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.
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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The 3 Ways YOU Are the Future of Entertainment