Will the stock market tell B&N to back off from DRM in its new e-store?

Comments:

• Felix Torres says:

  July 28, 2009 at 8:04 am

  That’s one big leap of faith there.
  Reading the comments and tone of the fool article there is no mention of DRM or even the B&N online effort; they are being expected to underperform simply because expensive print books are a luxury that can be readily substituted for (with paperbacks, public libraries, and yes, ebooks…)

  There is no question Barnes & Noble is floundering for a coherent response to the Threat of The Kindle! (I’m sure somebody has trademarked that by now.)

  Buying up Fictionwise was a decent quick-n-dirty way into ebook retailing.
  Launching a me-too online storefront with less than a quality experience? Not so much.

  And their overhyped press-release breathlessly promising *hundreds* of ebooks at $10 was just pathetic.
  They’ll do better.
  They can hardly do worse.

  First suggestion I’d give them is to stop panicking; its early in the game.
  Second suggestion is draw up a sensible business plan to meet their own needs (not those of the big publishers or Adobe) and those of the readers.
  Because the times have changed; opening up a stall and waiting to be mobbed by the peasants happy to be offered a chance to overpay for whatever you deign to offer up for sale, well…
  Those days are long gone.

  Barnes & Noble needs to understand that their core competencies of moving dead treeware and bookstore decoration aren’t all that valuable anymore; substance matters more than presentation, now.
  Their profits and their very survival will depend on the quality of the product and the value they offer the readers.
  Half-baked panic-induced rush jobs will only devalue the brand and send more customers to their competitors.

  There’s no need to panic; it’s early in the game.
  We haven’t even heard from WalMart.
• David Rothman says:

  July 28, 2009 at 9:38 am

  Felix, those are excellent observations all in all–I agree with most. But here’s my favorite:

  > Second suggestion is draw up a sensible business plan to meet their own needs (not those of the big publishers or Adobe) and those of the readers.

  Exactly why B&N should set up a DRMless ePub store, as part of the “sensible business plan”!

  This is low-hanging fruit. We know how much readers hate DRM–maybe not immediately, but sooner or later when they finally understand what is happening. B&N advertising could educate the newbies. That would force Bezos and publishers to rethink their strategies and back off from the present approach focused on DRM and the related proprietary tech.

  Thanks,
  David
• Felix Torres says:

  July 28, 2009 at 10:45 am

  We all agree DRM-less ebooks offer real value to readers and retailers, so we can set that aside.

  That said…
  Question: who has the *power* to make that happen?

  Does Barnes & Noble *really* have the ability to tell publishers how to package and sell their product? If they had that power, wouldn’t they be better off using it to get the same terms Amazon and WalMart get, so they *don’t* have to compete at a pricing disadvantage? Unlike Amazon, which is on occasion both retailer and publisher, B&N is strictly a retailer. They can no more tell Random House to go DRM-free than the can tell Baen to stop selling DRM-free webscriptions.

  I’m think that ragging on *retailers* over the nature of the product is fruitless; the real education campaign has to target the publishers, agents, and/or authors who dictate things such as licensing terms and TTS as well as DRM.

  Want to crusade against DRM?
  Target the rights holders and their proxies, not their scapegoats.
• HeavyG says:

  July 28, 2009 at 2:52 pm

  It’s become obvious over the last few months that David really does seem to believe that Amazon and B&N really could just drop DRM with the snap of their fingers.

  I can just picture those secret late-night meetings where Bezos sits at the head of a conference table surrounded by publishers and, while he strokes his moustache, orders the publishers to put DRM on all their books. Or can I only see that when I put my tinfoil hat on?
• Felix Torres says:

  July 29, 2009 at 8:01 am

  I wouldn’t go as far as saying its a tin-foil hat thing.

  Amazon does act as a publisher for a fair amount of ebook editions and we don’t really know the terms of their licensing; it would not be impossible that their licenses specifically state that the ebooks will be DRM’ed solely to Kindle in return for a lower price, hence enabling the $9.99 price point.
  But that unlikely, *hypothetical* deal would be a trade-off, not a mandate. A deal between buyer and seller, not a unilateral command. If anybody is issuing commands, DRM-wise, it is more likely to be the paranoid publishers and their lawyers than Amazon. (They’re the ones that got smacked with the rolled-up newspaper over TTS, no?)

  There is zero evidence that such a deal has been made but it is not 100% impossible. However, B&N and Fictionwise and the horde stampeding into the Adobe ADE camp don’t have even that hypothetical unlikely excuse for their use of DRM; they offer up the exact same limitations but they wrap them in higher prices less features (no dictionary! need I say more?) and *less* convenience.

  Anybody want to rage at Amazon, go ahead.

  But as far as villains in the ebook drama they’re pretty far down the list.

  Me, I can easily name a half-dozen bigger obstacles to ebook nirvana, just off the top of my head. And I’m barely awake yet…
• David Rothman says:

  July 29, 2009 at 9:41 am

  Felix and HeavyG:

  Well, despite my intense opposition toward DRM, Amazon is imposing it on my publisher and me in the Kindle store. It’s there even though we don’t want it! Who says Amazon isn’t without clout here? Trouble is, it uses the clout in the wrong ways.

  At any rate, by featuring nonDRMed titles from consenting publishers and promoting the genuine ownability of these books, Amazon could reduce the influence of the DRM-crazed control freaks. Look at Amazon’s DRMless MP3 store.

  Thanks,
  David