Consumers Value Photos Much More Than Music [Study]
Although consumers spend billions of dollars on digital music annually, 74% percent value photos or documents over music, according to a new survey from cloud storage provider MiMedia.
Other findings of the study include:
- 45% of adults polled said their photos, videos, music and documents are worth over $1,000
- When asked which digital files are most important, 41% said photos, followed by 33% for documents, 19% for music and 8% for videos.
- 72% have experienced data loss due to crashed/malfunctioning devices (66%) or lost/stolen computers (7%)
"The irreplaceable nature of pictures gives them a higher assigned value" said Erik Zamkoff, Founder and CEO of MiMedia explaining the results. 1,200 adults were surveyed between June 16 and July 8, 2011.
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Can I just take a moment to say that this is a complete non-story?
Seriously. Once a picture you took yourself and never backed up or posted somewhere is gone, it’s gone. Lose a music file and you can download it from PiratezRUs, for free in a matter of minutes. It’s almost like you never lost it in the first place.
So exactly why are these results supposed to be interesting to us?
Anything I created is more valuable to me than something someone else created. As it stands most people are reasonably ok at creating a digital image, thus their creations are more valuable to them than other digital “things” they have.
I think this is a very interesting subject. As time and technology have moved on, it’s become easier for more people to create things, even at a standard that can come close or even sometimes surpassing what was held as the standard of professionals of the past. Anything mass produced that isn’t vital to a person’s survival is becoming less and less valuable. It’s the reason why concerts are still seeing revenue and the sale of music is down. The individual experience and the rare acquisitions are what people value more and that’s really how it should be.
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I disagree that the “mass production” angle is much of a factor.
It’s more a case of “how much is this worth to me and how easily can I replace this”.
Your car is going to be much more valuable than your photos – even though it is mass-produced while your photos will be lost forever if you don’t have the negative/back-up copy – simply because you’re going to be seriously out of pocket buying a new one.
Replacing a lost digital music collection is easy and costs nothing if you don’t bother to do it legally (and a lot of people don’t). Losing your rare, out-of-print vinyl collection, on the other hand (mass-produced, mind) – that’s gonna sting.
Incidentally, the reason music sales are down is that you don’t need to buy music to acquire it. Music collections are bigger than ever, it’s just that people aren’t paying for them. Individual creativity has nothing to do with it.
Heh… good call on the car and good point! 😉
I did, however, state it mattered when it came to things that people didn’t depend on to survive and a lot of us depend on our cars to work and therefore live! 😉