Ask Slashdot: Options Beyond YouTube For An Indie Web Show?

New submitter Deltree Zero writes: I have an indie TV-style education/entertainment show which focuses on medicinal cannabis growing and use in Maine, product reviews, guests, etc. I have been creating the show at home using a very passable camera, editing with Lightworks, and have been distributing it via YouTube. I am five monthly episodes in, and besides needing a small upgrade in the microphone department, production has settled in to a workable quality level that I can be proud of. I am not looking to collect money at any time during distribution. The show is getting quite popular and I was wondering if any Slashdot readers had any advice on how to distribute my show other ways than YouTube. I see Roku is an outlet like this but my show must first pass through some sort of content filter and I am still waiting to hear if medicinal cannabis is on the "no-no list." There are other indie TV-style channels I have heard of, Revision 3, for example. What other indie channels exist that might deliver my show at low or no cost? What other methods of digital distribution make sense for an upcoming web show looking to free itself from YouTube as its only distribution point?

Comments

Vimeo

[ArcadeMan]

Try Vimeo.

Re:Vimeo

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there some reason that vimeo would be particularly useful for this poster?

Well, this particular poster doesn't really explain what his needs are, or why he is dissatisfied with YouTube, or much of anything else, other than that some sites may theoretically have an anti-medical-dope policy, but he isn't sure about that. So just listing random sites that host videos is about the best we can do.

Re:Vimeo

[ArcadeMan]

Not really.

Re:Vimeo

[Deltree Zero]

I will try Vimeo. Thank you. :)

Re:Vimeo

[Deltree Zero]

I thought other forms of digital distribution for web shows were my clearly stated needs? I never mentioned dissatisfaction with youtube, I just wanted to know if other users of this site had any additional ideas. "medical-dope" Leave the stone age my friend.

Re:Vimeo

[wolrahnaes]

I thought other forms of digital distribution for web shows were my clearly stated needs? I never mentioned dissatisfaction with youtube, I just wanted to know if other users of this site had any additional ideas.

Considering that Youtube is going to be most people's default choice, it's probably a good idea to indicate specifically why you're looking for other options.

Re:Vimeo

[gl4ss]

there's two ways.

1) use a video hosting site such as youtube, vimeo, amazon or who the fucking ever.

2) OR host your own site. many popular online content creators do both, as their own site gives better advertising money BUT it's useless to try to find new viewers unless you're on youtube.

if you want to generate money, get on patreon. and keep the vids where they are, making exclusive content to patreon supporters is unlikely to generate too many new supporters so try to keep it all available anyways. if people like what you're doing, they'll chip in.

for example, look at how others are doing stuff.

punkeffect.com for one, cinemassacre for another, tested.com etc etc.

but if you get totally out of youtube, you'll lose 95% of your random viewers.

Re:Vimeo

[ArcadeMan]

Not true, otherwise nothing would play on my Flash-free computer. Maybe you should use a better browser?

Re:Vimeo

[Phoghat]

If you are at all familiar with it, Vimeo has a bit more class, and it's users are a bit more sophisticated and their product quite a bit more polished and professional appearing, than the standard YT'er, with their "oops, dropped the camera again" dialogue

Re:Vimeo

[ArcadeMan]

Not on Windows and not using Chrome either. I said I was Flash-free.

Re:Vimeo

[budgenator]

I suspect that his intended audience has a deep-seat dis-trust of establishment types, and the Youtube/Google conglomerate have long since out ran their antiestablishmentarianism days!

Gaming review revenue model clone

[BarbaraHudson]

" I am not looking to collect money at any time during distribution."

Not when you can get kickbacks from the products and people you interview.

Re:Gaming review revenue model clone

[Deltree Zero]

We do get free objects from time to time such as gear to review, but we only accept thing in this way and are not out for any profit. We feel education about what we do is important and if we can deliver that and be entertaining as well, awesome.

Confused about your goals.

[Seor Jojoba]

You say you are not looking to collect money at any point in distribution. So what do you want? Maybe you want a lot of people to see the show. In that case, Youtube already serves you well for distribution, and you could just focus on advertising/promotion. Or maybe you want clout. Or having colleagues and connections. Or something else?

Re:Confused about your goals.

[Deltree Zero]

We only want to take some of our free time and passion for what we do and turn it into an entertaining 15-30 min monthly video that can help educate people and be fun. The more people we reach in this way the better. There is nothing to advertize for or promote besides our views on medicinal cannabis. Clout is great. Colleagues and connections we already have, but more cannot hurt.

