and would be far better off in a free market system.

As fun as it is to laugh to Randians, I just want to point out that you don't have to be a free market supremacist to be in favour of killing copyright. I'm a slightly left-of-centre Canadian, which makes me, what, almost a communist in American political terms? And despite relying on copyright for my current income I'd much rather trade it for something that works better. Of course, I also know this isn't the thread to explore such topics.

Vulcannis wrote:

As fun as it is to laugh to Randians, I just want to point out that you don't have to be a free market supremacist to be in favour of killing copyright. I'm a slightly left-of-centre Canadian, which makes me, what, almost a communist in American political terms? And despite relying on copyright for my current income I'd much rather trade it for something that works better. Of course, I also know this isn't the thread to explore such topics.

wooo, insulting Americans = automatic win! Or, you know, not *shrug*

Saturn wrote:

Vulcannis wrote: As fun as it is to laugh to Randians, I just want to point out that you don't have to be a free market supremacist to be in favour of killing copyright. I'm a slightly left-of-centre Canadian, which makes me, what, almost a communist in American political terms? And despite relying on copyright for my current income I'd much rather trade it for something that works better. Of course, I also know this isn't the thread to explore such topics. wooo, insulting Americans = automatic win! Or, you know, not *shrug*

Yeah...things that are also not 'win': Getting all ridiculously and needlessly 'insulted' over nothing.

rand picture

agila61 wrote:

ikillchicken wrote: Still not sure what you're driving at. You don't need to know who you can buy it from. You just need to search on amazon or elsewhere online or look around in certain stores, neither of which requires you to know who distributes it. You just need the name of the series. Yes, same as the supermarket could just leave the candy in the candy aisle and the magazines in the magazine aisle, but for some reason also sell them at the check-out line. The more steps between impulse and purchase, the lower the fraction of impulses are converted into sales.

No, that analogy makes no sense whatsoever. It would if you needed to know about Funimation to buy the anime. If the process was: learn about an anime, use that info to find the distributor, use that info to find out where you can buy it, then you would be cutting out a step. But it isn't. It's just as easy for someone who knows: 'I like [X] anime show' to find the DVD as it is for someone who knows 'I like [X] anime show which is distirbuted by Funimation'.

You are ignoring the fact that when the stream finished there are a set of actions ... watch the next episode, buy the series, watch a similar show, and etc.

It is not as easy for someone to look up the show at Rightstuf or Amazon and buy it as it is for them to click that "buy this series link" embedded into the end of the legit stream.

What I was originally asking was why Brian felt that merely by pasting the Funimation logo all over a stream makes a difference. That seems meaningless to me and that would seem to be all a number of streams are doing as direct ads for the DVD are only applicable in some situations.

Xanas wrote:

Quote:

Of course, the problem is you can't necessarily purchase it right then and there, which limits the benefit for those shows streamed before being available for purchase.

If its a licensed series, and you have a credit card with adequate balance, you can definitely click the "buy series" link when its done streaming and buy it right then and there.

Can't do that on a leech streaming site.

ikillchicken wrote:

What I was originally asking was why Brian felt that merely by pasting the Funimation logo all over a stream makes a difference. That seems meaningless to me and that would seem to be all a number of streams are doing as direct ads for the DVD are only applicable in some situations.

Brian can answer to why he felt that.

You seemed to dispute that and argue that there was no difference between the sales promotion that happens on a leach streaming site and the sales promotion that happens on a legit streaming site.

If you agree that there is a massive difference in the way that legit streaming can be used to promote sales...