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SHOWRUNNER

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Despite the PS2 generation feeling like it was only a blink ago for some gamers, Sony’s celebrated successor to the PlayStation 1 is now comfortably joining the ranks of retro gaming consoles. The lasers are starting to give out, the disc trays are starting to break, and the games are getting hard to find. They’re also getting costly. Some of the rarest PS2 games can easily hit $1,000 on eBay these days. Diving into the world of PS2 games in 2022 is quite an interesting journey and illustrates why the console is still so beloved today and why some of these games are so rare and expensive now. As one of the last consoles that still stuck to the antiquated notions of region locks, moral panics, and limited prints, the stories surrounding some of these PS2 games are truly fascinating. In this article, we’ll run down the top 10 rarest PS2 games right now and dig into what has made these games so coveted in the first place. For the purposes of this piece, all pricing information will be gathered by Pricecharting.com and based on the complete in-box (CIB) prices that most collectors look for these days. List of The 10 Rarest PS2 Games 10. Obscure 9. Echo Night Beyond 8. Futurama 7. Xenosaga 3 6. .hack Quarantine 5. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories 4. .Haunting Ground 3. Blood Will Tell 2. Rule of Rose 1. Kuon 10. Obscure Many retro gamers will point to Obscure as one of the sixth generation's most forgotten . Today, games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Siren, and Fatal Frame all hold legendary statuses within the horror fanbase that Obscure never reached; however, that would make it a prime candidate for becoming one of the rarest PS2 games ever. This early 2000s American College take on survival horror let players swap between five characters and even had a co-op mode which was quite unique to the genre at the time. PS2 survival horror games Currently, Obscure goes for around on most online markets due to poor review scores and a small run of prints in 2004. What is particularly interesting about Obscure is that, unlike many games coming up on this list, it was not exclusive to the PS2. In fact, it even has a PC port that players can buy on Steam right now. Obscure isn’t a particularly difficult game for anyone to get their hands on if they want to play it digitally, but the price is still high online. Obscure’s price tells us that fans love playing survival horror on the PS2 and are willing to dish out some extra cash to get games specifically for that system. There is a novelty among retro collectors for PS2 and survival horror as the genre grew and refined its style heavily in this era. Almost 20 years later, even the lowly Obscure is finding renewed interest thanks to the PS2’s celebrated catalog of horror games. $200 9. Echo Night Beyond The PS2 generation was no stranger to over-the-top gameplay and bizarre stories; after all, those styles of games became some of the highest-selling titles on the platform. However, Echo Night Beyond took a step in a different direction, offering a slower-paced sci-fi narrative experience. Developed by FromSoftware and released in 2004, Echo Night Beyond plays out like a haunted mansion murder mystery but in space. Unfortunately, not everyone was keen on picking this game up, leading to another case of limited prints before outright discontinuation. Like many FromSoftware titles of that era, Echo Night Beyond has a lot of great ideas, but the execution was clunky and mediocre. It would take multiple tries for FromSoftware to really refine its craft. Moreover, the slower nature of the game and lack of action meant that many gamers passed on this game at the time. Echo Night Beyond has become increasingly rare as time has progressed, especially as some retro collectors claim this is one of those PS2 hidden gems and seem to enjoy hanging on to their copies. These days, Echo Night Beyond costs around for a complete in box copy. $205 8. Futurama Futurama is one of the most celebrated animated sitcoms of the 2000s, right next to The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy, but the series was also subject to a lot of internal turmoil. In 2003, Futurama was canceled after numerous disputes between Fox and the showrunners. However, a video game tie-in was already in development by the time the show was in its final run. On August 12, 2003, two days after the last episode of Futurama aired on Fox, a video game adaptation developed by Vivendi Games would release. Unfortunately, the game was deemed mediocre, and only die-hard fans of the show decided to pick up copies. When combined with the first run of Futurama on Fox being over, the saw a very limited run of printings before falling into obscurity and now becoming one of the rarest PS2 games. On eBay and pricecharting.com, you can now find Futurama on the PS2 for around . PS2 game $230 7. Xenosaga 3 