When the Big Guys Move In
Wednesday, June 7, 2006 at 08:00PM There is some discussion on 2Peas which caught my attention, towards a General Scrapping thread where Basic Grey appears to be indicating contemplating moving into providing some papers for digital scrappers.
- Here’s the thread with Basic Grey indicating this. The thread is on the General Scrapping Boards, and deteriotes into some bickering over digital marketplaces pretty quickly and something about copywrite, but the Basic Grey post is the very top one.
- Here’s the thread where Digital scrappers discuss the potential movement of a company like Basic Grey into the digital marketplace.
My discussion is on both. This is one digital scrapper’s opinion.
Basic Grey has been, previously, very forceful in what it sees as infringements of copywrites. In fact, several digital designers who have created similar digital products to Basic Grey designs have felt the full force of communications from Basic Grey towards this. Basic Grey also suggests it finds infringements in scrappers scanning in a piece of paper to use as a digital background, even if destroying the original (as you would do if you used it in a paper-based layout) and using the design only the once.
The threads discuss and venture into quite a few topics, including, again, the legalities of copying a paper design to use digitally, if destroying the original - and presumably the digital copy once used fully. There is another discussion point over digital designers providing similar designs to Basic Grey in the grungy shabby format, and a question about how close to a design it can be before it is seen as a copy. Basic Grey don’t own property rights over grungy styles - but some digital designers have previously come very close to the mark regarding using the same types of grunge in the same places on a background paper, with very similar colour schemes. Whilst others produce, from time to time, kits which remind me a little of Basic Grey, but perhaps with a twist completely their own. Grunge is a large theme for many digital designers, influenced perhaps more so by market demands from people like me, than a paper-company.
As a paper scrapper, I never took to Basic Grey with great gushings. The stuff was a little too commonly used - it made appearances just about everywhere - and it was overly priced compared to other ranges. I’ve picked up packs via paper kit clubs, classes and on sale, however - and the papers in particular really still appeal to me. I remain slowly using BG in small projects. However, if Basic Grey were to move some of their products over to digital format (and I”ve seen many digital scrappers demanding this from big paper companies) then I still would think twice about purchasing it. Like many of the scrappers on the 2Peas digital board discussion - there are plenty of other independent, and creditable shabby type designers producing digital kits and papers of equally appealing styles - and they will be most probably cheaper.
Basic Grey have pricey paper-based stuff, and there is nothing to lead me to believe that their digital stuff might be any cheaper. In fact, this newer digital stuff would have to be different in design than that available out there as traditional paper lines - otherwise there would be nothing to stop me picking up the paper line, scanning it in, and creating my own digital mastercopies. It may be easier to download those, than scan them, but if I’ve got them already - I might just save myself the energy of signing up to download, and dust off that old scanner. So, if this supposition were true - and BG would need to create new digital lines to support the new market - then I might suggest that they might see the ability to hike the prices up for consumers willing to pay a premium already for their lines, even digitally.
Traditional paper companies face copywrite problems just as with digital designers, but the movement into re-usables rather than consumables may be an interesting change in thinking for some big guys in the scrapbooking world. Digital Media - music, software etc - which is downloadable - can be of various pricing structures. MP3 music, for instance, is incredibly cheap individually, compared to going into a retail store and buying a full CD Album or even single of the track. Software is also normally cheaper via downloadable versions, rather than purchasing the boxed copy with manuals (and box) from a store. Digital scrapbook designs are, all up - cheaper than their paper-based counterparts - a kit of designs can be bought for an average of around US$6 nowadays (however, there is 2Peas, which sells at $15 for designs) and come with the additional benefit of being reusable over and over again - for personal usage only.
And that’s possibly where things become muddy again. The other digital media I spoke of above - music and software examples - come with digtial rights management - they can not be pirated or copied elsewhere. Many have limited install possibilities, can not be moved onto other PCs etc, and have tie-ins with technology (either online or via MP3players and transporters) to ensure the usage of such media does not breach the copywrite and user licenses after purchase. Many software licenses are checked often as you go online.
Digital scrapbook designs do not support such licensing or user rights checks. And they are sold for personal usage only - over and over again, but only for those who bought it.
Traditional scrapbooking companies are used to selling consumables - the very nature means that once used, they’re gone. Those products are priced to allow for distribution (to your local scrapbook store), taxes, advertising, new design creations, offices, warehousing, staff etc. They are priced for all of that, plus a profit (as much as can be gotten away with, I would suggest) for the owners or shareholders in the company. They are also priced with the hope that after consuming that paper or embellishment - you run out of it, and will go back to buy some more.
If traditional scrapbooking companies like Basic Grey do enter the digital market - their pricing strategy will need to be very different. They normally already have their own websites, and sticking in a shopping cart may not be that difficult for them to do (or they may contemplate distributing the digital designs in CDs through their store outlets). So, strictly speaking - you would think that if they go with Option 1 - and provide these as downloads from their websites - then the prices shouldn’t be much different from those out there with other digital designs anyway - however Basic Grey is aware of the premium on it’s designs, and the constant demand to provide them digitally - and of the fact that these designs, in digital format, will immediately stop demand for any more - once you’ve got them, you will never buy them again. How much for a one-off purchase of a product which will never see sales for them again? Will we see these things being priced the same as other digital products, or with a factor towards re-usability (and ability to break copywrite also or even send to friends) more to the pricing structure currently working for 2Peas digital kits?
Digital scrappers do have additional costs involved - the kits themselves are often not used repeatedly like everyone is meant to be doing - so one layout may well cost the scrapper $6 to produce regarding digital elements - plus the anciliary devices to support that creation - computers, hard-drives, backups, photo editing software and upgrades, and printing costs - the last of which can be quite expensive for a fullsize layout. At the moment many digital scrappers are baulking at the pricing structure at 2Peas, and would prefer to use that money elsewhere. That’s a personal choice, dependent on just how much you love those designs, and how much you can personally afford. Given the market demand for companies like Basic Grey to provide designs digitally, perhaps there are people out there willing to pay for those.
I might not personally contemplate Basic Grey digitally (or I might, if they were cheap enough to add to my own library of digital designs), but I would certainly lap up other design companies if they made the move to digital - Seven Gypsies comes to mind. I would love all those transparencies as overlays, tissue paper, rulers, clocks, rusty clips and string etc as digitals. Yes, many designers do this type of stuff occasionally - but to be able to go directly to the source of several full lines of product and select them digitally has some real appeal. I remain unsure as yet, how much I might be personally prepared to pay for it. Are you?
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