The Challenges and Opportunities of Bitcoin for the Entertainment Industry

The Challenges and Opportunities of Bitcoin for the Entertainment Industry
Ben Johnson
Updated on 12/02/2023

How Bitcoin and Blockchain will change the future of filmIf you are a producer or distributor of content and like the ideas of:

  • raising and executing finance in more efficient ways;
  • cutting out middlemen in financial transactions;
  • new business models for making money off of your content;
  • rewarding people who create word of mouth about content;
  • new ways to prevent your content from being copied or stolen;

Then you should probably take some time and check out the interviews in this article.
As we draw to the end of 2016, releasing independent movies continues to be a daunting challenge. We live in a time where more and more content (films, shorts, documentaries, and series) are being produced. The costs of production continue to plummet. Juxtaposed to this is the declining economics of traditional independent film distribution. Business and art are colliding and not in a good way: there is simply too much friction in the processes of discovery, convenience, time management, rights management and payments that continues to make the process of investing in film a risky proposition.
One of the major pain points is linked to the process of payments! Not everyone has access to a credit card, not everyone is prepared to risk paying for content when there is a limited knowledge of the storyline and not everyone is prepared to pay the same flat rate for an experience.
Bitcoin is a 7 year old cryptocurrency that uses block chain. For those of you unfamiliar, Bitcoin has some incredibly important ramifications for the future success of the independent film industry, and generally for the whole content industry in general.
To learn more about this fascinating area I interviewed a good buddy of mine who has been into crypto currencies and Blockchain for as long as I can remember. Matt Henderson from Makalu takes me through a brief history of bitcoin, fear and safety within this new world of money, and the implications this technology has for all of us working in the entertainment industries.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MZR9VkINILY

In a world of streaming, frictionless micropayment options, the producer has access to powerful new tools that cut out middlemen fees and introduce the opportunity for new business models such as ‘payment by the second watched’. Producers could also reward serendipity as content owners would be able to reward users with Bitcoin in return for sharing or promoting their content. Blockchain also provides an alternative form of Digital Rights Management (the technology that prevents your from downloading and sharing content while watching services like Netflix). And companies like Verizon and Sky are already seriously looking into using this technology to protect content.
Verzion to use blockchain management for Digital Rights Management | BTC ManagerThese innovations have incredible ramifications for the industry as a whole, as producers will no longer be tied to distribution platforms and windowing, which could mount serious challenges and opportunities to the traditional gatekeepers across the entire spectrum of the entertainment industry.
Could blockchain technology solve streaming music’s payment rows? | The GuardianBitcoin adoption is subject to the push-pull economics of necessity. For more information on Bitcoin listen to this interview with Joe Rogan & Andreas Antonopoulos, where Andreas explains in scrupulous detail what’s coming and it’s fascinating.

Gruvi is a fast growing social technology company that is helping global entertainment brands tackle the rising challenges and opportunities of online, social and mobile marketing. We do this by providing campaign management systems that scale internationally while promoting and tracking the sales of their content, whether that be sell-through or cinema tickets.

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The Challenges and Opportunities of Bitcoin for the Entertainment Industry
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