Crazy news out of Netflix-land this week.
Netflix To Enter Original Programming With Mega Deal For David Fincher-Kevin Spacey Series ‘House Of Cards’ (NELLIE ANDREEVA, courtesy @NikkiFinke, Deadline Hollywood)
Andreeva writes:
Negotiations are still going on, but I hear Netflix landed the drama project by offering a staggering commitment of two seasons, or 26 episodes. Given that the price tag for a high-end drama is in the $4 million–$6 million an episode … the deal is believed to be worth more than $100 million and could change the way people consume TV shows.
What I love about this is it’s the next nail in the coffin of TV distribution being concentrated in the hands of a few. Sure, this is a big, expensive deal for Media Rights Capital, but it also opens the door for Jane and Joe Webisode Producer to distribute via Netflix. The more audiences get used to streaming TV shows, the better it is for any indies producing them.
That makes TV the fourth industry to be deeply impacted by the indie wave.
“Indie” to me is the growing capacity for anyone to create and distribute art or information without having to go through long-established gatekeepers. It’s the “long tail” Chris Anderson told us about years ago, and it’s reshaping how we express ourselves.
Music
Remember when Napster was naughty? Look at us now. Honestly, when was the last time you bought a physical CD? But the music industry is alive and kicking, even without the total overlordship of the labels. Any band can stream their stuff online, and we can buy it, in whatever combination we want, anytime we want, and listen to it however we want. Nice.
News
There always will be a huge need for professional journalism. Some of the greatest heroism in recent years has been shown by those dedicated to getting at the truth, no matter what. But how much of what we grok about a news story also comes from people on the scene, blasting updates via YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook? How much breaking news comes from in-your-face blogs? How many news organizations are actively soliciting “citizen reporters”? (Not to mention the recent emergence of AOL’s Patch.) News is collective; everyone’s in on it.
Books
Let me state my position here: a book is the content, not the medium. Writers write books. Paper or electrons allow others to read them. But the book is legit, whatever form. With the advent of print-on-demand and eBooks, whoever puts a decent manuscript together and does the legwork to understand marketing can find an audience—something that Big 6 publishers can’t and never even tried to provide. Talk about democratization of voices.
TV
Deadline Hollywood’s news above shows the next phase is TV, opening up now to the same anarchy. Is it more expensive to D-I-Y? Yep, for the individual producer. But at least one friend of mine, Todd Norwood, is already making a dent in distribution online for his webisodes without relying on giants like Netflix. With Netflix entering the original TV market, we’ll soon wake up to find that screen across the room—the big one, with surround sound—seamlessly connected by intravenous feed to the one we use to communicate. We as TV viewers will no longer see a difference between Internet TV and the networks (or even cable). It’ll be one big happy streaming family.
Last to go?
So score four for the indies. The one last bastion to conquer? The studio/distribution system for film. It’s still too hard for full-length indie features to get the distribution to recoup their costs, let alone make a profit. Not sure how that will work out, or how we’ll get the “theater” experience for indie productions. But I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. Someone’s gotta be working on it right now.
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@Melissa — are you familiar with Joe Konrath’s blog? If not, check it out (yesterday’s post is unusually long, but all his other posts and guests posts since January make a compelling argument to self-publish). Here’s the URL: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
That said, if you’re happy going through the querying process, that’s totally okay. You have to do what feels right to you and your work!
Thanks for this great comparison across the creative spectrum. I’m a debut novelist with a completed manuscript, trying to decide if Indie is the right business decision for me (I’m also an MBA w 15 yrs of marketing and advertising experience). Seems like I ought to be able to manage without the gatekeepers, doesn’t it? So why do I want to go through years of querying and submitting? That’s the path I’m headed down at the moment.
Hi, Melissa, thanks for commenting. I’m in a similar spot as you — years of Web experience and a marketing degree — yet still the whole self-pub thing feels overwhelming. But while I’d love to have some publisher panting to sell my book for me, I’m also not entranced with the idea of having to wait two years before anyone else will see it and losing so much control. So I’m probably going to sally forth into the indie market this summer.
Scared? You bet! Hopeful? Kind of! We’ll see how it turns out!
p.s. Love your blog!
Gotta agree with you about CDs. My music partner is kinda old school so he insisted we produce full CDs complete with jewel case,liner notes, shrink wrap and barcode. We have sold exactly ONE since last July – to a friend of his. Whereas we have had much more substantial sales from downloads on iTunes and streaming elsewhere. Not saying we’re quitting our day jobs, but people aren’t bound by physical formats anymore – and hence by those who make them. That means the whole idea of the “album” is just optional now. In fact what we’re doing is releasing 2-3 singles at a time and promoting them individually like “albums,” complete with artwork for each. Check us out at above site or iTunes under Ramona St. George Project.
That’s awesome… how indie are you? But you always were…
L
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