Vodo Sets Up Currency To Encourage More Promotion
from the alternative-economies dept
In the debate over business models that embrace file sharing networks, one of the more interesting projects to watch has been Vodo, which is a platform for filmmakers who wish to release their works via file sharing setups, and to enjoy a promotional boost for doing so. Movies released via Vodo have done quite well, both in getting attention and in getting monetary support. The company has now updated its system and has added an interesting element: an internal currency, called "Do," to encourage people to promote the works.That is, if you point people to a download -- you can earn some "Do" every time someone visits an artist's website or downloads the work or even agrees to give money to a content creator. This could be interesting to watch, though I do wonder how well it will work. On the positive side, as we were just discussing in our Dark Helmet case study, one of the most important things in getting modern business models to work is to get your biggest fans to help promote you. However, at the same time, we've also warned about the risks of artificial incentives to promote some content, you run the risk of people questioning the motives for the promotion. If Vodo can balance this, it could be quite nice, but that balance is very much an open question. I agree that it's important to make people comfortable promoting you, but I worry that creating such incentives leaves it very much open to gaming, rather than legitimate advocacy.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: currency, file sharing, incentives, movies, promotions, rewards
Companies: vodo
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Name in lights
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Name in lights
On the article though, the only think holding back the internet is the lack of presence of an easy way for paying for things, no Paypal is not it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I like this a lot....
John goes to the movies with a few friends. They see Where the Wild Things Are.
Now John and friends like most movies, but they feel the movie really needs a solid plot and storyline. Where the Wild Things Are lacks this.
So John goes to school the next day and tells everyone he hated the movie. Dont go see it he says, its a waste of time and money. People listen, and dont go see it.
Now flip the same scenerio over to VoDo. John downloads Where the Wild Things Are and watches it. He hates it, and does not distribute or donate to the movie. He tells his friends he hated it, but hang on... His friends download it anyway, because it doesnt cost them anything. Some of them actually like it, because they dont have the same movie likes and dislikes as John did. 4 of them donate and tell their friends, who then download and donate and it snowballs.
Compare the two scenerios, in the first, only John and his few friends pay for the movie. In the second, John doesnt pay, but many more people pay, and their friends pay.
As much sense as this makes, Hollywood will never wrap their miniscule brains around it, because it would require actually creating DECENT content rather than using clever advertising tricks to make their money.
I am going to download and promote that movie, Person of Interest, it looks really good.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
OMG
This is awesome, what a great thing I am telling everyone!!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: OMG
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Talking about new business models and then saying this is a bad idea. Who are you and what have you done with mike? All systems are open to gaming. You always talk about the streisand effect and how comedians haze and guilt one another for stealing jokes. This is a similar situation. What they seem to be going for is along the lines of the pirate distro groups. You will see them ranking people based on their ability to promote. These people are going to be one part in a system of promotion. You should give it a chance to work. A chance for VoDo to work out the bugs.
The only thing left for the record labels and the studios (TV and Movie) is their ability to promote. If this works it may be one part of a method to promote that works for online video and perhaps music. It could be the knife that stops the TV studios hearts and begins the acceleration of the slow bleed affecting the record labels.
All in all its a good thing ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
VODO and the Furture...
L5 is a project I was lucky enough to work on. We released it on VODO Feb 12, 2012. On March 5, 2012 we passed one million downloads on VODO alone...in 12 days.
ONE.
MILLION.
DOWNLOADS.
12 Days.
This number doesn't even include the 'partner' sites in the torrent-sphere like Utorrent, BitTorrent, EZTV and others.
This is with zero dollars spent on adverts.
No banner ads.
No email bombs.
Just 'word of mouth'. Just people sharing with their friends.
Ain't the internet grand?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]