The Influence of Blu-ray.com on Blu-ray Market

[floridaswamprat]

I have been a forum member going on close to ten years, and I realize that we are a specialized group. As of this writing, there are 8090 active participants on the forum (1588 members and 6502 guests).

With 7.8 billion people in the world (including 332 million in my own US of A), this leads me to muse as to what the influence of this forum is on the blu-ray market - worldwide or in the US. We comprise an extremely small market share (though a valuable one in my opinion).

I know that there are studios/labels that monitor the forum (KL comes to immediate mind), but do we, as such a small consumer market, really have an influence with the studios or labels regarding titles, marketing, etc.?

Thoughts?

[DVD Josh]

You assume that all of our members have the same interests. The fact that they do not significantly limits the influence, if any.

[meremortal]

All I know is that this forum has been influential in my collecting and it can be a bit enabling.

[Maximux]

this forum influenced all my purchases so far

[drush9999]

This place costs me a lot of money, that's all I know.
Huge influence on what I purchase, it's a blessing and a curse at the same time

[glennstl]

I can only speak for myself but this website has been enormously influential for me as a movie lover and collector.

Around 2009 I discovered this site. Before that I didn’t own a Blu-ray player much less a Blu. Reading through the news on the site, the reviews and discovering movies that I at the time either never had heard from or knew next to nothing about made me a physical media collector: first Blu and now also 4K. The forums were especially great and influential to read every day.

Between this site and the movie channel, TCM, it made me love movies, esp. 1930s-1980s. It made me a John Wayne fan, a Vincent Price fan, a Universal horror movie fan and many others.

[Afriendofours]

This site definitely influences my purchases. I was about to purchase Shout Factory's The Craft 4k. Then I read the review and the reviewer gave the upgrade a positive review. But then I started reading the posts and people were saying it was flawed and needed to be recalled. Then the bluray.com review suddenly disappeared. (odd, I know) So I decided to hold off on that purchase.

I've followed the site for a long time, but have only been a member for a couple of years. After reading the reviews and posts, I finally upgraded my home media system and from starting with just a few dvds, my physical collection has now grown to thousands of blurays and one hundred plus 4k. I still have yet to add everything to my profile. If someone knows of an easier way, please let me know.

I've been reluctant to upgrade to 4k because I feel like 8k is not too far away. At least I hope because from the demos I've seen, the picture is awesome. I've already seen the TVs for sale and I could be wrong, but I feel like the 8k content is purposely being held back until they saturate the market with 4k content.

[hanshotfirst1138]

I seriously doubt anyone in the industry even knows we exist, let alone cares.

[meremortal]

Originally Posted by hanshotfirst1138

I seriously doubt anyone in the industry even knows we exist, let alone cares.

Perhaps less so for the major studios, but a reasonably large enthusiast audience helps a lot for the boutique labels. Many releases now I'd have no idea would exist without seeing posts here.

[Animatic33]

Originally Posted by hanshotfirst1138

I seriously doubt anyone in the industry even knows we exist, let alone cares.

Oh, a good number know this site exists and the types that hang around here. But make no mistake about it, this forum and all of its “expert” members are a joke to mostly everyone.

[drush9999]

I thought I heard George Feltenstein of Warner Archive checks the site out occasionally.
I'm pretty sure Paramount seem to check wishlists on here as well, as they've been pretty good releasing the more commonly asked for titles.
Plenty of boutique label representatives interact on the forums.
All these guys need to know their audience to keep it at least profitable.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by DVD Josh

You assume that all of our members have the same interests. The fact that they do not significantly limits the influence, if any.

While it's true that this Message Board, like many others, also has subsections dedicated to other subjects, many of those off-topic threads don't seem as vibrant as the movie/physical media threads. I think the main reason folks who visit a forum called Blu-ray.com is to stay on top of the physical media world and there are certainly a large number of members here so I think there's definitely a good degree of influence.

[floridaswamprat]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

While it's true that this Message Board, like many others, also has subsections dedicated to other subjects, many of those off-topic threads don't seem as vibrant as the movie/physical media threads. I think the main reason folks who visit a forum called Blu-ray.com is to stay on top of the physical media world and there are certainly a large number of members here so I think there's definitely a good degree of influence.

Comparatively speaking, I do not think that there is a "large number" of members here. As I said in the OP, there are only about 8,000 people worldwide who access the forum on a regular basis. Compared to the general populous, we are an extreme few.

That is why I was wondering as to what our true influence would be with labels/studios (i.e, can 8,000 people truly influence labels/studios in regard to titles released, etc.?).

[monwobbbo]

Originally Posted by floridaswamprat

Comparatively speaking, I do not think that there is a "large number" of members here. As I said in the OP, there are only about 8,000 people worldwide who access the forum on a regular basis. Compared to the general populous, we are an extreme few.

That is why I was wondering as to what our true influence would be with labels/studios (i.e, can 8,000 people truly influence labels/studios in regard to titles released, etc.?).

i think that it has been established the at least the boutique labels do pay attention. if a product doesn't interest the hardcore fans then it's not likely to sell to more casual fans. in terms of gathering info again forums like this do come in handy. no real effort is needed to check and read what people are saying they want. lots of free advertising as well. members will post advertising on places like Facebook to let their friends and others know about impending releases. again free for the companies. sure the big studios probably don't care but even then they can't totally ignore a source of info that could help them determine is a release is worth the while or not.

[Luke Dodge748]

Yes. I just adore you guys...

[mcrowell415]

For me I keep discovering new titles to check out and discovered the region free rabbit hole. The number of titles in my collection has exploded in the last couple of years.

[barsalou]

Originally Posted by Animatic33

Oh, a good number know this site exists and the types that hang around here. But make no mistake about it, this forum and all of its “expert” members are a joke to mostly everyone.

I think the forum occasionally ruffles some feathers so people try and portray it as a joke when in reality they wouldn't even be reading it if it was really what they thought.

[MifuneFan]

I ran the numbers, and I am personally responsible for $6.27 billion in sales.

[meremortal]

Another thing that wasn't really mentioned is things like Dollar Tree waves. I rarely go to their stores and would otherwise have no idea when they will have movies. And I've probably bought a crazy amount of them over the years after reading about it. Very few people would know about sites like Hamilton Book without the forum as well.

[Bradsdadg]

I think this site is a big factor in helping sell boutique releases. If it wasn't here, how many of us either wouldn't be collectors, wouldn't know about certain releases, sales, etc. I probably wouldn't even have half the titles I do now. Not sure if that is a good thing or not