Can Indie Films make money on YouTube?

Can Inidie Films make money on YouTube? http://bit.ly/cvtnHb Mostly not. Much on Demand Media again. (Pay attention to Demand Media!)

A few “indies” have made decent money from YouTube but the general consensus is:

These are happy accidents, but should indie filmmakers be using YouTube as a component of their finance plan?

No, they should not.

And right at the end of the article:

Instead of layering the “old school” indie on top of a new platform, the smart approach is to follow Demands’ lead and recognize this is a new medium, with different requirements; it’s actually more a search engine than a content delivery system or distributor.

While there’s a lot I find disturbing about Demand Media’s model – mostly that it’s scraping by with the barest of production values – it is a new business model and one that I think has the best chance of showing us how to reduce the cost of quality production down, so it can survive in a world of niche programming, which is the inevitable direction we’re heading.

Wired’s article on Demand Media from last year: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/

and from yesterday: Is Demand Media’s CEO Going Hollywood? New Board Member at Demand Peter Guber is the former head of Polygram and former chairman of Sony Pictures. What does he say about Demand?

As someone who’s always understood the power of the narrative for attracting audiences, I believe Demand Media has discovered a new and largely untapped story telling platform on the web. As part of its Board, I look forward to helping unlock this value and drive innovation online, using the insight and experience I bring from the entertainment industry.