Amazon Cancelling MOD Releases (1 Viewer)

[Todd J Moore]

Being an indie filmmaker myself who has used the Amazon MOD program for years (and CreateSpace before they were morphed into Amazon), I got an email today that does not make me happy. Amazon is stopping it's MOD program in favor of streaming. They will stop taking new MOD titles as of March 31, 2021 and stop selling MOD discs altogether on June 4. This doesn't just affect small guys like me, it also means that things like the Universal Vault MOD series will be going away as well. So if there are any MOD titles you want, now's the time to get them apparently.

 

[David Weicker]

Can you provide this email.

I had heard that Amazon would no longer be creating their own MOD copies of items, but I had also heard that MOD discs would now be created by another manufacturer (Alliance).

Did they really state they would not sell MOD titles created by someone else?

 

[Todd J Moore]

Dear Content Owner,

We are writing to inform you that we have made the decision to close Media On Demand (MOD) based on customer and content owner feedback, specifically their preference for digital streaming services vs. physical discs. We wanted to provide you with as much notice as possible and help you prepare for this change. While we will stop accepting new titles on March 31, 2021, you will still be able to sell your existing titles through June 4, 2021. These dates may be subject to change so make sure to check the closure schedule for more details and updates on our closure status.

Please also check your account information to ensure it’s up to date to receive your royalty earnings.

For the closure schedule and additional details, visit our Help page: https://manufacturing.amazon.com/help. You can also Contact Us for further assistance: https://manufacturing.amazon.com/contact

We thank you for your content contributions.

Regards,
Amazon Media on Demand

That's the email. I wonder if I go over to one of the other services like Alliance if my discs would show up on Amazon or if it would be the consumer buys direct from my website and Alliance ships to them?

 

[dana martin]

sorry that you got sent that bit of bad news, now i am wondering how that is going to effect other products that Amazon has in the past and currently has such and, the newly announced Paramount titles, manufactured on demand , Warner Archive releases, the Universal back catalog that gets that, and Sony has done a few as well.


end of the month, maybe this will become more of a concern when people realize that another chance of a physical release has been removed in favor of pushing a digital only agenda,

 

[David Weicker]

based on the text, this doesn't seem to apply to Studio based content, but more independent content

 

[Todd J Moore]

If I'm reading things right over at the Prime Video Direct Page, they aren't allowing shorts to be submitted anymore over there. I'm hating Amazon more and more by the second.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

based on the text, this doesn't seem to apply to Studio based content, but more independent content

Pretty much.

Sounds like they're not going to accept any more titles they'd need to produce, but the MoD titles from the big studios all come through a distributor just like any other of their releases.

 

[Robin9]

Amazon is in business to do business. If MOD discs are produced by companies like Warner Archive, Sony or Universal, Amazon will sell them.

 

[jayembee]

It was my impression that Amazon (previously) would actually license the right to manufacture (burn) their own copies of MOD discs from the studios that were doing such (Warner, Universal, Fox, Sony, et alia). That made it easier to sell and ship without having to wait for the label in question to provide the actual discs. I'm curious whether they'll be stopping that now.

At any rate, there are other places that manufacture (and sell) MOD discs for labels (MovieZyng is one). If you, for example, order a pressed DVD or BD from Flicker Alley, FA will process the order and ship it to you. If you order one or more of their MOD BD-Rs or DVD-Rs, the order gets sent over to MovieZyng for processing.

And there are other etailers, like oldies.com, that sell any number of MOD titles.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Well they started streaming the tv series Life and Times of Wyatt Earp and then discontinued selling the MOD DVD's of the 6 seasons. Which I found out the hard way as I still need Season 5 and 6 now my only option is scalpers on ebay which I won't do.
I believe this has happened to a few more tv series that were available mod.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Well they started streaming the tv series Life and Times of Wyatt Earp and then discontinued selling the MOD DVD's of the 6 seasons. Which I found out the hard way as I still need Season 5 and 6 now my only option is scalpers on ebay which I won't do.
I believe this has happened to a few more tv series that were available mod.

I always wonder about MoD sets on ebay.

Many of them are always a bit too inexpensive IMO, and since they are burned anyway I just figure they're bootlegs.

 

[Todd J Moore]

Meanwhile, Amazon's streaming service won't allow standalone short films that are under 40 minutes to be uploaded anymore. Amazon is actively out to hurt the low budget indie filmmaker.

 

[jcroy]

(More generally).

For non-major movie companies, what exactly is the advantage of releasing something on dvd or dvd-mod ?