Before Monolith Soft created the incredible Xenoblade series of games on the Wii and , it made the Xenosaga of games on PlayStation consoles. Overall, Xenosaga was a bit of a mixed bag, featuring three games of varying quality. However, one thing that both reviewers and gamers agreed upon was that Xenosaga 3 was the best of the bunch. Nintendo Switch Due to the mixed reviews of the first two games, Xenosaga Episode 3 had fewer copies printed as Bandai Namco forecasted similar sales and reviews as the previous two entries. What it didn’t expect was that Xenosaga 3 would blow up the way it did. But, thanks to the awkward timing of the PS3 release that same year, Bandai Namco didn’t issue many copies of Xenosaga 3, expecting players to move onto the new console. Xenosaga 3 is right now, but the limited Best Buy exclusive Lenticular Cover is considerably rarer and goes for a much higher . $250 $330 6. .hack 4: Quarantine The is one of the most elusive franchises for game collectors because even at the time of its popularity, .hack was catching some flak for being so expensive. Unlike many franchise sequels today that operate as fully playable standalone games in their own right, .hack Quarantine requires players to have played and understood the previous three games to know what’s going on. The barrier to entry for .hack Quarantine was a hefty $150 for three games in 2003 when the franchise was still going. .hack series Needless to say, .hack Quarantine was fairly niche, and only the most dedicated fans gobbled up the copies in circulation. What’s more, as the fourth and final game in the series, Quarantine is the entry that completes the .hack set and even forms a piece of artwork along the spines when all four games are lined up. Its collectability has made .hack Quarantine easily one of the rarest PS2 games, shooting the price up to on online marketplaces. $310 5. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories The Silent Hill series was destined to show up on this list at some point, but surprisingly, it would be the forgotten Silent Hill: Shattered Memories hitting the rarest PS2 games list instead of the critically acclaimed or 3. Shattered Memories reimagined the original PS1 Silent Hill game and was initially developed for the Nintendo Wii with ports for the PS2 and PSP. Oddly enough, Konami never green-lit a PS3 port despite releasing Shattered Memories in 2009, well after the PS3 had been on the market. Silent Hill 2 Due to many of today’s gamers having some contempt for Shattered Memories’ Wii motion controls but still craving a Silent Hill fix, the PS2 version became the go-to version for retro gamers. Unfortunately, this game had a limited print because many gamers had already switched to PS3, and Shattered Memories sold quite poorly on PS2. Right now, you can expect to pay around for a copy, and that price is only getting higher as Konami has expressed interest in making new Silent Hill games. $330 4. Haunting Ground Throughout the and PS2 eras, Capcom was at the top of its game with survival horror, practically defining the genre's future with Resident Evil 4. Naturally, it would make sense that one of Capcom’s last and most underrated games on the platform would end up being one of the rarest PS2 games right now. As a spiritual successor to the Clock Tower franchise, Haunting Ground would fix many of the issues fans had with Clock Tower 3, but unfortunately, the game saw a very limited run due to poor review scores. PS1 Haunting Ground can now be found for on the internet, and that price has grown astronomically over the past two years. Haunting Ground’s unprecedented rarity and price hike can likely be attributed to Capcom’s current excellent standing with gamers. Between fantastic remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 and the well-received Resident Evil Village, fans feel nostalgic for some classic Capcom survival horror these days. While it was reviewed poorly at the time, Haunting Ground has also achieved a bit of a cult following as the years have gone on. Those who can find a copy out in the wild tend to hold on to it. $340 3. Blood Will Tell Blood Will Tell easily makes the cut as one of the PS2’s hidden gems, being an underrated game that was overshadowed by the platform’s biggest titles. Released in 2004, Blood Will Tell is a video game adaptation of the Dororo manga created by Osamu Tezuka and published by . At the time, Blood Will Tell received very mixed reviews praising the story but criticizing its dated gameplay. Sega As time went on, however, gamers caught wind that Blood Will Tell actually had some great ideas at the time and was by all accounts much better than what most reviews at the time said. The budding cult classic status of Blood Will Tell would begin to propel the title to the most-wanted lists as retro gamers wanted to see what this game was all about. These days, Sega’s 2004 slice-em-up goes for around . $350 2. Rule of Rose In the current day, games are more respected in their