Recently, Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) talked about the emotional/mental health risks of being a creator of content. It would be naive to think that a "We" Era Renaissance could completely mitigate these risks, but, we, at Comradity, believe that the existing media system exacerbates the risk of creating content. We believe everyone would benefit if the outcome of the current economic crisis were to transform the market from "me" to "we," reducing the risk of creating content.
As background, with a few exceptions, today’s media industry has at least three links in the value chain:
1) Content creators who conceive – depending on their individual talent – by writing, visualizing, or singing.
2) Publishers and programmers who buy content, package and produce it for distribution and, in some cases, advertising sponsorship.
3) Distributors who market content to the consumer, collect their money, and deliver content.
Currently, this system is designed to reduce the risk of publishing, programming and delivering content, exacerbating the risk of creating content:
1) Content creators bare a disproportionate amount of risk. They work for years without making money on their craft until they are good at it. According to Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers, 10,000 hours – that’s 5 years, working 40 hours a week. Their chance of being discovered, even on the “free” web, is very low (the ratio of independent bands on MySpace who “make it” is probably 1 in a million). They have to know someone to be noticed by a publisher or programmer. Even then, since publishers/programmers tend to buy what’s worked before, creators often self-censure to fit the formula.
2) Publishers and programmers tend to buy content that is predictable. Their business model is based on delivering a guaranteed number of eyeballs to advertisers. To meet the guarantee they tend to buy content that fits a formula that raises their confidence or from talent who has been wildly successful before.
3) Distributors can’t realize the full potential revenue value of high value, creative content. Cable companies, ISPs, Wireless providers, newsstands find it is most efficient to sell content in bulk. For what it costs for them to reach and convert a customer to purchase, they need an average per capita purchase that is meaningful.
All three players would benefit if we reduce the risk of creating content.
1) If content creators had easy access to teachers, vendors and mentors, a means to find individuals who are inclined to like their style, a means to convert the curious to actively participate in [read: financially support] the content creators development, creators would have the financial support & an accelerated roadmap to reduce risk.
2) Content that has risen to the top via an active fanbase of paying advocates offers, to publishers and programmers, more than just content - data to predict success, and a direct relationship with the audience. With these additional assets, publishers and programmers have the data to predict how to succeed, strategically match relevant sponsors interested in finding individuals inclined to engage with them, and seize control of the consumer relationship to market and sell content on an a la carte basis.
3) When distributors are paid a share of consumer purchases to deliver a la carte content on demand, the distributor’s marketing and sales costs go down.
The Audience benefits too. We believe there are two segments in the audience: the “avid” fan and the “casual” fan. The ‘avid fan’ wants to contribute to the process by supporting it financially, emotionally, and even critically. The “casual” fans are the peers who like the entertainment value, but not enough to commit that much money, energy, and time. They value that “avid fans” figure it out for them. The best example for traditional media executives to get this idea - is the fan you hear on sports talk radio. They will buy season tickets before buying an engagement ring for their girlfriend. They are convinced that their cheering support contributed to the running back making a touchdown. And they spend an enormous amount of time waiting on hold to talk on Sports radio about the trade that should be made. Then there’s the other 80%+ of the audience who listens.
Comradity transmedia design is building a Platform as a Service to facilitate reducing the risk of creating content by harnessing the factors affecting camaraderie and community among content creators, avid fans and casual fans, using old and new media technologies to transform “me” to “we.” When we say transmedia, we mean bridging at home, at retail, en route, and virtual. The "channels" on the drawing board are music, storytelling, cooking, and social entrepreneurship.
We welcome collaboration with brands, publishers and programmers who see the benefits of transforming "me" to "we." We are in the process of selecting technologies that meet the objectives of our model (see www.mediamashing.com). We are interviewing engineers to integrate these into the platform. Please don’t hesitate to contact Katherine (at) comradity.com if you are interested in joining our team.
