Most people don't understand that when they "purchase" a movie from their cable TV provider or another subscription service that they aren't buying a movie.

They feel it's like picking up a DVD off the shelf at the store and paying for that physical thing and taking it home is essentially the same thing.

It's not.

When you "buy" a movie through a subscription service, you are essentially getting a long-term rental. You have a license to view that show. A license that doesn't transfer and you can't take with you.

When I moved to Canada, I wanted to bring all our DVDs, but Kari argued with me.

"When was the last time you watched a DVD?"

It's true, it had been a very long time. But just in case the Internet took a while to get hooked up, I didn't want to be TV-less in Nova Scotia.

My bet paid off.

While we wait for our internet installation to come sometime in May or June, we've been watching a lot of DVDs.

Had we "purchased" those movies through Comcast or Verizon or whoever the provider was, we wouldn't have those to watch now. The license isn't good to use with other cable providers, and it certainly isn't any good when you move to another country.

Even most of Faith's kid's games on her Amazon Fire tablet don't work here because you don't OWN them. You own a license to use them, and that license is both provider-specific and regional.

So What Does This Have To Do WIth NFTs?

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token.

Basically, it is a way to keep track of original things with a digital token, kind of like a one-of-a-kind certificate of authenticity.

People are speculating that NFTs will have value because they are original and they are snapping them up in purchases for anything from bragging rights, to see how they work, as investments, or even just because they want to show off to others that they can afford a lot of money for an otherwise worthless digital thing.

So far, from what I know about them, which is more than 99.99% of people on the planet, they have no current legal standing in ownership except as a way to show "proof" that you purchased a thing from someone. This means the legal recourse of a bad transaction or scam is still pretty risky. Purchasing through a marketplace can help. And we'll talk about that more in another upcoming newsletter. :)

NFTs don't have to just track digital goods. They can just as easily track a physical item. NFTs are a system to keep track of unique things. You will see them popping up in the Art world, trading and sports cards, online games, and anywhere else that tracking a unique item helps to secure its value.

If there was an NFT marketplace for a copy of a movie you purchased (maybe a movie ticket?), that would allow you to take the rights to the movie with you to any provider. I'm not building this thing, but if you do, please send me a small commission on the zillions of dollars you make fixing the movie rental business.

Apple Podcast Subscriptions

That's right. Starting in just a couple of weeks, you'll be able to pay for something that used to be free!

Podcast subscriptions are coming to Apple Podcasts. There are other paid podcast services like Amazon's Audible, Luminary, just to name a couple.

If you want the entire rundown on it, check out my Medium article on the topic here. And remember, you can also find out about our Podcast Mastery Course if you're interested in starting your own podcast. (and maybe now getting paid for it)

Of course, if you aren't "buying" the podcasts, just subscribing to them. So like those movies you "purchased" from your cable TV provider, you have to keep paying the piper or you'll lose your license. That said, your movie subscription isn't going to come out with new episodes all the time, so in this case, paying a buck or two for a podcast is probably worth the creation of good content.

For movies, if you want to keep them, you better pick up that DVD, because as Netflix subscribers discovered in the last couple of years, Disney could pull their license and open their own service and make you pay them again for the content you already paid Netflix to see.

~Matt