I was thinking about the gatekeepers of video content online when I was speaking with someone at a party yesterday. Several years ago, he made a documentary which he was trying to sell via DVDs on his site, where he was making nothing at all. It did eventually get picked up by Amazon Prime, but it didn’t really go anywhere until they decided to promote it a little. It took off after that, but even then, the returns he was seeing were quite small. He didn’t give an exact figure — I think it was more than what he was making from DVDs — but it didn’t seem enough to cover the cost of production or make a living out of it. He’s hardly a house-hold name, so it wouldn’t have commanded a large payout anyway, but he was lamenting that it was easier making more a decade ago. The story ended with him asking me how one can make a sustainable living this way.
I wish I had an answer for him. People go to where the content is, and for this sort of video material, that’s the streamers of the world: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, etc. And you’re completely at the mercy of the algorithm with those platforms, along with what they choose to promote. I suppose he could’ve tried creating buzz by releasing clips on YouTube, and maybe trying to convince people to go to his website and purchase a DVD (although to be fair, he may have already tried that).
I wanted to say “just put it on your website.” But I couldn’t see that helping him. I mean, the DVD’s weren’t selling, although I can’t imagine DVD’s being enticing to anyone that’s not a avid fan of physical media. And I’ve not watched his documentary, but knowing him and the type of shows he produces, I can’t see it being enough for people to setup a subscriptions to watch it. It wouldn’t work with this material, and subscriptions really only work if what you’re producing is timely: weekly, fortnightly, etc. (well, I guess there are exceptions: I’m a Patreon subscriber to CGP Grey and the last video he release was about a year and a half ago).
Anyway, I don’t really have a point here other to say that it’s rough out there. Hope things improve for him.