Cinematic Almanac / Tech October 3, 2008

Up until now, iTunes has made it difficult for independent filmmakers to sell their work through their service. They want to deal with big studios or distributors, not a million little guys who require a million little checks once a month. The alternative has been to give away iPod friendly files in podcast feeds, but you don’t make any money that way.

There are a couple distributors who are dipping into the indie well for content to sell. One such is ShortsInternational at britshorts.com, which handles a lot of high end award winning shorts.

A recent episode of This Week in Media alerted me to TuneCore.com , which will take your hard copy submissions and run them by the “editorial staff” at iTunes. Users pay iTunes, iTunes pays TuneCore, and TuneCore pays you. Not a perfect solution, but it’s a start. This is similar to the way CD Baby works with indie musicians, although I doubt there’s a gatekeeper that judges the content of songs.

While iTunes is the holy grail for filmmakers — as it’s already being used by a huge chunk of the population — there are some alternatives. MeDeploy.com is a competing service, an “iTunes for indie film producers.” There’s also Amazon Video On Demand (formerly Amazon Unbox), which works with CreateSpace.com (formerly CustomFlix). These services sound great, but are they really that different than video-on-demand sites I’ve submitted to in the past, like Dave.tv and Vuze.com?

Most likely not, but Amazon does have something going for it — a name that people trust. And that is a huge deal when it comes time to promote. If I send out an email blast saying “buy my film,” I think people will be more likely to pay if they already have an Amazon or iTunes account. Asking someone to pay AND download a program they’ve never heard of is a hard sell.

Edit 10/06/08

See the comments for a clarification on MeDeploy.

I was also contacted by Indieflix, which I’ve considered using for DVD sales in the past. Indieflix now distributes films through iTunes, the first of which should be up late October early November.

Edit 10/08/08

Since posting this article, I’ve heard feedback that Shorts International is notorious for not paying royalties to filmmakers. That’s reason enough to be wary of them, along with their exclusive contracts that restrict you from selling to other online distributors.

6 Comments

6 Comments…

  1. Hi, Thanks for the mention of MeDeploy. I just want to clarify one part of your story. MeDeploy is not meant to be an alternative to having your film in iTunes. Instead MeDeploy allows you to add movie sales to Social Networks (such as MySpace and others), your website, viral widgets or anywhere else you choose. Its purpose is to extend your films reach beyond the digital retail stores. Thanks again for the mention!

    Christian Taylor
    CEO/MeDeploy

  2. Actually there are other choices too…

    IndieFlix “Bridge To Everywhere” Deal Delivers Much Needed Distribution Help To Indie Filmmakers.

    Seattle WA, Oct 2, 2008 – Independent filmmakers finally have a “bridge to everywhere” as the online independent film distributor IndieFlix.com now delivers content to the world’s most powerful outlets to close the gap between independent filmmakers and fans.

    IndieFlix now promotes content with long-standing powerhouse distribution sources – many of them not available to individual filmmakers – like iTunes, Amazon VOD, Hulu, Joost, Netflix, and VUDU. These channels can provide filmmakers with millions of new viewers on a daily basis. The IndieFlix business model is simple: filmmaker provides their film to IndieFlix and IndieFlix promotes the content to the world free of charge. IndieFlix keeps a small percentage of sales and the filmmaker retains all rights to the material.
    http://www.indieflix.com
    https://www.indieflix.com/ssl/Filmmaker/HowItWorks.aspx

  3. TuneCore seems silly. To break up the already minimal amount of revenue artist make among a larger pool of middle players? Just silly. Apple should open up an indie label that distributes only digitally. Sign contracts for exclusive rights to online sales, in exchange for media and advertising.

  4. I think Amazon and iTunes both have something much more important going for them that you failed to mention: huge customer bases. It is not just that they are names people will know when you refer them to a seller, it is that people whom you have never heard from will see your content when they are visiting their favorite store. You will get more sales from those online stores just due to the volume of the customers than you will from Joe’s Download.

    As for the person who said the TuneCore model was “silly”: Welcome to the real world. Silly or not, most people who sell products have to sell them through “aggregators” and other wholesalers. It is the way most retail commerce works. When you have bought up a sufficient share of the distribution market then you can straighten it out, until then you play the game.

  6. I’ve recently put my film up on indieflix. I’m curious if there are any success stories of films being picked up by Itunes via indieflix.