How Blockbuster was superior to Netflix
drm ebook libraries · 9 comments · 500 words · read ~226 times.
It's a Friday night in the late 1990s and my teenaged friend group are bored. We're not cool enough to hang about in the park drinking cider. And we're not nerdy enough to play D&D. We don't have enough money to go to the cinema.
What we do have is a Blockbuster card and, between us, just enough cash to rent a newly released movie. Eight of us pile into the local Blockbuster and begin to scavenge the shelves. DVDs have yet to appear in our sleepy town, so we hold up chunky VHS boxes for appraisal.
"The English Patient?" "Rubbish."
"Trainspotting?" "Seen it."
"The Full Monty?" "My mum won't let me watch that."
"Titanic?" "Oooooh! Go on then!"
I took the empty carcass up to the desk. The incredibly worldly-wise 19 year old looked at us disdainfully. "Sorry mate, out of stock."
You see, hard as it may be to believe, the local Blockbuster franchise had underestimated the popularity of Titanic. They'd purchased a dozen copies to rent out. Once those walked out the door, that was it. We could ask them to ring us when a tape was returned - but we'd be at the bottom of a long waiting list.
So we leafed through a few display racks and went home with the kid's film about a genie, "Shazaam". It wasn't very good, as I recall.
If only Netflix were like that! Imagine if you tried to watch Stranger Things and were told that too many people were streaming the first episode. Netflix will notify you when there's a slot available. In the meantime, why not watch "Clarissa Explains It All"?
Wouldn't that be brilliant! Netflix could restrict demand, make things artificially scarce, and just generally make a worse user experience for everyone.
Wait... no... that'd be shit!
And yet, that's exactly how digital library books work in the UK!
Look, perhaps a Netflix for books wouldn't work; it's harder to read than it is to stick on TV in the background. But there's a healthy library scene in the UK. Authors get paid when people borrow their books. So why are libraries restricted to only loaning out a limited number of copies at once?
There's a part of me - a very small part - which can see the utility in this. If everyone could borrow the latest Dan Brown smash-hit all at once, would they ever explore any further? When you're told "Sorry, we don't have that - but you might like..." it could expand your reading horizons.
But that's a weak argument. With an endless supply of books, people can choose what they want to read, when they want to read it.
There is no digital scarcity. We need to rid the world of this analogue thinking.
Merton Hale says:
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