What you’re suggesting is the end of the Comic Shop as we know it … as well, DC/Warner and Marvel/Disney have plenty of money, comics are a tiny fraction of their income …
Comics are a tangible collectible … collectors collect … vinyl records still sell, that’s a good example …
Vinyl is such a niche market. Smaller market. Music is mainly bought/streamed digitally. And yes, b&m Comic Shops will eventually die if they dont adapt.
Comics are as much as a niche market as vinyl … $448 million in 2019 on vinyl …
I think I’ll consider devoting an area to vinyl …
Just announced today…and a big F U to Diamond, which I like 
https://www.newsarama.com/49625-dc-announces-its-plans-to-deal-with-coronavirus.html
I love vinyl… I work with several people who love vinyl as well. It’s bigger than you realize.
I also love making sure that people who claim digital is better are wrong (at least on a certain level). Okay sure, digital allows you to take on the run, in the car, etc but most forget that digital you actually still lose Hz on the sound waves.
Depending on the compression ratio for digital music, the kHz sound wave when compared looks like this (the formats are a little outdated but still give a good idea):
Now, as drives get bigger and smaller, people can record at higher kHz but until then, this is why vinyl has that “warmer” sound to it as most describe it. It hits more frequencies that our ears can pick up.
Also most forget that vinyl is already in analog format, so there’s no conversion when it’s being played out of ones speakers (which are also analog, well, most are since digital speakers are not as popular yet and still pricey). Most digital formats have to convert back to analog to play through the ear plugs, headphones or speakers, thus losing quality in the process.
I don’t know anyone who wants to waste 300MB for one song in MP3 format, so that’s why you see most digital formats around the 192kHz rate to keep the file sizes smaller. Streaming services also stream in lower kHz to keep bandwidth down.
Sorry, I just love my vinyl music, didn’t mean to go on the rant. It’s also pretty awesome cause most now include a digital download anyways. I like owning digital music but it’s even better when I have it in a physical form too that will likely last longer than me.
I’ve thought about starting a Vinyl Website… hmmm…
Vinyl Heating Up?
Looks like DC is still going ahead with releasing books digitally.
I flipped what remained of my vinyl collection, about 2 years ago, for an NYX3 9.6. I was amazed at some of the prices I was offered for my records, especially given that it was a local, smaller shop.
I can say with all certainty that if comics were not available to the direct market when I got back into comics in 2016, then I would not be reading or collecting comics, and I would have never ever have gone out and bought a digital (ew, gross) copy of anything. I think a lot of readers are like me, they buy the floppies or trades because you like that tangible object in your hand. Digital is so unreliable across so much of the landscape, it would be a marketing nightmare/disaster if comics ever tried to go 100 digital, imo. I truly believe that the main publishers would lose more customers than they would gain, by far, if they were to eliminate floppies and go strictly digital. They’ve probably done an analysis of this on their own, hence why floppies still hang around. As soon as you change that medium, you are changing the essence of the product itself. And comic books aren’t comic books if they are not available in book form. M2c.
If comics go 100% digital…I’m out.
If I want to stare at a screen I’ll play games, browse or watch a movie,
Not to say comics can’t work as digital…just seems like digitally there are other things competing for your screen time…I feel like holding a comic or a TPB is even a form of escape from he digital world that is part of their allure.
One time I traded some vinyl records for comics. There is some cross-over in the communities for sure.
“Their warehouses are still open, as are their printers, and there have been rumours some time that Penguin Random House has wanted to buy Diamond Comic Distributors.”
Well, this pandemic might of saved them some money, might not need to buy Diamond now…
That won’t ever happen. There’s still the collector market. I wouldn’t be completely out myself but it would certainly change what I’m buying digitally (which is very rare).
The only reason I don’t buy digital books now for the most part is:
a) Most come with a digital code (at least Marvel, DC seems to be doing it more now as well)
b) Too expensive. Digital by far costs less than paper and ink and the production/shipping of the book, so selling the digital books for the same price as the physical copies is a turn away for me.
Of course publishers would love to sell digital only or more digital, if they don’t change the price of the books, their profit margins are bigger.
His son Josh seems to be the same. I have had one dealing with him and it wasn’t very positive.
I am out to if they go digital. Can’t collect digital comics. Cannot resell. Nothing of value to them. Would you buy digital baseball cards? (Not that there is a market for them)
Like I’ve said, we share a DNA strand … I’ve collected vinyl since the 1960’s, still use an old, yet really state of the art, Sony PS-X75 that I bought new many years ago … Marantz Pre-Amp / Amp …
It does strip the collectability from them but the value is the read, which is sufficient for some people.