artistic intent, with less moral panic surrounding edgier titles with evocative narratives. However, in the mid-2000s, it seemed like politicians everywhere were targeting video games as the source of society’s ills. While barely managed to escape the clutches of prohibition, Rule of Rose would not be so lucky. Grand Theft Auto Rule of Rose was developed by Japanese studio Atlus, a team that often skirts around sensitive issues with their popular Persona and Shin Megami Tensei franchises. With Rule of Rose, Atlus decided to get into the topic of child abuse and the odd nature of children overall, and it was subsequently the source of controversy. The EU banned the game outright, leaving a whole part of the world seeking imports from North America and Japan. Additionally, Rule of Rose sold very poorly in the West due to launching well after the PS3 was on store shelves. Regarding the rarest PS2 games, Rule of Rose is one of those “holy grail” items that some gamers may never see in the open again; it currently sells for close to . $650 1. Kuon Kuon takes the title as the undisputed rarest PS2 game at the moment, and it’s not even close. This Japanese survival horror game mainly flew under the radar when it was released in 2004. As a matter of fact, it didn’t even review very well at all and held a 57/100 on Metacritic. Kuon is undoubtedly a visually compelling game, set in a beautiful rendition of the Heian period of Japan, with an engaging narrative that plays off Japanese folklore for its scares. Still, the game is bogged down by some rough gameplay and strange puzzles. Due to the critical panning of the game and the niche nature of Japanese horror in the West at the time, Kuon received an extremely limited print and mostly ended up in discount bins throughout GameStops and EB Games due to a lack of interest. That was until launched in 2011. Dark Souls The release of Dark Souls shot developer FromSoftware to wide acclaim, and as it so happens, that was also the studio in charge of Kuon in 2004. As Souls-mania grew throughout this past decade, so did the interest in FromSoftware’s back catalog, making the limited number of Kuon copies out in the wild extremely coveted. At the time of writing, Kuon goes for close to CIB, with sealed versions going for , making it the number one rarest PS2 game right now and the undisputed “holy grail” game for PS2 collectors. It’s a horror title that will scare both you and your wallet. $850 $1,400 Closing Thoughts on the 10 Rarest PS2 Games For those of us who were around when the PS2 was thriving, it can be kind of surreal to see what used to be a $10 game end up worth the price of a new console today. Many gamers today may regret selling that drawer filled with PS2 games to GameStop for some in-store credit during the Xbox 360 days because I know I do. That said, it’s also worth mentioning that so many of these games are rare because they really aren’t that great. Subjectivity obviously will play a factor here, but as someone who has played many of these games on PS2 or through other means, I can state that quite a few of these games are just total duds. Kuon, the most coveted game on this list, is quite a snooze-fest when you realize that there is a whole mechanic that lets you recharge your health, in turn killing the tension and horror of the entire game. Some of the better games on the list, like Xenosaga 3 and Silent Hill, are definitely good and can be worth their high asking price these days to the right person, but just because these are some of the rarest PS2 games ever doesn’t mean they’re necessarily the best PS2 games ever. Remember to shop smart and collect retro games responsibly. More in Gaming: 5 Best Gaming Headsets Under $200 The Super Mario Movie: Release Date, Cast, and Everything You Need to Know Getting Started With Game Development

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Netflix is set to release its live action iteration of beloved anime , starring John Cho, Daniella Pineda, and Mustafa Shakir. The creative adaptation follows a recent effort to personify popular cartoons and video games with varying degrees of success. Cowboy Bebop on November 19th The decision to give Cowboy Bebop this ‘flesh and blood’ facelift is especially interesting. Few anime garner the love and cult fandom that this 90’s gem receives. Which begs the question: why do this at all? What could Netflix possibly contribute to a show that many consider near perfect? I’m open to the possibility of Cowboy Bebop being (at the very least) amusing. However, I’m not hopeful a live-action version of Cowboy Bebop will change the narrative for these kinds of adaptations. They tend to be critical sticks in the mud. Why It’s So Hard to Adapt Anime Most successful are often based on manga...not anime. Live-Action Anime flicks The ‘Theater of the Mind’ has a bigger role when reading manga, meaning, the audience has to contribute to the experience. Imagining voice, while filling gaps for movement and style, etc., are roles