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[Kelly Knight]

Hock,

If you don't mind me asking, which DVD is the best selling DVD sold by Lauric? And which book? If you'd rather not respond - no problem! Just curious...

Kelly Knight

[Hock]

The Knife/Counter-Knife book has sold thousands of copies worldwide.
It is a niche market that has been attached to my name since the 1990s.

DVD....Dvd....hmmmm.
That's a tough question. Training Mission 1 has been up for sale for some ten years now. So I am not sure but that might be the best DVD seller? only because:

   - most of our martial students are beginner temps, who eventually take up golf or
      get married, whatever. Most will never get to TM 6 or TM4 even.

   - it covers the beginning material and well, see above....

Other DVDs, newer ones, have "spurt sales." When they are new. Most DVD companies will admit that most of what they sell comes from the 6 new titles that they make every three months. Some people flock to buy an obscure theme like Filipino Windmill. Others want First Contact with a slow and steady new interest in that "most common concern" (note the word "slow").

But DVDs are waiting to disappear, smothered by downloads, piracy and Youtube. SMOTHERED. These days, any jakeleg with a movie camera can make a film and post it or try to sell it, utterly confusing and cluttering the market place. Clutter.

I am making DVDs for people right now (even this very morning I am) but I do not sell them, just make them. They try to sell them. I am too jaundiced. I do have some films I would like to make and sell on some people and subjects. They are in the works or have become impossible to organize. They are high niche material.

Hock
(oh meanwhile? All my free training outlines? Thousands a month go out. Cause its free. The "new free." Everyone wants everything for free. At some point somebody has to pay the piper or the band shuts down)  

[Kelly Knight]

Very interesting, thank you very much!

How about among "outside" instructors (McCann, Hubbard, McClemore, etc.). Who is the "big seller" among them? And, do you think it is a direct reflection of "fads" (no bad thing, really, if if it sells DVDs).

And I hear you about downloads/freebies/the future. But, DVDs aren't gone yet! There are still folks that understand the circle of life (or is that commerce?), want to have a physical copy, etc.

I refuse to say the sky is falling!

I think the amount that you are charging (not too much, but not too little) surely must make for better sales and impetus to create more.

Would you agree that at the end of the day, that creativity and the desire to share information overrides the realities of piracy? Not everyone can create a great work of art, martial or otherwise...

Kelly Knight

[Hock]

Marc Hallack's Silat DVDs. Which re-enforces my prior niche speech. We have sold them to far off islands in the south Pacific. We have to look them up to see if they are real.

Dvds are not gone yet and part of this is because media makers can't select the next medium. We all know its download. We all know this for sure, but there are no privacy protections, no real hope for them, right now and everyone is in a wait-and-see mode. I am.

Quite a number of these protected, download and watch sites went out of business this last year. The company that did this with our Nick Hughes download's...went out of business in December. Yet Netflix works in this streaming mode. mode. BUT they have a vast and varied library.

The MMA fad and DVDs (and youtube and piracy) has SWAMPED everyone in MMA. Think about this. 8 years ago a UFC champ could make a DVD series and it would sell. Now, not only do we not know the latest, ever-changing, super UFC champ, his DVD series would not sell well, because he is overwhelmed in an exploded market.

I (and I know others) would not produce a MMA film now because of this. The same goes with guns, or even knife stuff. The unarmed world is CLUTTERED, SLAM-DUNKED with cloned jakelegs standing in front of a "bob-dummy," with a martial art school wall behind them, (you know the paint jobs) cranking out palm strike videos like they are the cure for cancer - or at least canker sores.

What many are doing, are making training films for their schools and programs. At least their hands-on people may need the films and buy them.


"Would you agree that at the end of the day, that creativity and the desire to share information overrides the realities of piracy?"

I am not sure I understand the question, in terms of "the realities of privacy."
But it sounds situational. Creativity about what and the desire to share what?
In the end, the end desire of everything being free and shared actually may lead to the end of that thing.

We all love Spiderman 3. Generation Z gets a free, early copy and runs it for free virally.
Whoopieeeee! Off it goes to the giggling, get-over, "deserving shared world." Trouble now is no one can afford to make Spiderman 4, because the makers are working at gas stations to pay their electric bill. But we love Spiderman....

In the end, somebody has to pay the piper or the band shuts down.

Hock

[Tansau]

Something that's being experimented with right now in the martial arts industry (among others) is training materials as Apps on mobile devices. There are a handful out there for iPhone, iPad, Android devices, etc.

