Indie filmmakers can now sell directly to audiences

The direct-to-consumer craze (think: Casper, Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker) has made it to Hollywood, thanks to streaming site Olyn.

A quick streaming 101: Rather than paying based on the number of views a film acquires, streaming platforms typically pay a singular lump sum for a title.

But on the plus side, once a platform like Netflix buys a film, the site does almost all of the marketing work for it – though this work often involves leaving the content in the fickle hands of the algorithm gods, who giveth and taketh away in unpredictable fashion.

• The one constant, however: Most films on streamers end up getting little-to-no engagement. On average, a film on Amazon in the UK only gets ~2,000 views/year.

Promotional help vs. potential upside

Olyn, a startup billed as a "Shopify for filmmakers," provides indie filmmakers with a way to bypass this studio/streamer system and sell directly to consumers, with the ability to retain up to 90% of their revenue from viewership. But there’s one catch – filmmakers are completely in charge of their own marketing.

📸 Big picture: While the juice isn’t worth the squeeze for some who just post to YouTube and let the algorithm gods work, other filmmakers are happy with the tradeoff. Brian Epstein’s new biopic Midas Man, about the manager of The Beatles, debuted using Olyn earlier this year.