The Pros and Cons of Digital Distribution
Music is sold digitally, it just is. That’s the way of the world now and everyone excepts that (kind of). But movies are something different, and they always have been. They’re much more expensive to produce than a music EP and that makes them highly guarded IP. The sale of movies is typically driven by talent and large media conglomerates are willing to pay top dollar for celebrities they feel will drive people to purchase their media.
The new media movement has been selling the whole “artists don’t need big business anymore” message and Louis C.K., an unlikely player in the digital retail space, decided to conduct an experiment. He took $250,000 of his own money and produced a comedy special outside of the establishment. The end result was a $5 digital download of all original material at similar production values to his HBO comedy specials. Would people bite? Hell yes! Was it worth it in the end? Maybe not.
As of Today, we’ve sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video.
-Louis C.K., from his official website
After reading this I started to wonder what creative freedom is really worth. If all someone in Louis’s position has to do to increase his earnings is show up, why would he have any interest in doing the hard work of producing a ground-up production? Where is the incentive? What’s the point to it? Maybe there’s something to be said for the vanity of controlling your own product, but as a creative in the film industry I can’t accept that it’s just that. There needs to be a business model that we can latch onto that will bring the kinds of returns that a studio produced project is able to.
Independent producers need to be conscious of how they can use the whole buffalo. Consider a live experience, like Kevin Smith did with Red State and see how that can fit into your model. Look at what retail points of sale you can unite with to sell product. If your film revolves around active sports, see if you can team up with surf or skate shops… maybe even clothing labels to get your physical product in places you normally wouldn’t see it. After this try building up a tiered digital distribution plan.
Digital is tough. I recently released Mondo Atomic as a downloadable comic on Wowio, Graphicly, Kindle, and other outlets, and it’s still difficult to have that format embraced. There is a print edition coming out this month to satisfy the analog culture clique. As of now producers are still struggling to find out what works, and maybe we never will. Maybe it’s what works for each project or artist, not one magic formula. All I know for sure is that things are forever changed and we have to adapt to become both great artists and great business people. It’s the only way to stay independent.
Over the next few months I’m going to lay out my business model for a new distribution venture. It will be the kind of look inside of a company that is rarely ever given. It might fail, but I want my readers to see the process and be interactive about ideas. I think it’s time that we, as a creative industry, started airing some dirty laundry in public. We don’t have a clue what we’re doing half the time and hope it works because things keep changing to quickly. Let’s have some frank discussions about what we’re trying and why. Let’s attempt to bridge that self-imposed distance we place between ourselves and other artists and actually help each other succeed. This might be a holiday pipe dream, but it’s something I’m going to sincerely try to do moving ahead. I can’t wait for the talks that I’m going to have at Sundance.