Some are really good, with a blend of video content, text articles, animations, and even utilities like drill- or round-timers built in. Others are simply wrappers around video clips. I've got training apps for BJJ, Wing Chun and Filipino Martial Arts on my iPhone now, and the quality is likely to increase as the market grows.

Verizon just announced that they'll have the iPhone next month, which is going to dramatically expand that market in the US. With serious copy-protection built into the platform, this might be the next big frontier for publishers.

[Hock]

So Tansau...

Let's say you were planning a JKD application.
What would you put on it?

Hock

[Kelly Knight]

I find it fascinating that Halleck's material is the big seller. And you say you send a lot overseas? That is pretty cool!

Anything can be copied. Even if it takes a bunch of monks locked in a tower for years to do it.  I can't imagine it will be hard to copy off of an iDevice.

What I'm asking is if you, personally, are finding it so disheartening regarding the pirating issues that you're considering stoppage of future DVD or book projects? Doesn't sound like you are (you said you're seeing what happens next...?).

That sounds good to me. But, if I am correct, you have wisely kept costs controllable at Lauric and don't have to pay a large staff, warehousing, etc. Like Panther and the like.

Is all of that correct, Hock?

Kelly Knight

[Hock]

Halleck is not a BIG seller. Just a consistent seller through time. Ne wtiles have a flash-in-the-pan effect, then drift off. This is really an industry standard. Like Harry Potter.

The situation of copying is disheartening because you have little control over anything you create, especially if it is in a PDF and in streaming style downloads.

The copying really depends a lot on what the subject matter is and who the customers are. Some subjects are copied immediately and copiers are laughing about it while they are doing it. Some subjects are not copied much. It really depends on the subject matter. Who will copy and spread a knitting DVD? Unfortunately this martial business has customers with a propensity to copy and share. We've seen this as far back as the old video tapes in the 1980s.

To give you an idea. About 6,000 copies of one of my books were downloaded off a share-site during a one month, time period. Free. Thank you very much. Keep in mind I am trying to get a kid through college and live quite modestly. I don't need 6,000 goldbricks* stealing my book. And you know these 6000 goldbricks know thousands of other goldbricks and zippy-do-da. I become a semi-famous...pauper.

Yes everything can be copied. The goal is to make it as hard as possible for most goldbricks. Remember awhile back I thought about using encrypted flash drives instead of DVDs. But the flash drives are still pretty expensive. It would take extra work to crack the encryption and I think no one cares enough on my stuff to bother. People are more and more plugging flash drive into their TVs, computers ans everything

But I am still going to make some titles, but in the flavor of the school model I mentioned earlier. Our guys wanted our material. And I want to make some niche films of other people, ones with potential to be interesting.

Hock
(* goldbrick-a soldier who performs his duties without proper care or effort
shirker, slacker-a person who shirks his work or duty)

[Tansau]

You guys are right, any type of media can be copied. We saw it with VHS, seeing it now with DVDs. The mobile device Apps may have a better run due to the hardware controls on the DRM (digital rights management). For instance, you can crack the DRM on an iPhone app, but then you have to "jailbreak" the iPhone OS to be able to use it. WAY too much trouble for most people, so it becomes more hassle than it's worth to copy.

DRM-enabled Apps on the iPhone/iPad and books on platforms like Kindle and Nook are getting more and more attention from publishers for this exact reason.

Another strategy is to find a way to create value even when media is "shared." One option is to use a blend of affiliate incentives, preview packages and value-add. For instance, say you're selling video coursework on a DOWNLOAD site. Everyone who buys the course gets instantly enrolled in an automatic affiliate program.

Although it does happen, most people don't try to profit by selling illegal copies, they simply share it for prestige, etc. So offer the ability to "be cool" by sharing the latest discovery, but offer a tangible incentive. Rather than share the actual media, have a "preview package" that can be shared along with the unique affiliate links. Then when someone shares the media they can earn cash or credits for the referral with zero effort on their part.

The trick is to make sure that there's additional value to actually purchasing the course. For instance, in addition to the video download file, paid customers also get access to a password-protected website where they can access additional, non-video course materials and perhaps even interact with other students and instructors. The last part makes sense if part of an online school or university model.