that the reader gets to fill in the narrative. While this creates a sense of ownership over a particular character for the reader, I think it becomes easier to accept another interpretation because the source material is limited. Characters in an anime have a more fleshed-out persona. Distinct voices and style are attributed to characters that can be hard to emulate. Because it’s animated, features are often more exaggerated and caricatured in order to communicate life through a drawn character. When you attempt to emulate these unspoken qualities, they often become overwhelming and too on the nose. A great example of this is Shaggy from the live action film Scooby-doo (2002). Seeing the iconic Shaggy in the flesh reveals the cringeworthy side of our childhood cartoons. In the case of Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, there are simply qualities that are incapable of emulation...because it’s not real, it’s a cartoon. The graceful, yet lackadaisical nature of Spike’s movement and poise is unnatural for the human body, but makes sense in the realm of anime. There is a thin line between copying this style too much (coming across as disingenuous) and ignoring the source material. In either case, you lose the essence of the character. Voice Acting is Vital to Live Action Cowboy Bebop Another factor in anime-to-live-action crossover is the voice. The only feature in anime that crosses the uncanny valley from the cartoon to the viewer is the disembodied human voices attributed to the characters we love. This means, that while creative liberty can be taken by John Cho in the case of playing Spike Spiegel, the voice of the character is inseparable from the voice of Steve Blum--the American voice actor who was also significantly the voice of “TOM”, the host of Cartoon Network’s Toonami which helped popularize anime in the US. Not that the original Japanese voice actor Kôichi Yamadera is less significant. However, because Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is undeniably targeted at American audiences, Blum becomes the focus. Similar to the character’s style, Spike’s original voice can’t be copied too closely or loosely, which would oversaturate or disservice the character. This is a unique problem in anime in that you can’t just, “go get the same actor to come back and play the same character again, but older!,” like Harrison Ford reprising roles in Indiana Jones or Star Wars. Steve Blum looks nothing like Spike Spiegel, so that option is never on the table for Anime to live-action remakes. The actors in Netflix’s reboot will just have to do what they can. The Timeless Charm of Cowboy Bebop When it comes down to it, the best part about Cowboy Bebop was the music and the art. The Cowboy Bebop anime was assuredly ahead of its time. The experimental nature of the intro art and music working has helped it age gracefully, . The show married the Noberu Bagu Japanese New Wave style of films like Tokyo Drifter (1966) and the Pop Art movement of the 90’s. The expressive quality of Jazz juxtaposes the melancholy tones of the Blues in the musical mash-up throughout the show. These qualities masterfully mirror the characters and happenings in the narrative. keeping its relevance as a piece of art still today The key to a new adaptation isn’t to carbon copy the same artistic flavor from the anime. Where Netflix can succeed is in putting a modern twist on the formula to push the fold of what makes Cowboy Bebop… Cowboy Bebop. Even the term Bebop implies changing things up. away from the popular dance music of Swing in the 40’s. There are ways to honor what Cowboy Bebop did while continuing to iterate for a modern audience. Bebop pushed the boundaries of Jazz This trailer gives me hope that this will be the case. Cowboy Bebop Live-Action Cast Hopes and Fears Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed and Ein are iconic. So iconic, in fact, that these characters are often instantly recognizable from a silhouette. John Cho and company have a lot to live up to. The question becomes: what will the actors add to these characters...what will detract?? I like that they are making some changes to the casting, particularly with Shakir Mustafa as Jett. John Cho and Daniella Pineda also aren’t trying to be exactly like Spike and Faye. However, it remains to be seen whether the changes will be entertaining or if they will feel forced in their performances. Oh yeah...and there’s still the case of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV. You HAVE to nail Ed or it won’t work. Which is concerning because the trailers haven’t shown Ed, and the actor playing Ed has been kept tightly under wraps… Is this because they’re confident? Or should I be worried? Showrunner and reassured that regarding Ed, “People will be ... very delighted when they watch the season.” André Nemec was pressed recently in an interview For all of our sakes, I hope Nemec is right. Laissez-Faire Storytelling and Slice of Life The selling point of Cowboy Bebop