A host of options

[guruevi]

Depending on the quality of you show, your options could range widely from Vimeo/Twitch to iTunes/Amazon. Since your streams may be considered 'illegal' in some parts of the world, I recommend doing it yourself on a video streaming hosting, making available over BitTorrent and a darknet advertising the alternative options through your regular channels just in case you have to deal with a takedown.

Re:A host of options

[Deltree Zero]

I did not realize Twitch did things besides game streams, I will try Twitch. Thank you. :) iTunes? I suppose you are right. I did not think of that either, but that is probably because my opinion of Apple is poor. Good idea. Having our own website and things like that seem a bit more costly than we are prepared for. I am a geek with a nice PC and good software and a backgound in art and media so the show is of realtively high quality at little to no cost. As I mentioned we are not looking to make money to spend on the show or anything else at this time so besides a diiirrrrtt cheap option, paying for anything is out.

if you "collected" money...

[steak]

you could, gasp, pay for your own bandwidth.

Re:if you "collected" money...

[Deltree Zero]

The only ISP in town is Fairpoint and i get the maximum speed they provide here which is 180k down and 50k up so, I literally cannot pay for more bandwidth at this time. Hurk!

Re:if you "collected" money...

[Deltree Zero]

Hawhawhaw! Exactly! :)

Host on your own website, consider archive.org

[jbn-o]

You could host the multimedia files on your own website, which would let you move your domain and/or provider to an amenable ISP whenever needed while retaining the same URLs for your visitors. There are ISPs such as Dreamhost.com that will host email and websites and their accompanying data files at reasonable costs with lots of bandwidth should your show become popular. I don't work for them but I've worked with their hosting and found it to be reasonable.

You could host files on archive.org (the Internet Archive) for no fee which will deliver files to all comers also gratis. I'm not aware of IA discriminating against people doing what you're doing.

You could consider delivering pointers to your shows delivered cooperatively via BitTorrent with magnet URLs posted to popular BitTorrent-based sharing sites so the public can keep your shows downloadable even if you find hosting hard to come by.

You could combine these ideas, they're not mutually exclusive. And I hope you'll consider distributing your multimedia in formats that favor free software such as WebM. Finally, be wary of any provider's changing terms of service should you start talking about something they someday consider important. Commercial organizations and nations don't have permanent friends, they have interests which change.

Re:Host on your own website, consider archive.org

[MoonlessNights]

You could consider delivering pointers to your shows delivered cooperatively via BitTorrent with magnet URLs posted to popular BitTorrent-based sharing sites so the public can keep your shows downloadable even if you find hosting hard to come by.

This touches on an interesting idea which I wonder if anyone has built: a video distribution system built on BitTorrent. It seems like a clever way of using the network strength instead of these monolithic companies storing and sending all the data, requiring massive resources. It seems like it could work as long as you had enough nodes (especially offering the first few blocks - improve quick-start behaviour) and it would scale with popularity of the channel: a channel could just provide an RSS feed including summary data and Magnet links (essentially borrowing a page from the podcast world).

It seems like _someone_ must have built such a thing since the hard parts (BitTorrent network and Magnet queries) are already solved by the network. Is anyone aware of such a tool?

If it ain't broke don't fix. it.

[westlake]

The population of Maine is 1.33 million.

YouTube is the simplest and most reliable way of reaching your target audience and establishing the legitimacy of your project, assuming that the medical and not recreational uses of marijuana are your real concern.

The geek will propose setting up a darknet, when the real need is for openness and exposure.

Re:If it ain't broke don't fix. it.

[Deltree Zero]

Thank you for the current state of Maine population update. Our goal is to make the show available to everyone worldwide. We happen to live in Maine, but our education does not focus on Maine law or only Maine medicinal cannabis. Recreational use is not a current issue we address on the show, but recreational use is already in effect in Portland Maine, and is expected to pass statewide very soon. Perhaps at that time we will go down that road. I am quite geeky but not enough to understand darknet biz, leading me to believe all my redneck friends will have no use for it.

liveleak or dailymotion

[n3r0.m4dski11z]

I also try and avoid google products. I found that the transcoding works best on liveleak and dailymotion. The other free video hosting providers seem not to be able to handle 1080p very well...

Re:liveleak or dailymotion

[Deltree Zero]

I will have to take a look at Liveleak and Dailymotion. Thank you. :)

Maybe Atheist TV?

[AndyKron]

Maybe Atheist TV? http://atheists.org/AtheistTV

Just use youtube

[koan]

Everyone knows Youtube, it's free, it allows unlimited bandwidth (unlike Vimeo) if you get enough subscribers you can alter the channel design fairly significantly.

Everything else I have tried sucks, or cost, or limits.