I need some advice. I have been told by a few people that I should remove DRM from my website.
The points these people made to removing DRM from my site are:
[LIST=1]
Help me guys! I’m a small fish among the big guys doing this all on my own!
-Collin
Re: Remove DRM?
The only reason I see to have it is whether it increases retention. So, does it increase retention? If not, get rid of it.
Remember, Apple killed DRM… I think that says everything anyone needs to know.
Re: Remove DRM?
I believe both Sean Cody and Corbin Fisher removed DRM, and if they didn’t see the value in it, I would think a smaller site like yours would benefit. Surfers aren’t really fond of DRM and most review sites seem to be citing “no DRM” as a sales benefit.
Michael
Re: Remove DRM?
Collin,
I have three sites, all spanking related, and I use DRM on two of them. The sites that use DRM do not have better retention, nor do they outsell or undersell the other. In short, in my experience, it performs about the same with or without it.
HOWEVER, on my DRM sites, I am able to offer lower priced trials of a day, three days, or 12 days, without worrying about my content being all over the place or everything being downloaded by someone with a $9.00 trial.
As far as your three points above:
Find a DRM that will work with Macs. Mine does. Mac users have no problem using our DRM site at all. I would not have DRM on my site if it did not work with Macs, because I use a Mac.
Although ANY DRM software could be hacked by those who really want to make the effort, I have found that it discourages people from doing so. Why take the time and risk to crack my DRM when there are lots of other spanking sites out there that do not offer it. We currently use a proprietary system of Flash that is produced by VideoApp.net and have been using it now for about 3 years or so.
I have found that while reviewers do not seem to like DRM, and always mention it negatively in their reviews, in three years I can honestly tell you that I have NEVER had an email from someone that said they would not join my site because it has DRM. I can’t even think of anyone complaining about it at all except for a few reviewers.
IMHO, As a small guy, your content is your only asset. To not DRM it is a mistake.
But I know others disagree with me, but I have had good luck with our DRM sites. (And have NEVER seen one of my DRM videos on a tube site, etc.) ;O)
Good luck with your decision.
Re: Remove DRM?
michael, i wouldn’t consider your experience to be typical since your sites are tight niches - and those always retain much better than regular sites regardless of drm, infrequent updates or anything else. it’s very different with an amateur guy or college guy site, or a general gay site.
btw, corbinfisher, seancody, fratmen and a bunch of others tried taking drm off and left it off.
Re: Remove DRM?
when we removed DRM about 6 months ago, we saw no change in retention, but a considerable increase in joins. only regret is not doing it sooner… our helpdesk is so much quieter these days
Re: Remove DRM?
Honestly, I fail to see any reason to use DRM. I totally understand the reasoning behind it but it doesn’t actually work out as one would have hoped.
If people really want to save and / or share your movies illegally its VERY easy to crack the DRM.
The real problem with using DRM is that it’s very likly that you will be pissing off the ones who are actually paying for porn. The ones who don’t pay and share stuff, won’t be stopped by DRM or Streaming for that matter.
Re: Remove DRM?
[QUOTE=basschick;58633]michael, i wouldn’t consider your experience to be typical since your sites are tight niches - and those always retain much better than regular sites regardless of drm, infrequent updates or anything else. it’s very different with an amateur guy or college guy site, or a general gay site.
.[/QUOTE]
Very true I suppose.
Re: Remove DRM?
[QUOTE=gaydemon;58637]
If people really want to save and / or share your movies illegally its VERY easy to crack the DRM.
The real problem with using DRM is that it’s very likly that you will be pissing off the ones who are actually paying for porn. The ones who don’t pay and share stuff, won’t be stopped by DRM or Streaming for that matter.[/QUOTE]
While I agree that anyone who wants to crack your DRM and has the resources probably will, I still just don’t believe that the average site user has that ability. Or maybe I am just being naive. It could be that we are a micro niche, but our members tend to be older guys that can barely operate a computer (always the exception of course) and I doubt they could. But that really is not the point anyway.
I think BassChick hit the nail on the head. I can use DRM because I am a micro-niche and have content that can’t be found elsewhere, whereas more mainstream sites have a lot more competition and therefore a lot more issues to think about.
Re: Remove DRM?
