Do you like Big Finish audios? Then please read this. And then ask your flist. And ask them to ask their flists. Because it's important.
I first head of Big Finish when I saw the new series, and having loved "Dalek" and leant it was based on a Big Finish audio adventure called "Jubilee", I downloaded three of Shearman's BF dramas to see if I would like them. I dloaded because they were hella expensive to order from the UK and I hadn't been to a con yet where they were for sale and I really genuinely didn't have the money to spare. And I did like them. And this year at Chicago TARDIS I bought a copy of Scherzo, one of the three I'd listened to, because I was flush and I could, and more importantly, because I ought to as a geeky fangirl, if I could afford to. So soon as I am flush, I plan on buying the two other cds I've listened to and liked.
There's one very important difference between downloading telly and downloading Big Finish... Telly is supported in the US by advertising, on cable by subscriptions, on PBS by pledge drives, and DVD sales and the like etc. But Big Finish is supported solely by people actually buying Big Finish cds. And the only way a small production company can keep operating is if they weren't actually losing sales to illegal downloads.
The folks I went to CT with went to the BF panels where the affect illegal downloads has was discussed, and we got together afterwards and decided maybe it was time to try and do something to help rectify the situation. Because we figured if all the folks out there in online fandom who dload BF without then buying legit copies knew the negative impact it was having, maybe they'd change tactics and we'd be able to help a little bit. So, anyway...
If you love BF audios, or even if you just like them, then buy one, and tell your friends to buy one. So they can make more. It's that easy.
Want to sample an audio first? Check out their website and listen to samples. Ask to borrow a friend's copy. Listen to one, to test drive it first. But if you like what you hear, then please buy it. Cos the only way for the company to make more stories is if people buy cds and subscriptions. They are not a huge company. They are, in fact, a handful of people who are working their asses off and trying to create high-quality products with little more than fannish glee and a small studio. They are good people. I quite like them. But even if they weren't, I'd still want to encourage people to actually buy their products instead of downloading them and then not buying them, because they are not in this to make money, so much as they are in this to make Doctor Who adventures (and, for that matter, Sapphire & Steel, The Tomorrow People, Luther Arkwright, Dark Shadows, etc.) because they are geeky fanboys and fanboys, unlike fangirls, don't do fanzines. Instead, they found companies like BBV and Big Finish. And those companies have salaries to pay and rent to pay, and tea and HobNobs to buy. Which they can't, if we don't buy cds or legal onlien downloads directly from them, or subscriptions, or from distributors and at cons.
Right now in the US, the fannish community are all opening our hearts and wallets to support the WGA, in the hopes that writers will get a shot at a fair shake from the studios, get paid for their work, and get paid fairly. And I think it might be a good time to remind fandom that kind of fair play ought to exist across the board. I know fans will always pimp via tape trading and downloads, etc. as a way to increase the size of the fandom, and create more fans. And we all say "and then when it comes out, I'll buy it on DVD," and many of us do put our money where our mouths are. But Sony or the BBC or Disney won't stop making films and telly, if we download.
Big Finish's bottom line, however, is severely impacted by illegal downloads. They can't make more product if folks are getting it for free. Just a simple fact.
And so when we dload and then don't buy legit copies, we are quite literally taking money out of the writers and actors and editors and directors and sound technitians and composers and all the creatives behind BF audio dramas pockets and food out of their mouths. And they're many of them very nice people, and you don't actually want Nick Briggs, Jason Haigh-Ellery, Nigel Fairs, or Scott Alan Woodard to starve, do you? They're nice boys! They need fattening up!
David Tennant may be the Doctor now, but before he was the Doctor, he recorded Big Finish audios. Some of them by literally crashing the recording sessions and begging for a job. Because he's a big geeky fanboy. Just like us. And I really love the idea that we have new Doctor Who now since 2005 in part because Big Finish was creating new Doctor Who then, in 1999, and keeping the fandom alive during the Wilderness Years.
So if you like Big Finish, please consider buying a cd, or pimping them to your local comic book shop. Or buying and donating some to your local library for to hook mroe fans on the crack. Cos it means we'll get more crack later on if we buy the crack now. And I am ALL FOR keeping the crack supply topped up, me.
ETA: ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
neadods has excellent things to say in her journal as well.
And remember, BF doesn't just do audio adventures. They also publish original novels and anthologies and script books, as well as soundtracks. And they've got a massive sale on until 14 January with free UK delivery.
