Updated 8 November 2021
Overview
In this multi-page blog post, I address some of the issues involved with the all-important subject of pricing for fulldome show licenses.
It’s the very essence of our business, and we live and breathe this stuff every day. Tackling a subject like this can be sensitive, but I think it’s worthwhile, for both customers and potential customers, to learn as much they can about the subject.
Here at Loch Ness Productions, we wear two hats in this business. We are show producers ourselves, and we are also distributors — not only of our own shows, but those from other producers too. We provide our shows and licenses directly to the end-user customer, as do most other producers.
Until we came along, most shows were distributed through hardware vendors; today, many still are. But with them, sometimes a higher priority gets placed on things other than show distribution — like selling projector systems (understandably, since larger profit margins may exist there). What can then happen is shows and hardware get bundled together, without clearly calling out the individual prices for each item. The customer is kept unaware of how much shows actually cost. A show may not necessarily get promoted on its own value and merits; instead, it gets used as a sales tool, to make a hardware bid look more appealing.
Well, unlike our “competition”, we don’t sell hardware or equipment. We can’t use shows as bargaining chips to sweeten the deals for new installations. We have nowhere to hide additional markups or profit margins. All we have to sell is the movie license.
I do want to categorically state that we’re NOT interested in trying to thwart the efforts of hardware vendors, or undercut them with prices. After all, they are often our customers too. Many resell our own shows with their systems. I always tell them the more systems they sell, the happier I am. I want them all to be successful. At Loch Ness Productions, we work hard to play fair with everyone — vendor and consumer alike.
Not every distributor can — or wants to — offer every show that’s available. Some shows in our catalog are unique or exclusive to us, but there are others we’ve decided not to carry. And some shows are so popular, they’re offered by “everybody else” too.
Through our efforts in offering some of the best fulldome shows out there, we hope our methods of providing service to customers will continue to meet with success for both them and us.
On to pricing.
On Page 2, we’ll look at who produces fulldome shows, and how producers pay for their productions.
That will lead into Page 3: how — and how much — they (and we) charge for licenses. For many years in the biz, there have been various assumptions made about the marketplace for shows — and I’ve found the logic behind those assumptions ranges from questionable at best, to downright flawed.
Then on Page 4, I’ll counter Page 3’s squishy pricing models with our preferred method, and how I think it’s better, simpler, and fairer to the customer, producer, and the industry as a whole.
On Page 5, I’ll fill you in on how some producers, even while agreeing our method might be better, still insist we use the same old illogical models. Even more baffling, some want to keep us from publishing their prices, hiding them from the customer. You may find some of the arguments they’ve presented to us over the years to be… nettling to say the least.
Finally, I’ll talk on Page 6 about license terms and their varying lengths, how they came to be, and whether or not they’re even logical.
Read on…
Page 1 – Overview
Page 2 – Who produces fulldome movies
Page 3 – What to charge, and squishy pricing models
Page 4 – Our firm T-shirt size pricing model
Page 5 – Publishing prices and objections
Page 6 – Varying license terms
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