Get a Life: New Tools Put Lifecasting Within Anyone's Reach
Brogan adds that some people will learn to make money faster than others as it moves from a hobbyist medium to a business. "I think some people will learn to capitalize on it a lot faster than others. The people who don’t manage to figure out what the capitalization is will be offended by the people who do it faster. What becomes of that is a schism early on for the experience, but that’s what is necessary to move forward as a special business," he says.
Rosenbaum says people have to look beyond the simple Truman model and look at building a business using these tools. "There is a temptation to think of lifecasting as CB radio—people who are self-serving, ego-centric; I’ve heard it called ego-casting—but if you look under the hood, what you’ll find is that people may not say they have a business strategy, but if you take a good look, what you’ll find is people who are trying to organize groups of like-minded people around something because they have a vision of what they are trying to build." Rosenbaum adds that people like Jeff Hibbard are not casual about this.
In Magnify’s business model, there is money for everyone. Rosenbaum’s company is providing the tools and the servers, and in return, the site’s users allow ads to run alongside their videos. A Magnify user could use the same model as the pet store owner on Selfcast who increased business at his pet store by building a fan base, but they can also share ad revenue with Magnify. "Say you are going to build a channel about classic car collecting. Every other page you serve, the ads come from us. Every other time the page plays the ads are ours," he says. You can manage the ads yourself or you can buy them from Magnify. "Because we have 20 million page views a month, and we are delivering it into very distinct verticals, whether it be automotive or sports enthusiasts [or whatever], we are doing well in the CPM world," Rosenbaum says.
Reichert sees a subscription model down the road for his service, along with partnerships like the one with MTV. "Right now service is free for consumers and will stay like that for the near future. What we envision down the road is premium services and features and extra storage if you are a high-end user with lots of content. We could also monetize [by teaming up] with media partners and other businesses. We believe it’s a very sustainable business model," he says.
Meanwhile, Roy sees three possible sources of revenue: a subscription model similar to Flixwagon’s, getting income from the carriers (who can sell larger data plans), or getting income from the phone manufacturers because, as Roy points out, once people start making videos and sharing them, they get hooked and want a better phone with a better camera.
Where Is This All Going?
There does seem to be a sustainable business model for this type of streaming, but it’s still too early to say if it can be successful in the long term. Brogan says that some vendors might have gotten ahead of themselves, but that the potential to make money is still definitely out there. "I think everyone thought in 2007 that we were going to magically get rich making videos, and now that it hasn’t really happened, we have to go back, and some of the people who are trying to make a business out of this are going to have to reassess and figure out where the real value statement is that goes along with this potential business." He adds that lifecasters are probably not thinking that way right now because they are simply passionate about making videos and using the tools. In fact, he thinks most users today are more interested in building a personal brand than building a business.
Rosenbaum believes that companies like his are feeding a need, although where it’s going isn’t clear just yet. "Why lifecasting is so critical to what we do, and what we [as individuals] find entertaining, and why [someone like Jeff Hibbard or Little Bear and Geronimo] broadcast and why you might become a fan and subscribe to their RSS feed is a work in progress in terms of where the storytelling business is going to be and where all this technology fits in," he says.
Rosenbaum and others like him want to put the tools into the hands of regular users (the Trumans of the world) to see what happens. He explains that in the early days of streaming media, content was owned and controlled by big publishing companies simply because they could afford the tools. "Jeff Hibbard comes to Magnify.net, puts a camera in his truck, and he is lifecasting for free. That changes everything," he says.
Putting the ability to stream video live and share that video with others certainly could be very powerful. For now, it’s a bit like the early days of blogging. While there is some interesting stuff out there, there is also a lot of mundane material and starts and stops—real life in raw form. As Brogan points out, real life is not always that interesting. So as with the early days of blogs, it has to sort itself out. Just as we got beyond personal blogs about apartment hunting and what the writer had for lunch, it is entirely likely that lifecasting will evolve into something more interesting. It’s entirely possible that at some point, someone will broadcast his or her entire life, as in The Truman Show, only that person will be the producer in his or her own private video—we can go along for the ride, if we wish.
For the companies providing the tools and the servers, they believe there is money to be made in this space or they wouldn’t be doing it. While it remains to be seen if this can be a profitable venture, the potential is huge and the future looks bright.