 

[Guardyan]

(More generally).

For non-major movie companies, what exactly is the advantage of releasing something on dvd or dvd-mod ?

Hmm the ability of letting someone else take care of the business of burning your movie and send it a customer without any stress on the non-major moviemaker/indie filmmaker's part?

 

[James Luckard]

It was my impression that Amazon (previously) would actually license the right to manufacture (burn) their own copies of MOD discs from the studios that were doing such (Warner, Universal, Fox, Sony, et alia). That made it easier to sell and ship without having to wait for the label in question to provide the actual discs. I'm curious whether they'll be stopping that now.

At any rate, there are other places that manufacture (and sell) MOD discs for labels (MovieZyng is one). If you, for example, order a pressed DVD or BD from Flicker Alley, FA will process the order and ship it to you. If you order one or more of their MOD BD-Rs or DVD-Rs, the order gets sent over to MovieZyng for processing.

And there are other etailers, like oldies.com, that sell any number of MOD titles.

Yep, my understanding is that Amazon produces all their MOD DVD-Rs (Warner Archive, Sony, etc) in-house.

When I've ordered them recently, they all come in identical glossy plastic cases, no matter what studio they're from.

I ordered a bunch of Stanley Donen titles last year from Amazon, including DVD-R titles from Warner, Sony and Fox, and the cases and plastic wrap were identical on all of them.

Another thing that leads me to suspect they produce them in-house is that they were still using the old insert artwork for one of the Warner Archive titles ("Love Is Better Than Ever"), which has been updated on the actual WA website.

They may get the pressed discs like Warner Archive BDs shipped to them from outside, but I'm pretty certain they press all the DVD-Rs themselves.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If you look really really really closely at the barcodes of MOD discs purchased from Amazon, there’s the tiniest of print under the barcode number stating that it was printed by Amazon at whatever location.

 

[Todd J Moore]

Hmm the ability of letting someone else take care of the business of burning your movie and send it a customer without any stress on the non-major moviemaker/indie filmmaker's part?

Exactly. On top of that, the exposure. Someone is more likely to find a movie I've made on Amazon than on my website.

I have to see if Amazon carries discs from other MOD manufacturers or not. IF not, this is going to seriously hamper my business. I've sold discs on Amazon since 2008, first through CreateSpace then Amazon. This is seriously detrimental to me and anyone else using that service.

 

[jayembee]

Yep, my understanding is that Amazon produces all their MOD DVD-Rs (Warner Archive, Sony, etc) in-house.

When I've ordered them recently, they all come in identical glossy plastic cases, no matter what studio they're from.

I ordered a bunch of Stanley Donen titles last year from Amazon, including DVD-R titles from Warner, Sony and Fox, and the cases and plastic wrap were identical on all of them.

Another thing that leads me to suspect they produce them in-house is that they were still using the old insert artwork for one of the Warner Archive titles ("Love Is Better Than Ever"), which has been updated on the actual WA website.

They may get the pressed discs like Warner Archive BDs shipped to them from outside, but I'm pretty certain they press all the DVD-Rs themselves.

The only DVD-R I ever ordered was the Universal Vault Series release of Resurrection (1980) -- which I'd since traded in to Bull Moose when Universal released their own BD. It came in the usual case-and-artwork package of the UVS releases. But that was a number of years ago.

 

[RobertSiegel]

What is sad to me about this is the way the service could have been used. There are thousands of films out there without a blu-ray release, and the studios could have provided hundreds of titles to this program, a good portion of their film libraries ha sbeen remastered now, you see great looking films all the time on TCM. If the studios didn't feel they wanted to release a pressed version, they could have made available a ton of titles. That's what I thought would happen but it never did. I remember George Feltenstein saying years ago on the old Warner chat here on the site that he thought burn on demand was a dream and they could release hundreds of titles in a short time. But they never did it. I prefer the Warner Archive pressed discs but it could have opened the floodgates to many many movies. I would rather have it on a MOD than not at all.

 

[Traveling Matt]

I remember George Feltenstein saying years ago on the old Warner chat here on the site that he thought burn on demand was a dream and they could release hundreds of titles in a short time. But they never did it.

With all due respect to him, I wonder how much of that was just wishful thinking. Home video, including Warner's, has always been ridiculously strict on per-title sales numbers. That WAC does batches is a minor miracle. Personally I never expected hundreds of titles in short order, rarely or as a regular pattern, even when Mr. Feltenstein suggested it.