When I was a kid, movie theaters had another name in my family… day care.

During the summer months, my dear mother - who owned a cute little restaurant called “The Birdcage Tearoom” - would drop my sister and me off at the little two-screen theater down the road and go work the lunch and afternoon tea rush.

She’d buy us each a ticket to the first screening, give us a little money for popcorn and candy, and head to work. My sister and I would just watch the same movies, over and over again… going back and forth between the two screens. I know, I know… we should’ve paid for each showing. Hey, we were kids… what did we know? But, ya know what? It’s one of the best memories of my childhood. It was in those days, sitting in the dark theater, eyes opened wide in amazement, that I fell in love with movies.

It wasn’t until years later that I understood why my mom did it. She had to. We were broke. See, times were tough. There was a massive recession going on and my mom had a huge Small Business Administration loan to repay. The reality was, day care was simply not an option.

So, the movies were our baby sitter. A refuge and a joyful distraction from the stress going on in our world.

The entertainment industry has many so-called “truisms.” Age-old axioms that are generally accepted as ironclad facts. When I began my career, one of the first “truisms” I heard was that entertainment was “recession-proof.” The logic is that when times are tough, people need an escape. And entertainment is a cheap way to shut out the world and just be taken away from your troubles for a little while. There is some decent historical data to support that idea.

But today, as we face a dizzying barrage of economic tumult, the question is - will entertainment, once again, be recession-proof?

Now this is just my two cents (although with inflation it may now be four cents), but my answer to that question is:

No… and yes.

Let me start with the bad stuff. The studios, streamers and cinemas were already facing massive headwinds. A lot of this I have pointed out before, but it bears restating in this context.

Theatrical: Even with last weekend’s big opening of the Minecraft movie, 2025 box office is still shaping up to be below pre-pandemic levels. Going to the cinema is an expensive, high-friction endeavor. While many customers still say they are willing to go, they complain about the quality of the offerings. Even before this current madness, consumers were saying that it takes a LOT for them to leave the house, buy tickets for the whole family and overpay for popcorn, candy and soda. Will that get better as budgets tighten? Tough to say.

Streamers: Since 2019, streamers have seen a 400%+ increase in the number of subscribers who jump from service to service to watch the movies or shows they want to watch: they subscribe, watch, cancel and move on. Gone are the days of putting your credit card down and forgetting about it. That level of churn is wreaking havoc on subscriber-based platforms that rely on steady, or better yet, growing subscriber numbers each quarter. There is plenty of reason to assume this would only increase in an economic downturn.

Studios: The costs of making movies, and perhaps more importantly marketing them, continue to go through the roof. And worse yet, the once reliable, IP-driven franchises have been underperforming. Fewer movies and shows are being produced. More is being spent and revenue is often coming in lower than expected. In fact, the big studios have seen their net income decline by over 60% in recent years. If revenues begin to fall, the likelihood of this trend continuing may go up.

It could easily be argued that, for the big players, these already worsening trends could actually be accelerated by an economic downturn this time around. But, now there is one other wild card.

Over the last decade, China has become more and more important for big-budget Hollywood films. Even as China’s entertainment industry has been ascending lately, taking more of the overall pie, studios still count on China to add significantly to their global box office numbers. While Trump is vacillating on some of his tariffs, the massive tariffs he levied on China haven't been paused. Ironically, the only US product exported to China that enjoys a surplus is entertainment. And you will not be surprised to learn that China is now threatening to shut that spigot off. When the difference between a big budget film being successful or the execs behind it dusting off their resumes may be just a couple of percentage points, losing such a massive market would be catastrophic.

Not sure I would go so far as to bet against the big industry players. They are super smart, still have tons of resources and many could, at worst, just weather the storm and come back to fight another day. But, if they need to go into a defensive posture, you could certainly see more layoffs and even fewer movies and shows being produced by the big players.

That, to me, creates a window of opportunity for Indie Film & TV creators.

Hollywood projects - thanks to massive production costs, marketing costs, infrastructure and overhead - require their projects to have incredibly high returns to be profitable. But where Hollywood must rely on their projects “hitting a home run” every time, Indie Film and TV producers can play “Moneyball.” For those not familiar, Moneyball is a reference to the Michael Lewis book about a major league baseball team who used data to identify the players for their roster. What the data showed was, rather than spending top-dollar for high-profile, flashy players, they should focus on players who simply, “get on base.” The logic is pretty simple: players who may not have a million dollar bat, but know how to work a pitch count, know how to keep the ball down and shoot it into the gap… they get on base. And if you have a lot of players who get on base, by definition, you have a better chance of winning the game.

That’s what Indies can do.

It used to be that Indie films and TV shows would look smaller, because - well - they had smaller budgets. They were more contained. Fewer locations. Not a lot of sets. Smaller casts. Less well-known talent. But that, among many other things, is changing.

Here are some thing Indies can take advantage of now:

* High-profile talent are much more interested in making Indie films and TV shows, these days. I’ve referenced this before, but when you have prominent talent like Mark Ruffalo, publicly encouraging his fellow stars to “jump into indies…” that’s a good sign. There are lots of reasons they are wanting to do this, of course. And one of them is the desire to, exit the “empire of billionaires” at studios, as Ruffalo says. But, there is also the fact that there are fewer films and shows being produced at the studios and streamers. And that may only get worse. Stars are looking to work. This could make it a great time to bolster your cast with well-known talent.

* Indies can focus on niche audiences. Rather than needing a project to have mass, so-called “four quadrant” appeal, Indies can “narrow cast.” Not only does this work to more effectively target the audience that is most likely to watch, but the resonance of the story to that particular community, makes them more likely to share it with their friends and family.

* Indies can utilize the power of the exploding Creator Economy to build marketing energy around their project. Now, lots of filmmakers I speak with bristle at this notion. I get it. Making a movie or show is hard enough. And now filmmakers are expected to be social media creators as well? The answer is simple. YES. This is the new world we live in. I have said this before in this newsletter/podcast. But, it bears repeating. The most successful Indie filmmakers of the future will be “multiprenuers.” Artists who embrace the tools and techniques that make the Creator Economy so effective at building community to build an audience for their film, even as its being made. I tell every filmmaker I meet to embrace their storytelling skills to create short-form, episodic videos about their day to day process. Create cliffhangers. Make people want to come back for more. By the end, you may just build an army of fans who are not only anxious for your project to come out, but are willing to spread the word. That’s the most powerful, virtually free, marketing in the world.

* With the amazing, fast-paced evolution of AI tools, Indie filmmakers are no longer necessarily limited to small, contained worlds. It’s not going to need to be used on every film of course. But, the idea of being able to make a low (or even micro) budget animated film, or a sci-fi film set on another planet, without spending the millions of dollars it would have cost even just a few year ago, is an absolute game changer.

* With new platforms offering direct-to-consumer distribution solutions, Indie films are no longer stuck having to deal with the old network of middlemen who make profitability virtually impossible. This isn’t about just throwing your project on a website and hoping people show up. No, this is a specific strategy, utilizing all of the elements we have already discussed, to get as many people as possible excited to pay to watch your project. But instead of watching on somebody else’s platform, where they take most of the money, you do it on a platform that gives you tools to help you and your community market the movie and gives the majority of the revenue back to you. Then, after its initial release window, you can license the project to other SVOD, TVOD and AVOD streamers. And the better the project did in its initial release, the higher your license fees may be on those deals. It gives you the best of all worlds. And, as a huge added bonus… you still own your IP.

All of this adds up to the ability to make high-quality films and shows, while still keeping costs low, making the possibility of profitability more attainable. By focusing on “getting on base” rather than making projects that can only succeed if they are a massive hit, you increase the likelihood of your financiers recouping… or maybe even returning a profit. Which means they may be more likely to invest in the future. And if you recoup faster, a project that takes off is even more profitable for everyone.

And all of this can happen, even in a difficult economy. In fact, I would argue, it has a better chance of working than the bigger budget movies. Of course, time will tell.

Look, I know this is a lot to take in. But I hope you feel, as I do, that even in the midst of a seemingly unrelenting wave of chaos and uncertainty, the future for Indies is bright.

Let me know what you think!

#indiefilm #creatoreconomy #entertainment #AI

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com

Ah, the good ol’ days of yore.

When I began my entertainment career as a pathetically naive nineteen year old, the music industry was arguably one of the most dominant forces in culture. For decades, they’d brought us artists who defined how we dressed. How we danced. They gave us everything from catch phrases to political views. They challenged authority. They defined eras. The rock n roll t-shirt we wore to our first day of high school would determine which group of friends we would join, and which groups we would avoid. Music, and the business that provided it, was omnipresent. So as an art school student who knew all three chords on a guitar (and even a couple of others, just in case I needed to impress someone), the music industry was a beacon of light. A dream. I wanted to be a part of it. And through some dumb luck and a whole lot of hard work, I got there.

Fast forward to the next important era in music history: The Digital Music Revolution. Around that time, I was part of a little record company in New York co-founded by a TV celebrity, an heir to a music industry icon and a good friend. The business was hard. It was expensive. Hits were few and far between. We spent over 50% of our budget on manufacturing CDs and vinyl, as well as distribution fees. Beyond the high cost of distribution, just to get one of our records on a shelf, we had to pay record stores and big box retailers extra. It was a brutal business. But, then, something started happening. I began hearing about this idea of delivering music over the internet. And, I don’t mean to brag, but unlike so many in the industry, I thought it was a god send. To me, it was simple economics: I said to myself, “You mean instead of printing CDs, paying to put them on a truck, only to be extorted by record store chains who would force us to pay to be included in their weekend mailer or else they wouldn’t carry our records… we could just, like, send it over the internet?” I was like… “Wow, we would actually have a chance of making money for a change.”

Now, of course, it didn’t go quite like that. The truth was that, at first, the main “business” of the Digital Music Revolution was piracy. It was bad. But, perhaps the biggest impact - and it was pretty close to immediate - was that it gave consumers a much easier way to discover and consume music. The incredibly innovative compression technology that made internet delivery of music possible, created a nearly overnight change in consumer behavior. As if in one voice, consumers said, “Why go to record store and pay for music, when I can just download it?” This became one of the most important lessons I learned from that era: If you want someone to adopt a new technology, it better makes something they already do better and easier, not worse and harder (listen up all my Web3 friends!). Friction, it turns out, is a killer in business. So suddenly, the music industry was confronted by a cataclysmic event. Consumers moved away from the once all powerful silo the industry controlled, to the Wild West of the internet. And, as it turns out, there was no getting them back. But the few of us who were excited by the new technology, tried to convince the powers-that-be, to look beyond the obvious problem of piracy, and instead embrace the technology as an absolute game changer for the business. We shouted from the mountaintops, “We should work with these technology companies to turn this into a legal, highly lucrative new model!” By that time, Napster (the leader in the space) was boasting tens of millions of users and hundreds of millions of downloads. Imagine, we said, if we could turn that into a model where people actually pay for the music. Sure, it would be challenge to convert people out of listening for free, but I truly believed it was possible. And interestingly, Napster was game for it. In fact, they claimed that was always their plan.

Thus, began the shuttle diplomacy where digital music leaders attempted to build a bridge with the music business. For a while, it seemed like there was a real chance to make it work. Some of the big companies jumped on board. Some even invested in Napster. But then… disaster. I won’t name any names here, but IYKYK. One fateful day, a meeting between two digital music founders and the heads of one of the largest music industry conglomerates went horrifically and epically bad. See, rather than coming into the meeting with a desire to work through the challenges, the two founders (by their own admission), came in “guns blazing.” They were arrogant. They told the big label boss that he was at the helm of a sinking ship. That he had no choice but to give in to their way of doing things because they were smarter and understood the business better than he did. They intentionally, and inadvisably decided to “poke the bear.” Well, you can imagine what happened. A memo was drafted after that meeting that became colloquially known as the “scorched earth policy.” This company, along with many others, joined together to sue Napster and all companies like them into oblivion. And it worked. The once powerful technology company, with a much better mouse trap, that easily could have kept the record business at the top of the cultural ladder, collapsed. But, while the defendants fell, the litigants suffered nearly fatal, collateral damage. The industry, by taking such extreme stances on digital music - even going so far as to sue consumers who used the platforms - had lost their audience. Sales of CDs collapsed. The scorched earth policy against Digital Music companies had become a sort of suicide pact. And, as is always the case, the vacuum that was created was quickly filled. And the once all-powerful music industry was relegated to being nothing more than vendors for streaming companies like Apple and Spotify.

Now, I fear, we are running the risk of repeating that history.

Just like Napster before them, it seems like some in the AI space are taking a very similar approach. They are intentionally, and provocatively… poking the bear.

Now let me state from the top, that I am a big believer in the opportunity that AI offers the entertainment industry. As I said in a recent thread on LinkedIn, what I find most interesting about these tools is what happens when they are put in the hands of truly gifted storytellers who, for whatever reason, simply would never have access to the millions of dollars it would likely take to fulfill their vision in the traditional sense. I believe these tools could make an entirely new kind of Indie cinema - driven by incredible storytellers you’ve never heard of who, thanks to AI, can make films and shows that otherwise would have been impossible. In my view, it could lead to a renaissance of storytelling. Not fueled by a network of gatekeepers who control what gets made and where it gets seen, but a legion of, as yet, undiscovered creators who may very well, as you read this, be making a movie in their bedroom. And that movie, might just change the world.

However, like Digital Music in the early 2000’s, AI creates truly complex issues that must be addressed.

I love the idea that some are currently pursuing called ETHICAL AI. Creators, technicians and craftspeople working together to train their own models, on their own IP. My friends at Toonstar, as well as, Bryn Mooser at Asteria are forging that path. I can’t wait to see what they do. But, that is hard, expensive and takes time.

For most creators, the power and relatively low cost of tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT4o, Runway 4 and all of the others is impossible to resist. However those incredibly powerful tools, just like Napster and Kazaa of the past, come with a dirty - not so secret - secret. They are trained off of existing IP. Virtually every AI generated video or image you have seen, contains, at least in part, the artwork of other artists. Artists who, in no way, are compensated for it.

But, rather than debating the efficacy of that - I truly believe that a way will be found to fix that issue. I am more concerned about the approach some of the biggest players in the space are using.

During the recent, debilitating strikes in Hollywood, one of the big issues on the table was AI. I said at the time that, in my opinion, many of the arguments made against AI were not entirely wrong, but perhaps a bit uninformed, reactionary and short-sighted. But nevertheless, there was a genuine panic among creators that studios would use these tools to essentially replace talent and artisans with cheaper AI tools. And while some are beginning to come to grips with the inevitability of this new technology, many others are still in a complete meltdown over it. And while studios are loving the idea of being able to make more, incredible looking movies for way less money (because, of course they are), suddenly the issue of these massive companies (OpenAI just closed a round of financing at a $300B valuation), training their systems on IP owned by the studios, with them getting nothing in return, now has them freaking out, as well.

So you have Hollywood and Big Tech squaring off, yet again. But, just like in the early 2000’s, there could be a really smart, mutually beneficial way to bring all sides together and begin a new, prosperous era for entertainment. Unless, of course, the AI companies decide to poke the bear.

So what do you think happened? You guessed it. OpenAI, with the launch of their new ChatGPT4o, promoted a video based on The Lord of the Rings, using the original actor’s voices, created using a blatant and publicly acknowledged rip off of the legendary animator, Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli style. A complete and total confirmation that anyone who has been fearing that AI will simply annex any IP owned by someone else and use it for they own benefit, is absolutely right. And worse, it seems they didn’t just do it with a wink and a nod, they did it with an emphatic “what are you gonna do about it?”

Look, I know there are many issues that this raises. And there are no shortage of opinions. I’ve heard all of them: “You can’t copyright a style.” “It’s all under the ‘fair use’ clause.” I get it. And some of it may, in fact, be correct. Time will tell.

My question is, why do it this way? Why in the hell is the strategy to poke the bear? With Napster v. The Music Industry, both sides wound up killing themselves out of arrogance and stupidity.

So, how do I think this may go from here?

Now, what I’m about to share aren’t necessarily predictions. It’s possible some other outcome exists. But as I see it, and for what it’s worth, I’m afraid these are the three potential outcomes to this silly, silly strategy:

First, is a brutal legal fight where studios, creators and talent join together to sue AI companies. How long would that take? Would it completely stop progress on the ability to use these tools? Will individual creators that use tools be dragged into the litigation?

Second, the studios cave and strike a deal with the AI companies to avoid protracted litigation. However, where does this leave the talent, artisans and craftspeople? Are they just kind of hanging in the wind? Does this lead to another devastating strike?

And finally - and frankly what I am most worried about - the current administration reverses decades of copyright law with the stroke of a pen. Suddenly, it’s the Wild West. Nothing is protected. Could it turn out that you make a great movie, and the next day someone releases virtually the same movie and monetizes it for themselves? It would be a mess.

My honest opinion is that it didn’t have to be this way. Rather than behaving like an obnoxious teenager flipping off the world, there could have been a conscious decision to lock arms and find ways for everyone to work together. Sadly, that’s not the world we live in.

Believe me, I can’t wait to be proven wrong about this. I really can’t. But, what do you think? Is the idea of technologists poking the bear, yet again, the right play? Looking forward to hearing what others think!

Entertaining the Future is sponsored by Bingeable. Bingeable is changing the way Indie movies are marketed and sold. Check out their latest movie, Muchachos at bingeable.net/muchachos

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com

March 27, 2025 - Los Angeles

Los Angeles is a trip.

Let me state something at the outset. Even though I was born out here, grew up in Indiana and began my career in Nashville… I actually consider myself a New Yorker.

A NOTE FROM THE LEGAL DEPARTMENT: I am obligated to mention that my New Yorker status is, of course, a technicality. My citizenship was earned by invoking the “if you live in New York for at least a decade you can claim it as your home.” clause.

Now, as a New Yorker and being in the entertainment business, I have made the obligatory trek between New York and LA hundreds of times. Yet, after all these years, I am still fascinated by this place.

Los Angeles sits precariously balanced on a knife’s edge between a massive, unforgiving desert and a vast, seemingly endless sea. Everyone who lives here knows that, at some point, whether from the shaky ground beneath or the karmic implosion that will inevitably come from the unrelenting, slow-moving violence that is LA traffic - this city will, one day and without question, either be consumed by the desert… or simply slide into the sea. A clash of extreme forces that makes the City of Angels a Shangri-La, but with a terminal diagnosis.

While the town still stands, however, it delivers an endless array of oddities and bemusements. An insanely silly example are their taxi cabs. Now, of course, these days taxis aren’t as much of a thing as they used to be. But there was a time, over a decade ago, when I grabbed a taxi from LAX to Hollywood. As the cab pulled up, I let out an embarrassingly loud cackle (thank god I was in LA… no one even noticed). It wasn’t that the car was funny - it was fine. And it certainly wasn’t anything to do with the driver, he was a lovely man who knew the town like the back of his hand. No, my laugh was because of what was written on the side of the cab. See, in New York we have the classic yellow cabs. On the side of our cabs, it simply says, Yellow Cab. Call it what it is, right? But, no, in LA they had a different name on the door of their cabs. The taxi company in LA is called… get ready for it… United Independent. Just let that simmer for a moment. United. Independent. “We’re united… independently.” Or maybe it’s “we’re united in our independence?”I don’t know why, but it just tickled me to no end.

But after all of these years… and after telling that joke in innumerable meetings, I am confronted with an embarrassing realization. Those sloppy word welders who blithely slapped two seemingly contradictory words together… were actually really on to something.

Let me explain.

We sit at a crossroads in the history of entertainment. The big players are in, what could justifiably be called, a state of paralysis. A less generous assessment would be that the industry is in utter shambles. Data is pouring in and the outlook for the industry is, at best, bleak. Consumers are simply not going to the theaters like they used to. 2025 box office is down more than 7% from this time last year . And last year ticket sales were 26% lower than pre-pandemic 2019. And, I hate to remind everyone, but 2019 was one of the lowest box office year since the 1980’s. (NOTE: Don’t look at box office revenue, look at tickets sold. Revenue is misleading metric, because theaters and studios drastically increased ticket prices when ticket sale began to dip.) When it comes to streaming, according to Statista, over 50% of consumers say they are no longer willing to let their credit card get pinged every month for a subscription. Instead, they are cycling through subscription VOD services based on what they want to watch. They sign up, watch, cancel, move to another platform and repeat - a pattern that is horrifying to streamers who rely on stable or growing subscriber numbers to keep their shareholders happy. As for traditional studios, their net income is down over 60% in recent years. Big production companies and production funds are declaring bankruptcy. Streamers are laying people off , while they are producing and acquiring less movies and shows. And two days ago, the Hollywood Reporter reported that free, creator content on YouTube got more viewing time than any other U.S. media provider. Thanks in no small part to viewers over 50!

This is what scholars call, “a s**t show.”

For filmmakers and storytellers, there are two ways to look at it: either the sky is falling, or this is the opportunity of a lifetime. You may have already guess where I land on that spectrum.

For years, I have been bemoaning the way the entertainment industry (in general), and the movie business (specifically), is broken. The industry’s power has, for over a century, rested in their ability to distribute films. They didn't own the audiences as much as they owned the audience access points. And because of that, they were able to “evil-genius” a system that forced everything to go through their gates. Even an independent financed and produced film, if it wanted to find an audience, would have to go through the big machine. And once in their grips, filmmakers and their financiers were obligated to accept the industry’s economic terms… and worse yet, their devious accounting practices. Forgive the hyperbole, but one could call it a kind of hostage situation. You want your movie or show to be seen? You have no choice but to hand it over to the companies that own and control the funnel and accept their terms.

But now, Hollywood and the systems they created are faltering. The question isn’t necessarily whether the industry can right the ship, they probably will. But it’s a pretty safe bet that whatever they come up with will still attempt to leverage their stranglehold on distribution and control the economics of entertainment.

So the question isn’t, “can we fix Hollywood?” No, the question is whether their current weakness provides an opportunity for independent filmmakers and their financiers to build up their own parallel industry.

I believe this is the moment.

And I’m not alone. Look at what four time Academy Award® nominated actor, Mark Ruffalo said recently:

But for it to really work - and I can’t believe I’m about to use this phrase - we need to be United Independents. I think we need to build a collective. A sort of storyteller coalition. A community of filmmakers, artisans and craftspeople who make great films and shows, and then leverage new technologies, tools and models to create our own, separate Indie film industry. From top to bottom. New financing models. New, more efficient production tools. New marketing and Direct to Consumer distribution. We don’t need to abandon the existing streamers and platforms… they can serve as fantastic “second windows.” But for the most lucrative part of a release cycle: the initial release… that should belong to the creators and their communities.

To make this work, we need understand the market. We need to work together in order to deliver our stories in a way that:

• Meets audiences where they are, and therefore costs less to market

• Gives audiences the experience and stories they want

• Encourages fans to not just watch, but to participate

• Incentivizes all stakeholders and even fans to actively amplify a project to increase reach

• Eliminates the middlemen who take all the money

• Enables projects to recoup faster and more predictably, thus attracting more financiers

The good news is, for every single thing I just mentioned, solutions already exist. There are really smart, passionate people who have built literally every piece of this new Indie film puzzle.

Therefore, I believe there are clear ways for Indie filmmakers to outpace the traditional industry. If the industry’s power comes from their ability to control the access points for audiences, then their biggest vulnerability is exposed when the creators have their own access points.

So as a collective, an empowered community of the creators who are actually making the products, there is enormous power. It’s scary, I admit. The entertainment business has trained us all to think: “We get paid to make the stuff, and then someone else figures out how to get it into the world.” But that’s exactly what the old system relied on. By giving up the “business” part of the entertainment business to some one else, we handed them the keys to the kingdom.

But, no more. I believe that if we embrace this moment and coalesce around a shared goal: a new, fairer, more efficient and more effective industry created by filmmakers and for filmmakers, we can quite literally change the world.

So with my new, weekly newsletter and podcast - Entertaining the Future - my hope is to highlight this exciting, transformative moment for Indie filmmakers and financiers. But, I also hope to be a gathering place for creators from all over the world. Learning from each other. Supporting each other and collectively, cooperatively build the next wave of cinema. Not just for ourselves, but for generations of storytellers to come. It’s an audacious goal. I hope you will join me in this mission.

Let me know what you think in the comments below, and please share this newsletter with your friends. Let’s unite in our fight for entertainment independence.

Thanks for reading Entertaining the Future! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com

Look, pretty much everyone knows that  Hollywood generates massive profits from projects they claim failed to break even. The control of marketing, distribution and data enables studios, networks and streamers to create a virtual “black hole” where profits can “disappear.”

The truth is, a better, healthier, more equitable Entertainment Industry is achievable today. The technology is there. The key is making a real commitment to a true partnership with the most important players in the ecosystem:

The Financiers, The Talent and The Fans.

How To Fix Hollywood By Partnering with Financiers

I came to the realization a long time ago, that the only way to fix the economic model for Talent, is to first fix the economic model for Financiers.

So, how do we that?

First, we need to REMOVE THE MIDDLEMEN who take the vast majority of revenues and make Independent Financiers much more likely to lose money on the projects they finance.

We can drastically reduce Financier risk and enable faster recoupment by empowering Talent and Fans to market and sell projects directly to consumers. Simply put, by removing the middlemen Financiers can recoup their investments from up to 14 times the amount of gross revenue compared to a traditional release. That mean projects break even faster and from fewer sales.

Second, we need to OFFER TRUST. For decades, Hollywood’s complex and opaque accounting systems have allowed the industry to hide profits from virtually all stakeholders. But, by replacing the existing systems of marketing and distribution with a model that enables creators and talent to sell directly to consumers, we can utilize new technologies that offer Independent Financiers (as well as Talent) completely transparent accounting and real-time access to all data related to their projects. Additionally, these systems would enable Financiers to automatically audit every payment. In an industry notorious for their devious accounting practices, that is a game changer.

How To Fix Hollywood By Partnering With Talent

For over a century, Hollywood has dictated the economic terms of storytelling. The way the old system is designed, Talent is essentially treated like vendors or employees. But by treating Talent more like partners, we can redefine the economics for all forms of filmed entertainment. But how do we do that?

First, we need to allow talent to share in dollar one gross revenue - and then double that share after costs have been recouped. This will encourage lower production costs and active promotion. Eliminating the idea of “back-end” revenue sharing and replacing it with “front-end” revenue sharing, aligns everyone’s interests. As a result, projects could cost less to make and market. And spending less means faster recoupment for Financiers, and that means talent’s share of revenue doubles sooner. Everybody wins.

Second, we should allow the creators of a project to maintain ownership in the IP. This will motivate continued support and promotion throughout the lifecycle of the project and enable Talent to enjoy recurring revenue streams in perpetuity… just like the studios do.

How To Fix Hollywood By Partnering With Fans

Fans are the lifeblood of the Entertainment Industry. By empowering Talent to harness the direct relationship they have with their Fans through social media, we can eliminate the middlemen and drastically reduce marketing costs. What’s more is that there are incredible opportunities to engage audiences beyond simply creating a film or series and hoping they pay to watch it.

First, we should team up with Fans. By empowering and financially motivating Fans to actively participate in everything from production to promotion and sales, we can increase and sustain engagement, while expanding the potential audience - all for a fraction of the cost of a traditional release strategy.

Second, we need to reduce friction. For today’s consumer friction is a killer. We need to deliver instant gratification by letting fans rent, watch and share a project through their social media profiles - without jumping through hoops and with no commitments.

By bringing fans into the process of creating, marketing and selling a project, and by making it as easy as possible to find and watch… we make the audience our partners in fixing Hollywood.

Bingeable Enables Partnerships That Fix Hollywood

Everything I have just described, while a prescription for fixing Hollywood in general, is specifically what we have built Bingeable to do. Bingeable offers a suite of tools and frameworks that align and activate talent, financiers, and fans as true partners in creating and selling premium entertainment. The Bingeable approach shares more value with these key stakeholders and as a result, creates more value for everyone.

Bingeable’s platform provides:

• DECENTRALIZED MARKETING, DISTRIBUTION and SALES

We give creators, stars, soundtrack artists, influencers and fans, their own Individual Video On Demand (iVOD) channel, which enables them to promote and sell MOVIE TICKETS from AMC and/or PREMIUM VOD RENTALS (powered by AWS) directly to their social media followers and share in that revenue.

• PROPRIETARY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TOOLS

Bingeable helps iVOD owners convert social media followers into paying customers with proprietary social media marketing tools and resources that make it easier to create focused and actionable promotional content. This approach has been proven to be effective at creating significant scale, while costing a fraction of traditional marketing. And spending less on marketing, means FINANCIERS risk less capital.

• TRANSPARENT ACCOUNTING AND DOLLAR-ONE REVENUE SHARING

Every transaction, whether a ticket sale, VOD rental, minimum guarantee or licensing fee is written to a Blockchain-powered accounting system. All funds are deposited into a third-party escrow account and funds are distributed to everyone, including Bingeable, at the same time. Bingeable’s revenue sharing model encourages lower production costs, active promotion through social platforms and enables all stakeholders to benefit from the success of a project.

• OPTIMIZED DISTRIBUTION FRAMEWORK

Projects don’t simply stay on Bingeable forever like other streaming platforms. Our Re-Windowing model allows licensing projects to other platforms after the initial Bingeable release, thus maximizing the revenue potential throughout the lifespan of a project.

———

The Entertainment Industry is in shambles. But it would be wrong to assume it is because the system is broken. In truth, the system is working exactly the way it was designed to work. The problem is that both the Audience the Financiers and the Creators are showing us that there needs to be a new approach. A more equitable Entertainment Industry is possible. And Bingeable is here to bring it to life.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com

The above image was created using Photoshop AI (Beta) in about 5 minutes

There is an old saying that I have always loved: “The past echoes.”

It is actually, for me, a beautiful thought. What it means is that in every new moment - whether geo-political, cultural or technical - the past has impacted the future in a way that leaves a mark. Metaphorical tracks in the dirt that lead directly to the next innovation. Not a tribute, per se, rather a kind of residue that clings to a new strand of DNA. The next level in a tower that has been building for years - even centuries.

For the entrepreneurs I’ve advised over my career, I have tried to impress upon them an important truth: Data is always old. The moment something is observed, it is in the past. But there is good reason for an entrepreneur to look backwards. It is the best way to find the trajectory of a future trend. Follow a dataset’s trajectory forward, and you will be able to build for where your potential customers are headed, not where they are.

The truth is that the “beats of behavior” have a pattern - a reliable math or meter. It’s a lot like how you can hear a song for the first time and kind of guess when the verse is about to end and the chorus is about to start - consumer behavior data always offer signals for what is coming next. And what’s next will, almost certainly, be rooted in what has come before. Not an exact reflection, more of an iteration. But, once you learn that, then trends are, in fact, predictable.

Let me give you an example.

I’m willing to bet that most of you have a story about a trend or product you predicted, right? A moment where some new thing hits the market and you were like, “I totally thought of that years ago.” It happens all the time. My own version of that story (actually, there are several) was when I wrote a business plan in, like, 2003 or 2004 for a company I called “Terminal.” The basic concept was that, at some point, the amount of info you could store on your mobile device would not keep up with the data and services you would want to access. So the idea was to use remote servers to store that data and the device would simply connect to it via the internet. Sound familiar? It was essentially what we now call “Cloud Computing.” Now, where did that idea come from? First, I was already annoyed by the limited capacity my mobile device had at the time. But also, because my dad was a technologist back in the day, I had grown up around his data center my whole childhood. It was this massive room full of computers running code and powering systems all throughout the building. It was called a mainframe. And how did his employees access the mainframe? They used a “Terminal.” Essentially, just a dumb box with a screen that had almost no functionality in and of itself. Instead it simply connected the user to the mainframe, which did all of the heavy lifting. “Voila!” I thought. “We should look at our phones as a terminal!” It was a pretty good idea. I even had a cool logo for it. But, as you may have guessed, I never did anything with it. And a few years later… boom… cloud computing was everywhere.

Now, I don’t look back on that and lament. In no way shape or form was I the guy to go and try to do that. And had I tried, in all likelihood it would have failed, because it wasn’t something that was really in my gut. No, instead, I was encouraged. Why? Because, it showed me that by recognizing a market need, and then drawing on my understanding of something from the past, I could come up with a new approach. Not to solve a current problem, but a problem that was most likely going to need to be solved in the future. I took what was going on, and drew a line to the next, most likely friction point.

So what does that mean for what we are all working on today? What does it mean for the Film3 revolution? What is the next friction point, or should I say friction points, that we need to be solving for? Those who read or listen to me a lot will have heard me say the following phrase dozens of times: The goal of Film3 is to change the way entertainment is made, marketed and sold. Now I have tended to spend the most time talking about only two-thirds of that list… marketing and selling. Which are, of course, both huge issues. And, frankly, unless we solve those it will be extremely difficult to effectively change the way entertainment is made. However, recently a massive wave has been building that I believe will change the art of filmed entertainment in ways that, even just a couple years ago, few would have predicted. But, once again, this new trend, is an echo of something that has happened before.

When I was younger, I was able to be a part of a couple seismic shifts in the music business. The first was called The Indie Music Revolution. Many factors came into play. But, one of the most significant was that recording technology went from analog to digital. And the cost of digital recording had become so inexpensive that just about anyone could record an album in their basement and it would sound almost as good as if they had recorded it in one of the big, multi-million dollar studios. Suddenly, artists who most likely never would have been heard on a large scale, were making records that really mattered.

While music is something that could, theoretically, be done in virtual isolation, filmmaking has always required a lot of hands and differing talents to produce. It can also be incredibly expensive. The cost and complexity of the medium has often been a barrier to entry that has limited the number of young storytellers who would even try to produce a film or series. And for films that require a lot of animation or VFX, the barrier is even higher. The old rule is that an animated film can cost as much as $1 million per minute. But just like during The Indie Music Revolution, a new suite of inexpensive tools are going to open doors for storytellers in a way that just might change everything… and, as you probably already guessed… it’s AI.

While still in its relative infancy, AI tools are soon going to enable filmmakers, once limited by location, access to talented collaborators and capital, to tell stories that will blow us all away. And they will do it… from their mom’s basement. And yes, because the past echoes, it is safe to assume there will be a lot of garbage produced. There were a boatload of “albums” that never should have been released back in the early days of Indie Music. I know, I made a few of them. But, just like back then, there will be projects that break out. Where these unknown, multi-discipline artists apply new tech to tell a story that tears down walls. Filmmakers that might have been gate-kept or muted by the old systems, will go from doing a “short film” to try and impress the so-called “power brokers” that they are worth giving a shot, to making fully fleshed-out films or series that look, feel and sound amazing. When paired with the way Film3 can help market and sell their work, it is totally plausible that a completely unknown filmmaker will have a chance to not just release their project (while maintaining ownership of their IP), but to actually see that project achieve commercial and critical success. In fact, I will go out on a limb and say… it’s inevitable.

Now, as always, these tools will ultimately only be as good as the creators who wield them. And there are lots of, as yet unresolved technical, legal and even moral issues that still need to be addressed. But for those who make the move now, and begin exploring and mastering AI filmmaking tools, I believe there is a future that will re-define who gets to tell stories and how they are told.

Speaking for myself, there are stories that I had essentially put on indefinite hold because they would have been too complex and too expensive to tell. Suddenly, as I begin exploring the new tools that are popping up (and improving exponentially) every day, I find myself dusting off those nearly forgotten projects.

Now, if the past truly does echo, then I think it is safe to say that there will be a lot of false starts - a bunch of garbage that may look pretty cool, but doesn’t really connect - a ton of naysayers and old school thinkers who will resist and say it will never happen - there will also, inevitably, be those who use the tools to cause harm, rip off IP and mislead people with their work… But, there will also be new trails blazed - old systems challenged - eventually more and more high-profile creators will jump in - and a whole new type of storytelling will be created.

And by the way, this revolution is not limited by gender, race, social status, wealth, location or age. The tools work just as well for you as they do for me… they can work for anyone for that matter. All that is required is a voice. Your voice. And a desire to tell stories that matter.

I, for one, can’t wait to see what comes of it. And I hope anyone who is reading/listening to this - those who have been made to believe that the dream of telling stories that are seen by millions is only for the few and well connected - I hope you see this as an opportunity to change your stars. I hope you will participate in the AI-filmmaking Revolution to be a part of taking the power back from the gatekeepers and letting your stories (and your ambitions) be limited only by your own imagination.

So dig in. Do the work. Embrace things that don’t work, just as much as those that do. Iterate. Improve. Dream as big as you want. Then find the tools that help you reach that dream. I hope you hear me when I say this… you are the future of entertainment. How do I know? Because, I’ve seen this movie before. It happened in music, and now it is going to happen in film. The past, truly does echo.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com

Waves are most commonly caused by friction between wind and the surface of the water. I mean, that’s what the Google machine says anyway. Waves can also be created in other ways, of course. Surf parks, for instance, use a fascinating combination of super science-y methods to build their waves.  But the one consistent part of the origin of waves is that the water doesn’t make the wave… waves are built by external forces.

Having spent my entire professional life in various parts of the entertainment industry, I have learned an important truth. Frankly, it is one of the most infuriating parts of this business of entertainment. You see, the truth is, the entertainment industry doesn’t build waves. It rides them. Don’t get me wrong, there are absolutely individuals in the industry who have created extraordinary innovations in story telling, formats, promotion. It’s not that it doesn’t happen. It’s more that it is an anomaly. Honestly, in some cases it was an accident. A bug. Not a feature. You see, and this may sound ironic, the entertainment industry is wildly risk averse. Some reasons are obvious. Making high-quality films and TV is extremely expensive. They essentially amount to multi-million dollar bets. It’s not for the feint of heart. And the ones who do it well are deserving of great respect. But the fact that it can be risky, tends to create pressures on studios and streamers to mitigate those risks. And often, that means sitting back and waiting for something to be proven successful by someone else. They wait for a wave to build, and then they jump on. Dumping money and resources onto someone else’s innovation. Ever wonder why similar plots and storylines show up in clumps? A movie about meteors hitting earth gets greenlit at Studio A and boom - Studios B, C, D and Streamer E suddenly go into production on their meteor movies. You can imagine the meetings happening all over Hollywood:

Two studio executives sit in the conference room. Ya’ know, the small one that only seats 40 people. They are eating lunch from one of those classic LA eateries  that specializes in food that resembles other food. Suddenly, Exec One looks up from his copy of Variety and says, “Oh s**t. Studio A is making a meteor movie. We got any meteor movie ideas?”

Exec Two mumbles through a mouth of something that tastes like chicken, “No. We only got a couple ‘aliens attack the earth’ things we developed after ‘Independence Day’ was a big hit.

Exec One taps his fingers on the table. The wheels are turning. Suddenly, lightning strikes. “Can we just replace the aliens with a big space rock?”

Exec Two doesn’t have to think twice. He wipes the mayo that he calls aioli from his chin and mumbles, “Yup.”

Exec One smiles at his genius. “Greenlit.”

And that’s often how it happens. It doesn’t matter if it is a plot line, a technology, whatever. If a wave starts to build, they pile on.

But this time it’s a little different. The truth is the studios and streamers are stuck. They have painted themselves into a corner that, frankly, I don’t know how they get out of. Not only will they, as always, sit by and watch as we build this revolution without them - this revolution just might make them irrelevant. Or perhaps, a more generous way of saying it is that they will keep doing what they are doing. Stuck in neutral. While those of us imaging a better world for creators will surf the wave right past them.

Here is why. The industry’s risk aversion has led them to make fewer movies and to only bet on the big, high-budget, spectacles. But these films are so expensive that they must acquire funding from outside groups. As these films keep costing more, making profitability more difficult, those funding sources are beginning to look for alternatives. Which means the studios and streamers, who (as publicly traded behemoths) are unable to easily change their entire business model, will start to see those funding sources head for the exit. And where will they go? Well, I believe they will be looking for new, alternative forms of production, marketing and distribution. In no way am I predicting the demise of the studios. They are filled with very smart people. They will keep going. But it will be different. They will no longer be the only game in town.

So what does that mean for those of us trying to build the Next Wave of Cinema? This dream we call Film3?

Well, the way I see it, it’s an opportunity. An opportunity to be a part of something that changes everything. The industry won’t build this wave. It can’t. WE WILL. And that is powerful. If we, as a community of pioneers and revolutionaries prove that creator-led communities can be just as powerful as the studios, then it is this movement that has the power, not the old systems.

But it will only work if we build together. If we support each other. If we chose to be collaborators, not competitors. I know that sounds idealistic. It is. But it’s not naive. It is the only way we can truly change the way things have worked for a century. It is exciting. It is daunting. And for me… it is everything.

How about you? Will you wait to ride the wave, or will you jump in and help us build it? I hope you’ll join us. Come on in, the water is fine.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com

A note: Welcome back… to both of us! I have been completely focused on building the last few months. Today marks what I hope will be a return to posting articles more regularly! - SM

In 1969, maverick cineaste Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) brought together a group of pioneering filmmakers, artisans and innovators that included George Lucas (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark), John Milius (Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn), Walter Murch (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley), Caleb Deschanel (The Right Stuff, The Natural) - and others - to form a completely different kind of film studio. He called it American Zoetrope.

Alongside contemporaries Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas), Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Brian DePalma (Carrie, Scarface),  and Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider) - Zoetrope blazed a trail in the art of storytelling.

“It was a wave, not unlike the French New Wave. This was kind of like an American New Wave.” - Steven Spielberg

In the late 60’s, many felt the studios had become bloated, creatively lazy and were, therefore, vulnerable to disruption (sound familiar?). So, this band of rogue storytellers saw an opportunity to change the way movies were made.

“We saw the light in the door beginning to appear. And so we just ran and we kicked and we put our feet in the door and we struggled and fought our way in.” - Martin Scorsese

The parallels to this New Wave in the 60’s and 70’s to what is happening in the business of film today are, frankly, mind-blowing. While the similarities are obvious, perhaps the biggest difference between then and now is the fact that Coppola and his fellow dreamers - in spite of all their passion and vision to change the way stories were told - were inevitably forced to release their work through the old, Hollywood-controlled systems of marketing and distribution. Sadly this meant that the very machine they were rebelling against, was still completely in control. Back then, that control stemmed from the industry’s stranglehold on the channels of marketing and distribution. In fact, it was that power which enabled them to dictate the economics of storytelling for a century. As such, the legends of the American New Wave built a revolution - only to hand all of the rewards and ultimate control back to the studios.

But, today is different. Today, as theatrical sales continue to collapse and streamers are buying fewer and fewer films, the industry’s grip on marketing and distribution is faltering.

Once again, filmmakers and their financiers can see the light beginning to appear around the door. Film3 helps those creators kick that door down. But without the ability to reach the masses, to create real scale, the solutions Film3 offers creators will suffer the same fate as the American New Wave - being completely beholden to the old systems and their economics.

It is time for the Next Wave of Cinema.

The promise of Web3 broadly, and Film3 specifically, is to shift the balance of power from the “networks” to the creators and the communities they build. That idea is revolutionary. And while technology is a major part of this revolution, the reality is that Film3 is more of an idea - a moral construct. In truth, the industry could have simply decided to value creators more a century ago. They just didn’t.

But, the originators of Film3 - this burgeoning community of creators and builders - have decided to change the way it works. Not just creatively - although Film3 certainly has the ability to amplify voices that might otherwise not be heard - but also in the way the films are made, marketed and sold.

The idea of Film3 is to enable creators to build a community that does everything from co-finance to collaborate on the creation of new IP. The current focus is to build that community by attracting early collectors of lush, multi-faceted NFT-powered experiences that can increase in value as a project grows. Ideally, the money that comes from these collectibles goes directly to the creators and helps finance the creation of a film. Even as these collectibles are traded, creators can receive a royalty on every transaction.

(NOTE: The idea of creator royalties has suddenly become a major issue and addressing it would require this article to become way longer than it already is… but I promise to cover this topic soon. - SM)

While this is truly a transformative idea, there are major challenges that must be overcome.

First, a quick bit of context. One of the biggest reasons movie theater box office sales are down is because of a dramatic shift in consumer behavior. The simple truth is, a night at the movies is a pain in the ass. It is what we call in the business world, high-friction:

• It requires getting in the car and driving to the theater

• It is expensive and you have to buy tickets for the whole family

• You have to find seats together

• You have to pay too much for popcorn

• You can’t pause for bathroom breaks

• People talking, looking at their phones… people coughing, etc.

That friction and expense has led to a dramatic decline in overall ticket sales and the virtual decimation of theatrically released, story-driven independent films.

So how does this relate to Film3 NFT-focused strategies? Friction.

Let’s not kid ourselves, onboarding non-Web3 savvy, non-NFT initiated consumers is a nightmare. And that doesn’t even take into consideration the less-than-stellar reputation that crypto and NFTs have at the moment.

Estimates of the total number of current NFT holders varies wildly, but most seem to land in the range of as few as 500,000 to 1,500,000 NFT holders on the entire planet. It is an extremely small number. (NOTE: I welcome anyone to correct me on these numbers. I’d love it if the data I’ve seen was wrong… but still, sheesh.)

So any plan that includes building a community of NFT holders to raise the money to produce a feature film desperately needs to look at increasing the overall number of NFT holders in the space, or come up with ways to make onboarding way lower friction. That is a heavy lift that requires a lot of money, resources and an intricate understanding of the technology required to accomplish it. Not typically things that most filmmakers have in their tool box.

Secondly, and this may rub some people the wrong way, the truth is there are WAY more people who simply want to watch a movie than there are who want to be collectors. Whether we like it or not, most people don’t buy a movie to keep on their shelf or stored on a hard drive. And, with the exception of certain genres (most of which are primarily owned by the studios), the market for related art and collectibles still falls well short of the broader audience who simply wants to watch and move on.

This all serves to reduce the viability of NFTs as a fund-raising device. It is certainly not impossible. There are examples like Miguel Faus’ “Calladita” and Julie Pacino’s “Keepers of the Inn” who are both in pre-production on films fully financed by NFT sales. The question is whether those are anomalies or the norm?

I would suggest, for now, that filmmakers should think of their NFT strategy as something other than a way to raise the money for their movie. Maybe, instead, they should focus on making their community into something that attracts professional financiers to their project, not as the primary funding source?

A little history to frame this idea. Back when I used to own record companies, we used what were commonly referred to as “street teams” as one of the most important, genuine forms of marketing for our artists. We’d give a kid in Dubuque a hat with our record company logo on it and say, “Go to tell all of your friends about this band and we will give you free merch and backstage passes, etc.” It worked incredibly well. We got essentially free, targeted word of mouth marketing and the kid in Dubuque got to flex to all of his friends that he worked for a record company. Win/win.

So here is an idea: NFT Street Teams. What if a filmmaker’s NFTs were the new “logo hats?” What if the point was to turn a community not just into collectors, but amplifiers? What if you could empower them to tell their friends that they are in the movie business and their job is to get as many people as possible aware of, and interested in the movie? Even before it has been produced.

Why is this important and how does it help me raise money for my film, you may ask? Simple. And it’s the same reason Hollywood has been mining IP from video games and comic books for 30+ years: communities of fans who are virtually certain to pay to watch the movie are SOLID GOLD. A community that is actually incentivized to amplify the project is even more valuable. Showing that you have a vibrant, active community around your project is a form of risk-mitigation that is very attractive to professional financiers.

But, we can take it even further. And that is the heart of #NextWaveCinema.

What if these NFT Street Teams and the creators themselves were given a way to eliminate traditional Hollywood’s complex web of middlemen who take the vast majority of revenues?

By giving all stake holders, whether they are producers, writers, directors, actors, soundtrack artists, influencers or NFT Street Team members the ability to market and sell the movie directly to their Web2 social media followers we can:

• Prove there is an audience for the film

• Reach that audience where they are (IG, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook) with a genuine and proven Talent to Fan/Fan to Friend recommendation model

• Offer a low-friction way for fans to discover, rent and watch the movie (No more endless searching on Netflix) which can dramatically reducing the costs of traditional marketing

• Enable creators, collaborators and NFT holders to share in dollar one revenues, with Blockchain-powered transparency

• Enable financiers to recoup their investments in production and marketing faster, from dollar one and with complete accounting transparency.

Having been in the entertainment industry my entire career, and focused on the issue of financing, marketing and distribution of independent films for the last 15 years, I can tell you that there are literally billions of dollars sitting on the sidelines ready to finance your movie. But, as I often say, they are waiting because they are not in the business of creating a wave, they are in the business of riding it. That means it is up to us to build that wave.

That is what #NextWaveCinema is all about. I have never been more certain that if we, as the early adopters and pioneers of Film3, work together, we can literally change the entertainment industry forever. So, are you in?

See #NextWaveCinema in action by going to bingeable.net/channels to see how fans are marketing and selling movies through their own VOD channel! Or get a Bingeable channel of your own by going to signup.bingeable.net.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com

I sat in the dark theater, just a kid who loved movies. By the time I left, I was a kid who knew that, one day… somehow, I was going to not just watch movies, but I was going to be a part of making them.

Admittedly, it was a long shot. And boy did I choose a silly way to get there. But the first time I realized that people all over the world were actually watching the projects I helped to create, I’m not gonna lie, I teared up.

The dream had become a reality… But then reality hit back.

I’ll never forget the day it happened. I was sitting in a conference room at the MTV offices in New York City, and I had a sudden, sickening realization: The entertainment industry, for lack of a better phrase, hated me. Not me specifically, but people like me. Passionate, ambitious, relentless dreamers like us (yes, dear reader, I include you in this category) are the fuel of entertainment. Why? We are cheap. We are disposable. And there is a virtually unlimited supply of “us.” The allure of being in entertainment, making art and telling stories is such a strong drug that millions will do whatever they can just to get a shot. But (as I found out) if you get that shot, you will be confronted with a harsh reality: the industry puts more value in the mechanical, centralized process of marketing and distribution than they do in the ability to create the projects they are selling. So they employ all manner of devious tricks (usually financial) to kill your passion, because they know that if you get fed up or raise a stink - no problem, there is a line a mile long behind you of people who would kill for the shot you have. So you either grit your teeth and accept that you are nothing more than a worker bee in the eyes of the industry, or you stop.

The problem was, I couldn’t do either of those things. My rebellious nature (thanks Mom, I miss you every day), wouldn’t let me simply accept the way things were, and there was no way in hell that I was going to stop. So in that precise moment, sitting in a conference room on the 15th floor, I decided to shift my focus from making the stuff to changing the way it gets made, marketed and sold. My number one plan: put the power back into the hands of creators by enabling them to harness the direct relationship they have with their fans, and thus, replace the existing systems of marketing and distribution. There was a problem though… that was 15 years ago. Literally none of the elements we would need to create such a dramatic shift really even existed yet. Still, I dug in. Found allies, investors and a group of determined disrupters. Slowly but surely, we started knocking around the edges of the industry. Scheming ways to change the way things were, without anyone noticing. Getting paid by the very industry we were trying to disrupt. Keeping it quiet. Never giving up, even when it would have been a lot easier than carrying on. We learned endless lessons. Accidentally partnered with total snakes and lost everything… more than once. Racking up L after L and very few Ws. But we kept going. We kept hustling. This was too important, I thought, to let a little pain keep us from our dream.

Then after years of labor, the worm (as they say) turned. Suddenly (well, maybe not so suddenly) the conversations in the community of creators and builders started to sound a LOT like the conversations we had been having for years. Out of seemingly nowhere, an entire movement centered around the idea of shifting the balance of power from the industries that controlled everything, to the creators and the communities they build, was on everyone’s lips. They called it Web3. And just like that, we realized that what we had been building all along, was finally aligned with where the marketplace was heading. But rather than simply having an idea of what to do, we had actually already built it.

Don’t forget to like, comment, share and of course SUBSCRIBE It’s free!

So as we begin the process of showing the world all that we at Bingeable have built to power the new Web3 entertainment industry (it’s a lot), I thought I’d share a few of the ways that this new movement makes you the future of entertainment.

* The most powerful force in entertainment is YOU. Look, it’s simple. Without fans, the entertainment industry doesn’t exist. If people don’t love the project that was created, it probably won’t be successful. And even if people do love it, getting them to know about it is expensive and difficult. But, what better way to let the world know about a project than passionate and motivated fans who are encouraged and empowered to spread the word? Web3 not only makes that possible, it can make it profitable.

* Being behind the “velvet rope” can be… well, awesome. I have been blessed to work with some pretty well-know and incredibly talented people. The thrill of being a part of what they are creating is, frankly, hard to describe. You kind of have to experience it, to understand. Well, the whole idea of Web3 is that you get to be a part of it. Whether through contributing to a project as part of a DAO, collaborating on the creative process through governance or actively amplifying and even selling (hint, hint) the project to your social sphere, Web3 will let fans be an essential part of the process of making, marketing and profiting from premium entertainment projects.

* Every centralized system relies on the “network effect” of communities to be successful, but it pretty much is never to your benefit. Web3 changes that. The dirty secret that the industry doesn’t want you to know, is that their entire success is due to their ability to lure creators into giving up control of their work, so that the company can exploit and profit from the way art and entertainment attract fans to their platforms. But with Web3, you have the power and you are an owner of the network. The success of the network inures directly to the benefit of the creators and the community that helps spread the word. Not to whoever built the pipes the project is delivered over. That is transformative. Web3 values creators and the communities they build over the technology that powers it. Game changer.

The fact is, this list could have been a lot longer. The good news, much of this will be clear to the world very soon. But the fact is that this revolution is just getting going. There will be twists and turns. New ideas are being created every day. Things will fail, things will go wrong. But that is true of any revolution. The difference this time is that the revolution isn’t just about some new technology, or some kind of race to become the next Google or Netflix. This revolution is about giving the creators we all admire a new playing field. One that is more fair. One that changes the way the entertainment business works forever. Web3 is about making a new business of entertainment. A business of, by and for creators and their fans.