wasn’t necessarily the story. It was the style, music, and tone. Ask any fan what the overall plot of Cowboy Bebop’s 26 episodes was, you probably won’t get a solid answer. Yet, get a conversation going around their favorite episode, and you’ll see them light up… like the one about VT the interstellar space trucker in episode 7 Heavy Metal Queen, or the year old mutated food Spike forgot in the fridge in Toys in the Attic that terrorizes the ship. What connects many of these episodes is that they are simply slices of life anthologies surrounding these eclectic bounty hunters. The narrative starts and ends in a clean 25 minutes. This strategy plays into the jazzy, bebop theme of the show. Every episode has a different pacing, tone, and feel to it. Some are light-hearted, some are introspective, and a few of the episodes get dark and downright creepy. They can do this because there is so much mystery involving the vague backstory of Spike, Vicious and Julia. This allows the audience to focus more on the day-to-day happenings of these characters, and to be drawn into their unspoken qualities. At the same time, having a mysterious villain like Vicious and the vague memory of Julia give the audience a sense of intrigue that something bigger is happening behind the scenes. This will be vital for Netflix’s live-action remake of Cowboy Bebop. They can’t get wrapped up in the story, to the detriment of its characters and overall vibe. If they follow this general episode structure, telling individual stories that introduce interesting side characters while fleshing out our familiar crew, they can avoid the cardinal sin of overexplaining the story to the point where it loses its identity. Final Thoughts on a Live-Action Cowboy Bebop There is so much to love about the original Cowboy Bebop series. It holds a special place in the hearts of many and has aged gracefully well into the 21st century as a vital piece of Anime history. It created harmony out of contrasting art forms, styles, and narrative philosophies in a way that convincingly proves to a wider audience that, yes, anime is true “art.” With this in mind, do we need this show to be live-action? With so many risks involved and the odds of a lukewarm reception historically being the best-case scenario for live-action anime, we have to ask who this remake is really for. I want to believe it’s for the fans and that this remake is intended to celebrate the qualities that made the show great in the first place. But there is a very cynical voice in the back of my mind that tells me this is just another attempt for Hollywood to leverage our nostalgia to make a buck. Which would be a shame. Because that pop-culture mindset is exactly counter to what made Cowboy Bebop the phenomena that it is.

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Preaching to the choir (Not) Listen, I’m not here to lecture anyone. This is a lesson I learned the hard way, not once, not twice, but three times. I know for a fact that if I have read my own advice years ago, it would still take me losing everything I own (digitally) to actually learn the lesson, rather than from some stranger’s random “word of wisdom” on the internet. With that said, I still decided to write this piece to: keep myself accountable and actually follow my own advice, and maybe if there’s one other person out there who could benefit from this advice, then yay, I did one good deed! If you are reading these words, I have a few guesses about you: You probably are under the age of 35 You have spent the majority of your adult life, if not all of it, on social media in particular, and the internet at large You likely would cry if one day you woke up and curiously lost access to one (or God forbid, more) of these accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Whatsapp, Telegram, or Tiktok. Now imagine this  - that last scenario I talked about- it may will happen. It’s not a matter of “if”, but “when”. Here’s how “Why Fish Don’t Exist”’s Author Lulu Miller put it: “Chaos is the only sure thing in this world. The master that rules us all. My scientist father taught me early that there is no escaping the Second Law of Thermodynamics: entropy is only growing, it can never be diminished, no matter what we do.” A Cautionary Tale (or Two) Years ago - I used to have a blog, hosted exclusively on a platform called Yahoo 360 (kids - if you have never heard of this platform - don’t bother. It wasn’t very good anyway). I spent time decorating the blog, writing random thoughts that crossed the mind of a teenager, as well as posted family vacation photos. I never really checked the traffic of the blog (I don’t think I even knew how to do that). But I remember it being a pretty important part of my life. Probably got something to do with self-expression and teen-angst if you ask me. I kept up with it for about a year or two. It was my first legit “digital diary” before social media was a thing. Then, when the parent company Yahoo struggled and decided to kill their