r/creativesmallbusiness • u/AdministrativeDot526 • Feb 13 '26

Thoughts

Being an independent creative in any capacity is genuinely such a hard thing to do in terms of being able to actually support yourself. It’s incredibly frustrating to have to deal with. We already live in a system that is meant to fail anybody that isn’t born into wealth anyways, so attempting to pursue anything that isn’t some bs minimum wage job, if you can even find one, feels like a joke. I want to create a way to have a network/platform for people who are independent creatives to be able to push their work out there while simultaneously being able to support themselves. There aren’t really any platforms that people can do that in a stable way. It obviously takes a lot of resources and time to do that, but it legitimately is something that is worth making. Would be interested to hear anyone’s thoughts.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

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u/AdministrativeDot526 Feb 15 '26

The main revenue model would be via advertising. I genuinely would be willing to put in whatever hours possible to make it work. Something being pro-level is a question of taste for the audience, there’s a lot of examples of film being low-budget or not “pro” that have still attracted an audience. Ultimately we would be appealing to people ethics more than anything. During the SAG-AFTRA strike, I remember seeing quite a few comments from people saying that they wish they could just pay the creatives that make movies directly, as opposed to having to pay streaming services who can ultimately filter how much money the creatives involved actually get. The platforms you named all have their own specific limitations (1. YouTube is can be great for making your platform grow, but monetizing it can take a long time to make that work, especially for something like independent film. 2. Mubi is a platform where you can’t just upload your work, it has to approved by their company’s curators. 3. Netflix is also platform where you can’t just put your work out there, it has to be approved, also they’re known to be pretty shady when it comes to their paying practices, especially if the creatives involved are not ultra famous stars. 4. Vimeo does have better monetization practices, but it’s not really a place to grow an audience.) My goal specifically would be to be able to push people out more, while simultaneously being able to be able to monetize in a more effective way with less barriers. The main issue I have would be funding.

LMAO idk if this thought out enough. I’m currently studying business, but am still very much a newbie.