Before and After
Note: I was inspired to write this post after doing some data analysis this website collects from its visitors. I came to the conclusion that the type of people who frequently visit and return to this website is what I would call AWK collectors. This is to you!
Fundamentals
In America and many other countries, we have the luxury of ownership of our own property. Not every country in the world subscribes to this governmental policy. Luckily we do, because I believe within every human being is an innate desire to have ownership of something. One crucial aspect of the general idea of freedom is the ownership of property. If someone or something is telling you that you can’t own something because it is for the greater good of a community (like communism), I could only imagine how thoughts of discouragement and the feelings of suppression it would breed.
Speaking in general, with advances in the internet I’ve found the ability to get pretty much whatever I want for free whether it was illegal or legal. Now, I’m not here to discuss morals or legalities because that topic has already been hashed out everywhere else on the block. What I am here to do is discuss what happens to a humans behavior once they have everything they could possibly think of with the click of a button, which is more often the case than not. I propose that the person will eventually feel and notice that something is missing in all their newly obtained goods. Remember I said ownership of property is innate, whether that is working for you or against you financially.
Archived Material
OK, so within a month you now have every movie, album, photo, software program, or other media you could ever think of for free! Think of it?! Doesn’t that make you insanely rich? No more saving up your paycheck to get the latest CD! Great news right? Well there is a catch, you are no longer as rich as you once thought you were because rich is a relative term and by participating you just put yourself on the same level playing field as everyone else. These types of items are usually available to ALL of the public, its ownership is now shared by a community of people who have it as well. One could rebuttal, Perfect! we now all live in a utopian society and there are no classes of society (haha). Well not exactly, there is one person who is the richest of all, the source. They are differentiated from the rest of the community in two important ways. First, they have an authentic version of the item and second their version is a physical not a virtual copy. Online companies take note, do not underestimate the value of having something both authentic and physical.
I’ll use the example of television-show DVDs. Why is it with websites like hulu.com or ABC.com or NBC.com or Youtube.com which stream pretty much any TV show you want, we still see Best Buys shelves being stocked with various seasons of TV shows? If they were only available on the internet illegally then that would obviously explain the droves of moral people buying these DVDs. Morality has nothing to do with it though, those websites are free (the price is an unobtrusive 20 second ad), legal, and good quality which means no cash, no moral burdens and no getting tangled up in legalities. Isn’t that the perfect solution as a consumer? Obviously not otherwise people wouldn’t be buying the DVDs. One could say that those still buying the physical DVDs are laggards to the virtual market or just haven’t discovered the internet yet. On the contrary I believe those people are simply collectors of something they have a sentimental attachment to. Man, if I was a supplier in the industry that’s who I would be designing a marketing strategy around.
I use to think I was the rich guy by having a hard drive full of whatever I wanted. I’ve since changed my mind this is my story. Whichever subject appealed to me the most I naturally grabbed the most of whatever it was, perhaps from a site like this one. Somethings I really cared about having and somethings I was very casual about caring to have it. The more items I got that I really cared about the more I felt like something was missing, a void odd right? So I continued to collect and collect and collect to fill that void/desire thinking I just needed to collect everything to satisfy the craving. That’s when I realized I was a collector and that’s when something switched, in that moment I went from being a down-loader to a purchaser. I realized various subjects had a sentimental value to me and those items will never be enough in only the form of digital material. The answer to that void was that I needed to see, touch and feel those items. Its proven that people more often purchase on emotion rather than logic (being a collector really isn’t very logical financially)
So how does this relate to AWK and YOU?
From the whole concept of this website to the data I’ve collected and to the people I’ve personally interacted with Ive noticed a theme; they all seem to be collectors of AWK. The casual AWK fan is probably interested in I Get Wet or The Wolf and maybe Close Calls. Once they find that LPs and studio albums aren’t available here they leave and never return. Thats 57% of the people that visit this site. Those who already have purchased those items for themselves seem to stick around and are looking for the more rare items that are related to AWK.
To those that are new to AWK or are in the transition from being an archive retriever to a collector and eventually a purchaser I urge you to make the leap and purchase AWK related content. Im telling you from personal experience that eventually virtually owning something won’t be good enough, especially if its something you really care about and have a sentimental attachment to. You’ll want to be able to hug and hold something physical rather than some unauthentic virtual copy. I guess my point is that there is a strange irony to this type of site, even though there are archived items to the more obscure AWK items, the type of people who regularly visit are the collectors who make the purchases. Again if you’re somewhere in between GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO!
(Click above to go to the official AndrewWK.com store)
I would love to hear your thoughts, please click on the title of this post and leave your comments below: