How to Get an Indie Film on iTunes
Selling indie movies on iTunes makes a ton of sense to us, but apparently not to the Powers that Be at Apple. It’s hard to even find information about how to get your film into the iTunes store. The best bet is to work with an aggregator like New Video, which placed distribution there of Ed Burns’ Purple Violets and the geek favorite Helvetica. Video Business has a nice profile of New Video from Friday.
Over the weekend Scott Kirsner posted a bookmark-worthy post at CinemaTech rounding up other aggregators that have relations with iTunes and their contact information. Also, you might be interested to know that Scott’s book, Inventing the Movies: Hollywood’s Epic Battle Between Innovation and the Status Quo, from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs, just came out. A couple years ago I helped Scott out with some research for the book, which is a historical review of how technology has changed Hollywood. This was way before we even thought of the idea for NewTeeVee, so it’s really cool to see the book finally come out.
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Alternatively, you can contact companies like Red Bee Media who as certified Apple supliers can encode and format your film content for Apple Store. If you need contact details, email me at cole.stuart@gmail.com. We recently used them and are now selling video content via iTunes.
Who else here is selling video on iTunes?
It doesn’t seem difficult to get your media (indie film, music video, whatever) listed on iTunes, but the challenge I see is that most of the iTunes video consumers seem to be the bottom of the barrel as far as sophistication, and are looking for the most popular media, rather than the most unique, interesting, or compelling. (And let’s face it, if you’ve learned to p2p, then you probably don’t pay $$ for episodes of Lost.). So, from my perspective its a target market problem more than a technology or distribution problem.
This is probably my excuse for the fact that none of my media projects are mass-consumable (read – they stink on ice), but iTunes seems like a good destination and is accessible – if you have a few mil to put towards marketing, you might even get some sales.
Then there is the question of the actual affiliate payment . . .
Hi, my name is Charles. I work for INgrooves.com. We have a film and video division that can get your films onto iTunes, the Xbox, the PS3, and other online/mobile platforms that you choose. Shoot me a message if you are interested in learning more. We can get your film onto iTunes very quickly. cbaker -a-t- ingrooves.com
Wanted:
Short films for a new cable TV show.
Reel Indie Films are looking for new independent film artists that would like to have their short film broadcast on cable TV.
log on http://www.reelindiefilms.com for more information and print the forum and submit your film, it’s that easy.
Reel Indie Films has been created for YOU the film maker, we hope you’ll support us by submitting your trailer or short film.
Thanks for your support.
http://www.reelindiefilms.com
Join us on: http://www.myspace.com/reelindiefilms