Sundance hosted a panel the other day about the future of film distribution on line. All the Web 2.0 video folks were there – Brightcove Internet TV CEO Jeremy Allaire, PopCurrent.com founder Mark Jeffrey, Battlestar Galactica Director Michael Rymer, Revver.com CEO Steve Starr, MySpace.com marketing executive Shawn Gold and YouTube Chief Marketing Officer Suzie Reider. CNet has the story. Here’s my favorite part:
Allaire, for one, doesn’t see filmmakers making a living off distributing their content online. “Fundamentally, (the Web) is a marketing platform,” he said.
Are you serious? I can only hope this quote was taken out of context. I mean, you’re the CEO of an online video distribution company and you go speak in front of a bunch of filmmakers who are increasingly struggling to make ends meet in a dying market and you tell them that they can’t make any money on the internet?
I hope this opinion is not shared among many others who are building the technology for online distribution. As I mentioned in my recent piece about new media, these folks will play a major role in laying the groundwork for how independent creators will be respected and compensated on the web.
In my mind, the web is “fundamentally” a platform for whatever you want it to be. It allows you to do a few things really well – share information, buy and sell things, and connect with other people. Doesn’t seem so fundamentally out of line with film distribution to me.
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Very interesting! I agree with you on this one for sure.