Indie Movie Distribution 2.0?

-
I haven't found too many other success-ish stories like this one, but I'm really glad it seems to be working. I found this via the WSJ.

In short, these guys made a film. They went well over a $100k in debt and couldn't find a distributor. So they put their film up on YouTube and ended up striking a deal with film-review/social networking site, Spout (they sell themselves as MySpace meets NetFlix). Spout gives them $1 for every person that signs up with the site after being referred by them.

Hopefully, the $1 price has been carefully set, so that even though there'll be a lot of people who sign up just because they want to help out these guys and may never go to the Spout site again, the percentage of users who do come back are worth it eventual revenue. The conversion ratio may be higher than usual though given that the users who find this movie will be really into movies anyway (Spout's target customer.) The Spout design on first look doesn't seem bad, so maybe they have a shot. Looks like Spout could do with the bump in traffic too. They're starting to dip (Compete data below) and we do live in an age where valuations are done by user count and they're probably looking for more than 50K users. (TechCrunch spiel on the site)





Update: I just saw the first 5 mins of the movie; not bad I guess, but I doubt I'll make it much further today.:)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Enjoyed your post. Not sure you were aware of the other player in the mix on the 4 eyed monsters promotion -- b-side. we're the company that is providing all of the distribution infrastructure for 4EM....so that they can sell not only DVDs but DRM-free downloads of the film.

Spout is definitely cool...but is really focused on the mainstream film audience and studio released films. That is a really crowded space... 4EM is probably the least known film on their site.

b-side is actually a social community and self-distribution platform for independent festival-quality films that are ignored or underserved by traditional distribution. Whereas the $1 per member promotion was a cool stunt...even if it works for them, it is not broadly applicable to other indie filmmakers struggling to monetize their films.

this is opposed to the substantial cut they receive from every DVD sale and digital download on the b-side site.

you should check it out and see what you think of the model. the site is www.bside.com. we're giving away a free movie download to everyone who registers. I'd be really interested to hear your opinion.

Steve Waters
VP Marketing & Acquisitions
b-side
3:04 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A short love letter to ~8 years on Google Search - 8 things I’m grateful for.

-
  After a few weeks off, I started a new gig within Google yesterday and it hit me that for the first time in almost eight years I won’t be working on some part of Google Search. Eight years ago, I told the team when I was interviewing that I was “looking for a place to call home for a while and grow there”. My experiences here more than met that need.  I used to write a regular “10 things about…” listy column for a while at a college newspaper. So in that style here’s 8 things (one for each year) I feel grateful to have experienced/learned in this time. Also, like that column which I banged out the night before it was due, this post is something that I don’t need to do, yet I feel somehow compelled to do (and so it’ll likely be longer and less crisp than it should be :-))    It actually is awesome to work on something so many people use and love, and that positively touches people’s lives. There’s a talk I give externally about Search and a line I often end up using is how the mission
Read more

Why don't you love Chocos, America?

-
Image
A few days ago I had the following conversation with a customs agent at San Francisco airport - as an Indian returning from India I get sent to the customs line even when I check "No food" on the customs form. :-) Agent: "Any food?" Me: "No" Agent: "Sure? No jira or cadipatta ? Me : "No....     well actually I do have a box of cereal." Agent: "Huh. What? Really?" Me: "Yes. Its a brand you don't get here." Agent: "Seriously. Even in the Indian stores? I've never heard that before." Me: "Ummm....yeah." I love reading local customization stories, particularly about how international chains tailor their offerings to local markets - the food industry has the best examples of these - check out this McDonald's story about the McPaneer , or how KFC is incredibly successful in China . But I seem to have missed that the customization extended to breakfast cereal. Turns out the
Read more

What might Twitter and/or Facebook have cost us if they were invented earlier (or should some things stay deliberately un-social?)

-
Image
So I was reading an ebook last week, and came across a quote that I liked. My first thought wasn't "I should write this down" , it was "I want to tweet this." My ebook reading software wasn't equipped for it, and it wasn't trivial to do so I didn't, but I expect most ebook reading software will be updated to do this in the next couple of releases and probably encourage me to as well. Why should reading be left behind? Twitter is already saving live TV . As I look back on the last week watching the Cricket World Cup , a huge part of it for me was watching my Twitter and Facebook feeds for reactions and being part of them. My parents were the only ones that actually called me during the match, but I felt connected to so many more people through FB and the Big T . Wether you're shopping, eating out, playing games, even searching ... apparently "everything gets better with social." We all have a very human, internal urge to express ours
Read more