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What does the Sony CD Plant Closing mean for Independent Film?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 6:15AM 
When Sony announced the closing of its CD manufacturing plant in South Jersey (Pitman, NJ to be exact) last week, it was easy to understand how this change will affect the local economy there. Nearby restaurants and other businesses who depend on serving the 300 employees who will be laid off by Spring 2011 expect to experience a decline in revenue but are jobs in Gloucester County the only thing at stake?
It's no surprise that CD sales have gone down due to an increase in music downloads but if Sony's plans to move their CD manufacturing operations to a plant Indiana (where it also moved its DVD manufacturing to last February) are any indication, independent film may be slowly losing the home video distribution market....at least in the form of physical media. Whose to say that Sony's CD and DVD manufacturing plant in Indiana will stay afloat amongst the ever increasing demand for digital media?
Optical discs can still be useful for storing files for backup or archival purposes, especially for those who are not computer savvy, do not own the latest gadgets used for video on demand and digital music downloads and who also may not be interested in using external hard drives to store their files. This seems to be the only sector of consumers that producers and distributors of independent film and their partners (art house theaters and maybe even independent musicians who rely on exposure through motion picture soundtracks) can depend on to help maintain relevancy among consumers in the home video market.
If independent films have to solely depend on movie downloads for revenue, that reality may become a huge challenge, especially for some films with audiences who are not using computers, iPads or modern cell phones with mobile video features such as the elderly. It's much easier to sell a DVD to someone's 70 year-old grandmother because she can pop it in a DVD player that her children gave her for Christmas and enjoy.
It's hard enough getting independent films in front of wide audiences, so this sale to the grandmother may be nearly impossible if she can only get the movie on an iPhone.....a device that she likely would not likely know how to operate, let alone own.
Could offering free digital versions of music CDs and film DVDs make people buy more media in its physical format?
Can Independent Films like "The Kids Are All Right" and "Zen Noir" still thrive if DVD manufacturing goes the same route as CDs, which appear to be on their way out of the marketplace?
Photos by xmacex and whatleydude
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