The last flourishes of physical media

Earlier this week the Beatles back catalogue was released to huge success and the Beatles Rock Band game became the talk of the town.  Then today I read about Microsoft and Tesco teaming up to offer free online only content to people who buy physical DVDs.

To me these are little more than a late flourish from the physical media world as it plays the last cards in a losing hand.  A brilliantly executed flourish maybe, particularly with the Beatles box set, but nothing more.

The Beatles deal is a one off – hugely popular band not available legally online with a fan base that is largely too old to be interested in illegal downloads (forgive me).  I can’t think of many (any?) other bands for whom this would work.

The Microsoft deal is of even less significance – it is a nice idea to package up free online content with a DVD and might be enough to get people buying from Tesco rather than Asda, but I very much doubt it will be enough to persuade someone to get in their car and go to Tesco if/when they have the option of downloading from the web and watching on their TV.