Internet Piracy Boosts Anime Sales, Study Concludes

S7evin

I just stumbled upon an article and the corresponding study that the illegal "pirating" of anime actually increases DVD sales:
http://torrentfreak.com/internet-piracy-boosts-anime-sales-study-concludes-110203/

The study (.pdf download):
http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/publications/summary/11010021.html

Do you think that this also holds for the sale of manga volumes? With the crack-down on onemanga and mangahelpers a couple of months it seems that the bigger publishers were on a warpath with scanlators. Might this change their stance?

stephen

This will not change their stance.

Robby

There's always been a yin and yang balance between "how much publicity and word of mouth does scanlation provide a series" and "how much does it steal from sales?"

Hard to judge either way. I'd say in general they lose more sales than they gain. Its certainley not going to change any professional licensor's stance.

Shandian

I got introduced to One Piece through internet, I have bought every finnish One Piece volume from vol.34 to vol 55.

This probably serves an example of positive sides of internet 'piracy'. It promotes series to the masses making it easier to reach and try out, I would had never bought One piece.

Of course most One piece 'readers' would never buy volumes since they can read it free on internet anyway, but I really enjoy reading One piece anywhere and local translation is very nicely done.

Gekko135

Agreed.

I read all the way past CP9 for free…. then after watching the majority of the show for free I went out and bought all the available volumes from viz.

Hell, even a couple dvd collections from funimation.

As robby said, there is definitely a yin yang balance.

But people reading it for free sure doesn't hurt for exposure.

Flux

Agree with Rupert; it won't change their stance.

But personally I use Scanlations for the current chapters, and buy every Tankobon when it comes out to put my money into the franchise, and also mainly cus it's great to have a physical copy at hand to look through.

@Gekko135:

Hell, even a couple dvd collections from funimation.

I bought the first two, knowing partially I can't play them. I can but it takes a lot of hassle but it helps support the series.

fedcom

I've never paid a dime for any One Piece anime or manga product.
Ya, I know I'm an asshole but that's what I imagine most people do.

Robby

@Gekko135:

I read all the way past CP9 for free…. then after watching the majority of the show for free I went out and bought all the available volumes from viz.

That's the Yin.

@fedcom:

I've never paid a dime for any One Piece anime or manga product.
Ya, I know I'm an asshole but that's what I imagine most people do.

And there's the Yang.

stephen

Yin is darkness and Yang is light. Just sayin.

JERK DISEASE

Never would have bought Berserk or Real without illegally reading them first.

And let's not even get into the amount of music I wouldn't buy if I didn't first download everything.

Robby

@stephen:

Yin is darkness and Yang is light. Just sayin.

Well obviously the dark side is cooler in this case.

And thats the order they posted in.

Nobodyman

Honestly, I'm not sure I would ever have gotten into manga if it wasn't for the free online scanlations. Today I own almost all the One Piece volumes that Viz has released (need to pick up 56 next week), Deathnote, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bakuman, and many others.

On the other hand, I will admit there are some series I read online that I haven't bought (Parasyte comes to mind).

@JERK:

And let's not even get into the amount of music I wouldn't buy if I didn't first download everything.

Free downloads of music exposed me to so many great artists. Nowadays I buy CDs when I can, most of which contain many more songs than I illegaly downloaded.

m00n

Yeah I found One Piece on youtube one day and I rekindled my interest in anime. I own 57 volumes on One Piece.

Malintex_Terek

You only need to look at the unit sales over the past 10 years to conclude piracy has boosted anime sales. Companies can still go bust though because there's a lot more competition and so a greater number of series are getting aired each season.

This doesn't apply to manga, though. That's an entirely different kettle of dolphin.

Maromi

If I read a Manga online, or watch an Anime online, and I really like it, I'll go out and buy it. I read things online first because why the hell are they $10.

I wanna be a comic artist, and I could give a flying damn if people read my comics online instead of buying them.

Bucephalus

I admit I'll probably never buy all (or any) of the One Piece volumes. The only series that'll ever get that treatment from me is Hunter X Hunter.

Nonetheless, as others have said in this thread, I'd never be even tempted to purchase physical manga if I hadn't fast forwarded through the series by reading it online. I first got into manga through the 9th issue of the US Shonen Jump, and while I did like many of the features, they were all at their beginning stages and many of them were pretty kitschy. Probably would have dropped manga altogether a few years ago if it wasn't for the internet.

Really I don't understand why Viz doesn't just get their shit together. I wouldn't mind paying like 50 bucks a year if it meant Viz would introduce an online pay-per-view scanlation service of current series. If they could somehow manage to legally get OP and the rest at the same time as we do (illegally, right?), I'd be happy supporting them.
Instead they just keep noodling around trying to CRACK DOWN instead of progressing.

stephen

There are lots of reasons they can't do something like that right now, not least of which is the fact that they have to arrange the rights of their properties through Japanese publishers, which are all dinosaurs that have no idea what to do with the internet. Trying to get many such companies to agree to rubber-stamp a single service together would be like trying to herd 3,000 lb cats.

The universal model where all content providers sell through a service for a baseline price works for Itunes because it's Apple. Viz is not Apple.

IrishLuigi

The most effective way for a manga/anime to get online exposure and increased sales would to be to be anal (they're already doing that) and only allow websites show low quality versions.

Want high quality? Buy dat shit.

That's what I went through with the TTGL anime.

RoboBlue

The bottom line is that each consumer only has so much money to spend, and people who like anime and manga are still likely to spend it on anime and manga. However, sales of mediocre or average series are definitely hurt (I remember seeing some sales figures supporting this) because fans are spending more on super-popular series (why buy a DVD of something you didn't enjoy much the first time?).

Malintex_Terek

@IrishLuigi:

That's what I went through with the TTGL anime.

I feel bad for you.

I often much prefer the online HDTV rips of anime because most DVDs are retouched with extra fanservice (which I hate) or altered scenes that may/may not piss one off. Additionally, DVD releases can always be released later as BD or DVD editions with new features, like the Parallel Works scenes. How'd you like to buy a GL DVD with the lame dub, then sometime later a sub geats released with the dub track removed and replaced with the PWs?

Sorry, but forcing people to watch LQ online isn't the answer. I don't really feel streams are the answer either, but LQ is definitely not the way to go to reel in interest and raise demand.