My advice in this business is to cater to your majority of members not your minority. There will always be a minority that want to steal everything. DRM doesn’t really stop them.
If you are talking the WMV DRM then I would drop that shit yesterday. What a royal pain in the ass that is.
Re: Remove DRM?
Colin,
My advice is to try using RTMPE Flash streaming video first and see what happens. RTMPE is a noncaching encyrpted stream that prevents downloads. You can add downloads later if needed. First see if your users are okay with just being able to stream the content before giving all your content away without DRM.
You need to ask yourself…is one months members fee worth giving away all your content? For $29.95 should your members be able to download and own forever all the content on your site?
Re: Remove DRM?
Is this where I post a pirate bay link to the program that can record RTMPE content?
Re: Remove DRM?
I think that giving up drm is like taking drugs: feeling good in the short term but devastating in the long term.
Let me share with you a little experiment. Go to alexa.com and get the stats for Sean Cody, make sure to click the “reach” tab and the maximum lenght of time. You’ll see two years of Sean Cody history, and you’ll see the dramatic drop in their number of visitors.
Now compare them (using the Alexa’s comparison tool) with Corbin Fisher and Randy Blue.
What do you see: Randy Blue decreases much much less than the other two.
Randy Blue is the only one still using drm. It’s a limited version, they release from drm those customers who stay for 3 months. But it’s still an important restriction.
I read once a week some customer yelling for our use of drm. I politely answer that we won’t give up drm. I’m not interested in a customer paying $28 to download 215 players and 18 duos.
It’s true that drm can be cracked. Buy it’s enough limitative as to discourage. The only Authentic Footballers videos you can easily find in the web are those of our drm free days, new ones are very difficult to find.
While it’s true that those who got rid of drm did not go back to it, it’s also true that once you released your stuff in the net, going back it’s almost impossible.
Just like drugs 
Jorge Bianco
Authentic Footballers
Re: Remove DRM?
DRM has always been a money-maker for the people who developed the technology, but has usually cost the folks who use it.
Within days of a new algo to encode, there is freely available the match to decode.
If you hit alt.playgirl.com, you’ll prolly see a large number of Sean Cody video available.
And in the grande scheme of things, DRM adds one more hoop to jump through for the subscriber.
We tend to test things in the morning, during office hours, but most users test them during peak evening hours when servers are busy, and suffer horrendous results.
That’s why DRM has been knocked so soundly by reviewers.
Best thing you can do with video is use a pervasive logo or watermark that appears in a place that cannot be “rescreened” away.
(Some pirates take an input video and simply re-render it to exclude a logo or watermark near the edge.)
People will still steal and re-post, but at least it’s advertisement if they can’t crop out the logo.
Re: Remove DRM?
rofl:whip:lol:bang:
Re: Remove DRM?
As a reviewing affiliate who sees more sales with sites who don’t use DRM than with sites who do, I say get rid of it. While I do mention if a site uses DRM or not in my reviews (I have to if it’s the truth), I don’t harp on it and will always try to find something positive to compensate with. Sometimes the embedded videos are better quality anyway if a site has them.
For a tight niche site, I can certainly see it. But for sites who feature fairly generic content (for lack of a better term), it just kills sales. There are other exclusive sites offering the same niche who don’t use DRM. Who is the surfer going to sign up with? Most likely the latter site.
Re: Remove DRM?
I would also like to point out, when a guy has his dick in his hand, wanting porn, do people REALLY take DRM and wether they can keep the content afterwards into consideration?
Re: Remove DRM?
If he’s got his dick in his hand he’s probably not happy that he has to wipe the lube off his hand to re-enter his password.
Michael
Re: Remove DRM?
[QUOTE=dzinerbear;58888]If he’s got his dick in his hand he’s probably not happy that he has to wipe the lube off his hand to re-enter his password.
Michael[/QUOTE]
Oh Michael… You have a way with words that gave me a good laugh.
Re: Remove DRM?
I’ve said it many times… DRM only stops the people who WANT to pay for your content from using it how they want to use it.
People want to download that movie, be able to view it on their laptop even when they don’t have a connection, watch it on their cell phone in the airplane restroom, watch it full screen on their Big Screen TV and keep it forever. If you’re using a technology that stops them from doing that, they’ll find your content elsewhere.