A new streaming service called Olyn has launched to give indie filmmakers the ability to sell their movies directly to audiences by tapping critics, content creators, and fans as a paid-marketing engine via affiliate links.
The Big Picture: Indie film is in a tough spot, with titles from top markets like Sundance and Toronto looking for distribution sometimes a year after they premiere. By using a streamer that relies on (a compensated) word of mouth over an algorithm, films could break out from two simple factors: the strength of the movie and the strength of their grassroots marketing.
Behind the Scenes: Olyn can best be described as a mix between Shopify and YouTube.
Olyn boasts that it gives filmmakers all the technical specs they want from a streamer: digital-rights management, 4K quality, a splashy landing page, and plenty of analytics (including geographical viewership breakdowns and a database of users who watched).
But what makes it truly unique is an e-commerce component — filmmakers are able to sell their movies directly to audiences, taking 90% of the revenue.
They can also allow influencers, journalists, critics, creators, and others to embed affiliate links for the movie across their content, including blogs, web pages, and social media posts.
Closing Credits: Olyn, which has only raised $2.8 million so far, has already scored its first buzzy film on the platform, the Studio POW-produced biopic of Beatles collaborator Brian Epstein titled Midas Man. Producer Perry Trevers told TechCrunch that the British film inked a licensing deal with Prime Video in the UK but has the ability to sell the film in other markets however they choose, so they decided to give Olyn a try.
The movie, backed by good reviews and a well-known cast, serves as a great test case for the platform’s potential. If successful, it could put Olyn on the radar of the indie market at large and maybe inspire other productions to pre-sell their films in select territories to fund their projects… then distribute them through Olyn in others once completed.
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