The April Making A Mark Poll looked at Have you bought a painting DVD? Right click the image to open a larger version of the chart.
The headline results (below) indicate that painting DVDs are not as popular as books or other forms of media delivery of art instruction however around half of those who are interested bought a painting DVD in the last 12 months
Only 82 people responded to the poll - and that's a much lower number than usual
Of those 82 people who responded, the main findings are:
- 65% own a painting DVD (although in reality this is probably less than half the people who normally respond to my monthly polls)
- 48% had bought a painting DVD in the last 12 months. This is a respectable number of people and obviously learning about art via a DVD is here to stay
- 17% have bought a painting DVD in the past but not in the last 12 months. I'm guessing but I think it's quite likely that those who haven't made a repeat purchase of a DVD may well have bought a book in the same time period
- 20% said the main reason why they don't buy painting DVDs is the cost - they're just too expensive.
- lack of choice - people couldn't find any they wanted to buy (which to me echoed the issues re the quality of available books)
- 5% were happy getting their art instruction via free art videos - on places like YouTube and Flickr
- 4% have had or have got problems with getting DVDs which will play on their DVD machines
My overall conclusions are as follows:
- DVDs provide an important format for art instruction and the appreciation of art
- however DVDs are not as important as books
- more people would use this format for learning more about art if they cost less.
- a minority already prefer free art instruction available via the Internet
- people making DVDs need to offer a lot more than is available for free if they are going to secure repeat purchases
What about the future?
The interesting aspect for me is how much the sale of art DVDs will change now that we have more smaller and more mobile laptops and and computers equipment like the iPad available.
I predict that producers of art DVDs are going to have to get to grips with the type of technology which makes films about making art much more accessible.
They certainly need to review pricing models and to work out how people can buy an art DVD in much the same way they can currently buy a track or album from iTunes. Frankly, there simply isn't a need to deliver all films about art on a DVD - and the pricing should certainly reflect this.
More Making A Mark Opinion Polls
You can find more Making A Mark Polls
- either by clicking on this blog category label opinion poll
- or by consulting this site which provides a quick overview of all the monthly Making A Mark Opinion Polls to date
The Making A Mark Poll - Resources for Artists
I agree Katherine, being able to download an Art DVD at a reduced cost - (and in my case avoid having overseas mail lost in Italian customs for months and/or having unpredictable duty applied) could make a great difference.
ReplyDeleteBooks are a treasured part of my life - but actually seeing someone demonstrate a technique is what I'm looking for when I'm trying to learn how to do something.
It's surprising to me that fewer people responded to this survey.
Thank You Katherine, specially for your last comment, about the pricing of DVD that we can download to our computers. I'm retired and have down-sized my life so I don't have the room or funds to buy magazines, DVD, CD etc. I would love to download my favorite magazine to my computer (at a lower cost than delivered ones). I got to stop I'm getting long winded on this subject.
ReplyDeleteThanks Again for "Marking a Mark".