Best Methods for Distributing Films Online?

I've been looking into Pivotshare. It's free to start, has a safe and secure system to prevent illegal streaming, and has one of the cleanest looking platforms.

What's everyone's thoughts on using online media platforms to sell and distribute comedic acts? What other platforms are there?
 
I actually have a similar dilema. Right now, I'm working out whether my long term plan for my current project will be distributed via YouTube or Vimeo (It's essentially a pilot for a possibly longer/different format series, and mostly just for fun while I try out some stuff). But yeah, it's along the same line as yours - it's essentially a very short sitcom/improv.

I do believe that Vimeo has VOD, however for their Pro accounts. If you already had a decent base of interest, it might be something to look into. I'd guess you're looking into the VOD format vs hard copies?

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Despite the fairly bleak outlook of this article, it does cite some decent up and coming distros. But yeah, for a clean platform to me, you can't really beat Vimeo. I assume - but you know what happens when you do that - Vimeo has a decent security system since there's a bunch of people uploading their originals as a kind of online portfolio, but I can't speak much to experience, I'm afraid.
 
I just started using pivotshare for the first time this week and so far so good. On the plus side, there is no cost of any kind to list your film with them...nothing up front, and no monthly fees. They take 35% of your sales.
They provide you with a webpage that is all yours (here's ours) and each film that you list with them has a unique embed code which allows you to put it on your own website.
As a side note, we like the fact that you can upload your films to pivotshare via dropbox.

We also just listed one of our films with distrify.com...the first film is free (no startup costs), but any additional films require a monthly fee. You can also embed it. (here's what theirs looks like) Unlike pivitshare, you can NOT use dropbox to upload videos to distrify, and their free service is for download RENTALS only...no sales.

We also started an account with chill.com (no fees either), BUT they require that you offer "bundle" sales...for example you might want to sell t-shirts and CDs...(which YOU have to ship)...they take a cut of your bundles too. We ended up cancelling our chill account, as shipping the "bundles" is something that we didn't want to get into. If you go to the chill website, you will see that they handle several videos from comedians and other performers.

We have also been looking at a no-frills company called gumroad, which seems to have a lot of good things going for it...no upfront fees, no monthly fees.
 
I've been looking into Pivotshare. It's free to start, has a safe and secure system to prevent illegal streaming, and has one of the cleanest looking platforms.

What's everyone's thoughts on using online media platforms to sell and distribute comedic acts? What other platforms are there?
I was with Flickrocket for a while and hardly sold anything using a link from my home site. People want to shop Amazon, iTunes or NetFlix.

What is the revenue split with PivotShare?
 
The issue is not really what percentage they take, but how much it costs you to list your film with them. For example, it will COST you $99 a year to list your film on Vimeo whether you sell a film or not...10% of zero is zero...but it has still cost you $99 to list your film.

Pivotshare and chill don't charge anything up front, and nothing per month...so if you only sell three downloads a year, 30-35% doesn't sound too bad.
 
Filmmakers who want to sell their films online in any platform should first focus on building their fan base. Building your fan base should start from the beginning of production.

Nick
 
Vimeo charges you a fee to put up your film on their site as well though

True, but if you get a large following, you can save money using sites like Vimeo because you are earning more than the fee and you save 20%.

Right now I'm less concerned with which site to upload to, and more of getting a sold fanbase. FilmRiot and Indy Mogul are big because they give out free content that helps people. If they put a movie up on a site that will charge money for viewing (IndieReign, Vimeo, etc.), hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of people are going to watch it.
 
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