RE: App Content:
Apps that try to cover lots of ground are little more than a novelty. For instance, someone spent a ton of cash to produce an app called "Wing Chun Master," which was really pretty and touched on a lot of topics, but had no depth. Novelty.

The apps that are truly useful are very specific. To use the BJJ apps as an example, the good ones are designed to go right out on the mats with you as a practical reference while you're training. They're very specific. One app for sweeps, another for escapes, one just for leg-locks.

A JKD app wouldn't be one app, it'd be a suite of apps covering a range of different topics at different skill levels (theory and principles, foundation footwork, basic strikes, basic kicks, and so on.).

[Kelly Knight]

Ack! I didn't really mean to dig up the old piracy topic again. There is no simple or decisive answer to that discussion at this point and goes around and around in circles.

Still, all very interesting. So, Hock, given that DVDs have a short higher profit timespan (then some apparently settle into a consistent sales pattern), why not produce more? Keep production values reasonable, continue to have a "per buyer" sales model (producing what you need, when you need it) and creating an even larger catalog.

If DVDs sell big, then fade, then why not just keep pumping out more and more and more? Like the old Panther and (insert any big MA video production house here) videos - except without the high(er) overhead. I understand that this is probably a time/energy/effort issue, but by this time you're surely pretty good at it. And you're in a pretty unique position, given your international network of long-time MA instructors.

Is Laun's Combat Stretching the newest non-Hock offering? Will you be offering a series with him on that subject? Not to beat a dead horse, but why just offer one DVD once the "sales peak" has come and gone? Why not slowly release a series?

Or, maybe that's basically what you are already doing?

Kelly Knight

[Hock]

"There is no simple or decisive answer to that discussion at this point and goes around and around in circles."

There is a simple answer. "Don't steal my shit. Don't steal other people's shit." It is not right and not fair. That is simple. No circle.

This new world of the "new free" basically means, giving away something free along with something else. For example, I give away these free training outlines, which are "rough" but very clean and do have tens and tens of how-to color photos in them. I get in turn...their contact info. Which statistically doesn't yield all that much. But does capture some of the thousands of unnamed guests that zip through here.

BUT, get this...the other day, a rapid share outfit with false ID info got all of the outlines from us too and soon they will be listed on a rapid, free-share program. These other copy skunks then immediately get the new free files off of each other for their sites. Rape the rapers. So I no longer get the benefit of offering the outlines under the "New Free" idea. Thank you very much rapers. 

Naive people will say, "that promotes you and makes you famous, Hock." Well, yes and no. It is the same problem with stolen music. Your music sales go down, but you might have a bigger concert crowd. But the bands have to hit the road longer and harder (and me too).  I go somewhere about once a week now and have some fun each time, but I don't know how much longer I can do this at this pace.

Hock

[Hock]

We do release things slowly but....

My original plan was to reach specialists in every MA field and do a series with them. One military (like Nick Hughes -though his material transcends military) one Karate, one Thai, and so on. Just have one really good, cool  expert in each field.

But the last few years have changed that. Youtube is a BIG problem. When someone has a question about wrist locks, they look up 40 wrist lock video clips for free on youtube. This is a huge percentage of potential sales gone.

- Next, Nick Hughes DVD gets copied a zillion times.

- Next the economy sucks because government is to big and we pay too much tax.
   (geez, I hope a politician doesn't get shot because of that comment)

In a nutshell is why I quit my original idea. My idea becomes unsupportable. I can't spend the time, money and effort on this idea. I must do other things to survive.

And then suddenly - they quit making Spiderman movies. And Generation Z wonders why?

Hock

[Hock]

And Tansau...

On the App thing...

These phone apps have both video clips and written articles?
Does this content have to be updated constantly?
Can it be updated?
Is the App really just a link to a web page?

Hock

[Kelly Knight]

Very interesting, Hock. So, for you, the business model changes once again...

Especially when it relates to multimedia. Doesn't sound like it's really worth producing a book or a DVD at this point. No profit...?

Nobody comes to study with me because of a book or a DVD that I've produced (in fact, I have never produced a video or book that wasn't for private consumption only). They either hear about me by word of mouth or a standard business search (by whatever method that may be). Sounds to me that there isn't much compelling reason to do so at this date and time.

Thanks for the information and sharing your experiences!

Kelly Knight

[arnold]

I always thought that my picture, gun in hand, along the lines of "Have Gun, Will Travel" would be the all time best seller. Just think about how well the infamous line of "Times Up, Weenie Boy " did!