Anyone have their movie on iTunes?

I know that it costs like $1,000 - $1,250 to get on iTunes, assuming that they accept it. How many of you have VOD distribution on sites like iTunes? What kind of revenue are you pulling? If you don't want to quote dollar numbers then as a percentage what are your top revenue bringers? Amazon DVD sales? iTunes VOD? Other VOD sources?

Have you heard or read what to expect from VOD with indie movies?
 
if I made a feature film as an independent film maker, I wouldnt go on iTunes

you can now distribute your film on youtube and make people pay you for watching the film
 
I have my feature (Surviving Family) on ITunes and overall am happy with it.
The pricing ranges from $2.99 for standard def rental to $7.99 to buy it in high def.
I keep 70% of the price paid.

I'm planning to add Amazon streaming in a couple of months - I'll only keep 50% of that, but it's a market that a lot of consumers have and like.

I also sell dvd's from the website
http://www.survivingfamily.us
That's $9.99 including shipping, and I keep 100% of that.
 
I have my feature (Surviving Family) on ITunes and overall am happy with it.
The pricing ranges from $2.99 for standard def rental to $7.99 to buy it in high def.
I keep 70% of the price paid.

I'm planning to add Amazon streaming in a couple of months - I'll only keep 50% of that, but it's a market that a lot of consumers have and like.

I also sell dvd's from the website
http://www.survivingfamily.us
That's $9.99 including shipping, and I keep 100% of that.
Have you recouped the $1,250 fee that iTunes charges yet? And does iTunes have a renewal fee? If so how much is that?
 
I'm planning to add Amazon streaming in a couple of months - I'll only keep 50% of that, but it's a market that a lot of consumers have and like.

I understand the strategy of getting 70% of a higher retail price versus Amazon where you get a smaller percentage and may have to price it a little lower, but I don't agree with it. I think it's two separate markets. Once 2015 rolls around, your film is a year older and loses some value. Plus whatever initial marketing you've done will have evaporated. I say hit Amazon and iTunes at the same time.
 
Annual fee is $150 - definitely not enough to worry about.

Re timing - everyone views these things differently - that's what makes a market :)
I wonder if the typical indie movie sells more DVD's on Amazon than iTunes downloads. What do you folks think? Just trying to gauge how many I might sell compared to my DVD sales via Amazon Advantage.
 
you can now distribute your film on youtube and make people pay you for watching the film

Well, you can't exactly make people pay you...

But in terms of offering stuff for sale via youtube I can't find much info - they do appear to have the option to create a channel which requires a monthly subscription to access, but I don't see where they let you offer individual videos for sale or rent. In any case, I don't think they have a significant portion of the paid market for VOD compared to iTunes, Netflix, etc - so it seems a poor strategy to focus primarily on youtube.
 
I assumed he was talking about some sort of rental/sale system, not ads - I know they have commercial films for rent, but I can't seem to find any info on how individuals can do the same.

As for ad revenues it probably depends a lot on the ads they're serving - some keywords are much higher value than others. I have two monetized videos that have earned any money, one has 50k views and has earned $37, the other has 7,700 views and has earned $29. The first is about running, the second about a musician, so for whatever reason the musician one is earning a much higher return per view than the running one. In any case, you need to be doing pretty high (and steady) monthly views in order to see a significant return.
 
I am not talking about adsense but selling your movies via youtuebe

I get that but can't find any info on how independent creators can do it. I only see options for subscription channels, not individual video sales - those seem to currently be limited to studio offerings. Do you have a link where they describe the process and terms? My google-fu is usually strong, but I'm coming up with absolutely nothing on the topic.

Why does iTunes charge so much? What is costing them so much?

Hmm... maybe building, growing and maintaining a global content delivery and e-commerce platform supporting 800 million active accounts (4x as many as Amazon) plus the hardware ecosystem to support and drive demand for content from their platform?
 
Last edited:
Hmm... maybe building, growing and maintaining a global content delivery and e-commerce platform supporting 800 million active accounts (4x as many as Amazon) plus the hardware ecosystem to support and drive demand for content from their platform?
Amazon Advange (DVD's CD's, etc) doesn't charge $750. They don't charge anything and there's gotta be a lot more music artists ALONE than filmmakers.
 
Back
Top