In short, this revolution is about you.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com

A note: I have been slammed working on a project that I am very excited about. As a result, this column was a bit delayed. Now, due to the horrific events in Ukraine, I was unsure about releasing it today. But, at its heart, this is a story about what we desperately need: a vibrant, diverse and positive community. A community building the future through a collective expression of hope and the power of our shared humanity. In spite of all that is happening in the world, I see the promise of a future that will be better. But, only if we choose to build that future together. - SM

The other day, I did a thing.

I left the house, went outside, got in a car, picked up my ticket, nervously went into a large building, stood next to a bunch of people, drank a whiskey (or two) and listened to three phenomenal bands perform over the course of several hours. I believe they call it a concert… or concurt… it may be a hard “c.” I don’t really remember how it’s pronounced.

Why did I do it? Well first of all, I was there to celebrate the birthday of a very dear friend who happens to manage all of the bands playing that night. But, I also wanted to remember what it was like.

Going to shows, to the cinema or to the theater all used to be, like, normal things. I did it all the time. But after two years of near complete isolation, I was amazed at how odd it felt to me. I found myself, uncomfortably shuffling away from those nearby. I was genuinely no longer sure how to be in a shared space.

But slowly, it all came back. We jumped around. We cheered. In between one of the sets, I found myself having a conversation with a new friend, who happens to be a really phenomenal actor. We talked about art, architecture, inspiring cities and the creative community’s palpable shift towards positivity - how it seems more and more people are craving joy and intentionally being kind to others. It was a wild, inspiring night.

As the final band took the stage and the crowd erupted, the birthday boy came over and put his arm around me. It was a joyous moment. He looked at me and said, “You should write about this.”

So Bryan, this is for you.

My first temptation for this piece was to go into a lengthy diatribe, as I am wont to do, about the challenges that live music venues, theaters and cinemas faced prior to the pandemic. And the fact that, while the pandemic made things way worse, the live event part of the entertainment business was already in big trouble. I could have gone on and on about the shifts in consumer behavior that created anemic ticket sales, the outrageously high cost for creators to access those venues… and on and on.

But all of that would have been missing the point. I saw something that night that filled me with an enthusiasm I hadn’t felt in a long time.

We have been living through a relentless onslaught of negativity. The fact is, our world has been overwhelmed by platforms that have found their profits directly, and irreparably, tied to the amplification of anger, division and hate. Whether it is an intentional effort, driven solely by profits, or simply that humans are biologically drawn to conflict, I don’t know. Most likely, tragically, it is all of the above.

But in the last few months, as I have fallen down the rabbit hole of Web3 and the Creator Economy, I have found an incredible movement at its center. A movement where artists support artists. Where individuals rise up to passionately tell the world about a project they love. Where people who have toiled on the sidelines of the creative industries are suddenly given a voice, a path, a livelihood. And even when those who, for one reason or another have a bad experience, they find themselves surrounded by people genuinely encouraging them and trying to help. It is, of course, imperfect. Just like every other business, there are liars and thieves lurking, seeking to destroy beautiful things.

I have rarely been accused of unbridled positivity. I come from a long line of curmudgeons. I have been yelling at kids to get off my proverbial lawn for most of my life (if you get that joke, you too may be a curmudgeon.)

Web 3 has lots of issues. As with any nascent shift in consumer psychology and behaviors - especially those led by technologies - there are massive challenges. No doubt, there will be many more false starts, pie-in-the-sky promises (Google: b******t), scams and catastrophic failures. This revolution will need constant care. It will require those who are building for this future, to tune out the noise, to rise above the petty attacks and just. keep. building.

But what is it about Web3 that I find so appealing? I have to say, I kind of think it’s because it feels like a concert. Where, after years of separation, we are all suddenly together again. We don’t know everybody in the hall. But we’re all there around a shared love of the art coming from the stage. As the music starts, we all instinctively move together. Each with their own particular quirks. But, nobody judges. After all, we can’t all be brilliant dancers like me (once again, Google: b******t). In fact, there are no qualifications for being in the room. Just love for the music. And as each tune crescendoes, the crowd instinctively rises to meet each other in the rapture of the crashing waves of sight and sound.

The heart of Web3 is putting power into the hands of creators and the communities they build. For me, having spent the entirety of my career chasing this goal, Web3 is like my new favorite song. And it thrills me to no end to see an ever growing room full of dreamers like me, dancing to the tune.

Are you ready to dance? I’ll count you in… one and two and three and four. Start the music.

By the way, the show that night featured performances from three stellar bands: *more and Girlfriends kicked things off and Bad Suns headlined. Their music would make a great soundtrack for builders everywhere. Support them if you can.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com

What Up Looks Like When You Are Down

The menacing sky,

Tumbles and swirls.

The thoughts in your head,

More blisters than pearls.

Darkness crashes down,

With fever and doubt.

Deafening but no sound,

Pressing in, pushing out.

Still a fire burns,

Enfolding and true.

The light that ends the dark,

Burns inside of you.

Wow. That was weird. I haven’t written a lyric or poem in a decade at least. But, this morning it seemed like I should. I know… it ain’t exactly Yeats, but the act of writing the words felt pretty nice.

I guess part of the reason I felt like writing them was this overwhelming sense that we are in a battle. A battle for positivity.

Anyone who reads/watches/listens to the news these days almost certainly would feel the sky is falling. Things are straight up insane right now. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, the endless cycle of anger and hatred, perpetuated by broadcast and social media, feels like a hurricane. Relentless, punishing. A constant onslaught of negativity. Extreme, vile, divisive, conspiratorial rhetoric is peddled like a marketing campaign for anxiety.

Still, I believe there is hope. Why? Because I’m seeing a movement forming among some of the smartest, most insightful people I know. It’s a movement that espouses kindness, compassion, supportiveness. And what thrills me the most? This movement is being led by artists. Specifically artists who are central to the Web3 movement. They are actively supporting each other and encouraging people to connect. They are making beautiful, fun and inspiring pieces that defy convention and change the way people think about art… and, maybe even, the way they think about themselves.

Of course, there will be those who are quick to dismiss this as some sort of silly trend. “What are a few artists selling jpegs online going to do that could possibly stop the negative energy out there?” they’ll undoubtedly ask. Well, I think legendary media and culture futurist, Marshal McLuhan said it best when he referred to art as an “early warning system.” Artists, he posited, are always on the leading edge of things that are beginning to change. I couldn’t agree more.

Dig the above meme? Right click, save and share it!

So I guess the question is, where does it go from here? Well, change is hard. Turning this ship away from our self-conjured iceberg certainly won’t be easy. But what if these creators — the ones who are standing up to the negativity and shouting, no more! — started getting everyday people like you and me to catch their vibe? What if kindness, acceptance and encouragement became a thing? What if we move from cutting others down and strive, instead, to find ways to lift others up? Yeah, I hear ya, this is veering perilously close to the realm of self-help hyperbole. But, wouldn’t it be cool if we just decided to follow the artist community’s lead?

It won’t be easy. The powerful platforms that flood our consciousness day and night, profit massively by algorithmically amplifying words and images specifically designed to foment division and conflict. It will take people of all shapes and sizes — all political and religious points of view — consciously separating from the negativity. Focusing not on our differences, but on our shared humanity.

Maybe we could start our day with the thought of “how can I help?” Maybe we could actively make an effort to support others, even those we might see as competitors? Maybe, after all we have been through, we were to just tune out the negative energy and, instead, spend our days making (or, at least, supporting those who make) things that inspire positivity?

Gertrude Stein famously referred to art as an “antidote for the emptiness of existence.” Amen. I’m not certain if this movement will truly take hold. But, the artist’s early warning system is flashing, telling the world that we need to be kinder, more tolerant, more supportive. We should take heed.

As for me, I’m all in. Of that, I am positive.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephenmurray.substack.com