Getting Paid

Whose farm you working on?

Sorry if I beat on this drum once again, but why are so many talented people still spending so little time thinking about how they're actually going to get paid for their content?  There are yet even fewer conventional wisdom answers, than just a few short years ago (you should be reading Ted Hope to get up to speed, if you aren't already). And even some of the newer revenue models, say YouTube, have been shown to be....how do I say it politely.....heavily in the interest of YouTube and less in your longterm interests (this article is essential reading if you're thinking about building a channel on YouTube).

I have a foot in the more technology oriented content world, app development, interactive content, transmedia, call it what you will.  I can do some iOS coding,  am actually pretty good at UX design, and have published my own content, as well as helped others with their projects.  I'm also currently developing an interactive project which incorporates live video.  I spend a lot of time thinking about the quickly changing economics of the app economy.  One thing which has changed very quickly, in the world of apps, is how content creators get paid.  Pay for an app up front?  Fuggedaboutit.  It's the kiss of death for your content.  No one wants to pay for apps in a marketplace where there are a million plus apps.  Even heavy-hitters like Marco Arment (co-founded Tumblr, founded Instapaper) publicly state that trying to get people to pay for content up-front is a losing proposition.

We're 45% of the way to our Kickstarter goal for materials

Currently in the iTunes App Store, between 60-70% of all app income is from in-app purchases.  In a few short years, developers have gone from making millions from $.99 apps to having to come up with a completely new way of thinking about generating revenue.  Yes, there are still a few blockbusters from established brands but they are far and few, most developers are lucky to get a couple hundred downloads......starting to notice a pattern?

I find many traditional media makers are still in the "if you build it, he will come" mode (albeit with some Kickstarter, community building twists).   Really hardworking, creative folks generating lots of content on no-budgets and hoping to get traction somehow.  Ironically, the very act of generating a lot of no-budget content undermines the very system of which they're hoping to become part.  So, if in the relatively new world of apps, where even quality $.99 content can't find its way, why are more traditional media makers still thinking that they can get paid up front?  This slow-motion implosion has been happening since even before the iPhone existed, it's not like we haven't had time to think about it.  Facebook likes are vapor, celebrities are high-jacking Kickstarter, where is it all headed? 

I need to find an analysis of the conventional wisdom of money-making in the new music industry which I recently read.  It did an effective job of tearing apart the fiction that streaming, touring, selling merchandise and CD's off of a table, and building community with home concerts was making it easier for indie musicians to make a sustainable living.  In the end, what we're seeing is a even more highly stratified music industry with the Lady Gaga's, et al. making a lot of cash and the musical "middle class" disappearing.  Should filmmakers be running down all of these paths without really thinking about this previous experience?  I do know people who have bootstrapped their films by touring around the world for a year, or more, with them.  Really good films. But how many people realistically can do this?  How much is your content really worth, per minute, in the streaming content world?  I can't pretend to have answers, but let's take a moment, stand back, and reassess the questions we need to be asking.

Loose Ends

Give me that old time rock n' roll

As an addendum to my last post (To Free or Not to Free), I see that Fast Company in their piece 20 Riskiest Business Moves of 2011 has listed as the 19th riskiest business move Music Labels Surrender to Spotify.  The main risk: jeopardizing paid sales with the freemium model.

Also, the recent update of Google TV and the announcement Friday that Google will be acquiring a lot more original content for YouTube should pretty much clarify where they are headed.  If you thought that 900 cable channels was amazing, get ready for hundreds of thousands or maybe millions delivered online.  As I've said before, there will be more content than ever. There's a tremendous amount of opportunity out there to those who can visualize and take advantage of this new order.  As the curse goes, may you live in interesting times...."

Ari Emanuel Speaking about the Future Media Landscape

This is a very interesting conversation with Ari Emanuel, Hollywood super agent at the recent Web 2.0 Summit (whatever that's supposed to mean).  Some of the things that he says about the future of media are similar to points that I have been making.  Of course, the difference is that he actually knows about what he is speaking.   The future is coming quickly and for small players, the window of opportunity is getting smaller as the big players start to actually figure out what is happening.  Agility and the ability to pull together sophisticated media production and marketing quickly by leveraging technology and the incredible wealth of knowledge available to everyone with an internet connection will be as important for indies as it is for Lady Gaga.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday.  Much exciting news coming in the next couple of months.

Personal Brand Schizophrenia

I am just back from Brazil.  It was an amazing experience, I will write about it further when I have a little time to digest it and write about it intelligently.  I realize now that I have not even spoken about the substance of the project.  Let's just leave it at now that I am very fortunate to be able to participate in documenting a sustainable development project in the Amazon facilitated by this organization.  It was energizing (and a real privilege) to meet people who are doing so much right to improve a piece of the world through hard work, brains, humility, stamina and more hard work.

Beautiful, but not always easy

There is so much happening right now in my world, I will try to touch on a few important other thoughts today (against the advice of the experts who warn about keeping a focused personal brand--rather than corporations becoming more human, it seems as though we are increasingly assuming their attributes).

I wanted to post a link to this: Flipboard, a subtle, but important step forward in how I see us all consuming media in the future.  Media created by people you know and curated/repackaged for your consumption.

I will leave today's post with a few questions:

1.  Is there any reason to think that in the future visual media will be any more highly valued than music has become?  In China, it seems as though literally no one pays for music now.  People there are scrambling to try and create anything that people will pay for surrounding the consumption experience, especially using social media.  Indie filmmakers, is this sounding familiar? Once the bandwidth logjam is broken, and it will be broken, unless we are willing to become completely uncompetitive as a nation in the global marketplace, how will media producers stop visual media from becoming as valueless as an mp3 in China?   It seems like a survival strategy that madia producing companies like NBC/Universal are being consolidated into pipeline providers like Comcast.  As someone who creates visual media, and knows the dedication, skill and hard work that goes into its creation, this is not an easy question to ask.

2. Will the future of paid media production involve largely only a few high-end producers of technological wonders (like Batman, Ironman, etc.) which can only be produced with a lot of capital and organizational/technical expertise?  Will most of the rest of the media consumed be produced by, well, everyone and curated through Facebook, YouTube and other online social repositories?  It seems as though we are well down the path to ever-increasing media consumption, however, rather than being consumed as a separate viewing experience it will be consumed nearly constantly, in small bits, and much of it created by people we "know" (at least online).

I'm not leaving until I get my $.99 for that download

10 Most Watched Web Videos of Summer 2009

Hmmm, what if TV were eliminated and people could distribute whatever they created economically to nearly everyone else in the world? Surely a new golden age of creativity would follow? It does seem that the web really is having a democratizing effect: as a repository and distributor of the lowest common denominator. As Jimmy Cliff said, "give the people what they want."

Here are the most watched web videos, summer 2009. I recommend skipping the videos and just listening to the song. Trust me, you'll be a lot happier and feel a lot better about the future of mankind.

I think one of the greatest fears I have in my life is that I become so overwhelmed by mediocrity that I can no longer tell the difference.