Re: [projectvrm] subbable

[Katherine Warman Kern < >]

Doc,

I applaud the premise and wish them luck.

The creative business is hard.

I heard a story about a major Hollywood studio founder who started out in the 
"rag trade". 

As a "fashion" salesman, he didn't know if he made money until the end of the 
season when the stores returned the stuff they couldn't sell.

When he stood outside a movie theater and saw consumers pay before they saw 
the show, with no promise of a refund, he saw an opportunity.

In those days, they had no research, no data.  They made films which are 
still classics today, despite lower production value, because they resonate 
on a universal level.

Today the movie business is more like the fashion business.  They don't know 
if a movie will make a profit until it gets into DVDs, licensing, etc.

They have loads of research and data, but it doesn't result in original work 
or future "classics".

We are putting the cart before the horse. Creativity has untapped value to 
technology.

Harvesting consumer data or intent in a medium loaded with content that no 
one will pay for (I.e., junk) is misleading at best.

In the context of better content, the quality of consumer data/intent 
improves exponentially - both in terms of richness of insight and consumer 
willingness to share it voluntarily.

We pay in advance for our ISP. YouTube pays in advance to store and stream 
those videos. These commodity/bandwidth technology companies control the 
money.

There is a business case for them to invest in more creative content. 

Katherine Warman Kern
www.comradity.com
@comradity

On Sep 4, 2013, at 2:35 PM, Doc Searls 
<
 >
 wrote:

> New, good: 
> <http://www.tubefilter.com/2013/07/22/vlogbrothers-subbable-pay-what-you-want-hank-john-green/>
> 
> In case you don't know VlogBrothers:
> 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VlogBrothers>
> <http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers>
> 
> Doc