blogging division, I lost all of my content, alongside millions of other unsuspecting users. Fast forward about 10 years later, I repeated the same mistake with yet another Yahoo product, Yahoo Mail. A lot of my life in that subsequent decade was captured on Yahoo Mail, like those of many other people in developing countries like Vietnam. I went to a high school in India, living and learning with friends from 80+ different countries all around the world (from places I never even heard of like Mauritius or Maldives). I fell in love for the first time with someone from a different country, and did the long distance thing for the majority of our relationship. I went to the States for college, wrote many academic essays, and experienced heartbreak for the first time. In those 10 years, I must have handed in hundreds of assignments and drafts with teachers, exchanged thousands of messages, links and photos with friends, written numerous long heart-felt letters to family at home, and used it as my major source of communication with my ex-es. I woke up one day, now in my late 20s, with a husband and kid, to learn that that entire decade of my life was essentially erased. Yahoo Mail just decided one day that, if you haven’t logged in to their service in x amount of time, all your content, poof, gone. Like that period of your life had never even existed. My latest feud with the internet came in the form of another blogging platform, Medium.com. As the co-owner and show-runner of , I hate it whenever I even have to mention the site Medium, so I will just give you : They fucked us bad, threatening to steal all the content off our site. They emailed literal misinformation to our writers. So, on top of moving our entire business away from a bad partner (company valuation is up more than 130X since we stopped publishing with Medium), I too personally packed my metaphorical bag and stopped blogging there. At that point, I have written 9 out of 10 blog posts in a series I titled “10 things I knew to be true.”  Oh well. I guess the 10th thing was: HackerNoon a tl;dr version Medium.com is not a good business and you should never blog there. Don’t Put all Your Eggs in One Basket What is your digital lifeline at the moment? Your Instagram stories you poured your heart into? Your Tweet threads and Favorites? Your long statuses on Facebook? Your brilliant Tiktok reactions? You might be under the illusion that your content is safe forever on these platforms, but the sad truth is you do not own any of these platforms. They all have brilliant lawyers who make sure their Terms and Conditions (you know, those things you never read?) are broad enough to cover their asses when users data either got leaked or worse, lost. Case in point: Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp were down today for 5 hours (we wrote about it a bit), causing a bit of an internet mayhem. We’re still yet to get to the postmortem of the whole thing, but initial speculations is that millions of users and businesses lost income, Facebook stock went down by almost 6 points, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg allegedly lost 7 billions in a few hours. here The thing is, this was and will not be the first time such a thing happened to your beloved social media platform of choice. Facebook might be the butt of the joke today, but tomorrow it could be literally any other platform. One day, it could be just an innocent “internal error” (jury’s still out on whether or not this is related to Facebook’s whistle blower testimonial just the day prior) or an actual malicious attack. We all know how sophisticated and advanced these ransomware and cyberattacks are getting. No one’s data is truly safe. Just earlier today, I listened to a Wall Street Journal Podcast episode on how a Russian ransomware allegedly led to the death of a newborn! Scary world out there. My Own Pledge and What You Can Do Here’s a nonexclusive list of what I’ve started doing and will continue to do. I hope you do too. Always save an “offline” record of your online content Periodically download your content on these platforms. Even screenshots as receipts are better than none. Spend some time actually reading the Terms and Conditions of the platform you use (I’m still working on this one), they often sneak in unfavorable clauses at unsuspecting time without you noticing. If you can’t destroy ’em, join ’em. Do not pour all your heart and soul in one single platform. Diversify your digital footage. Think about it like distribution channels. I’ll give you the example of the arguably smartest artist in the music industry at the moment, . When losing the Recording Copyright to 6 of her first albums (which she signed when was still a teenager) but still retaining the Composition Copyright, she cleverly decided to re-record all of them. She started doing so with the album Fearless and just a few days in, the album already climbed to Billboard top 1, like most of her albums usually do, surpassing the original album which she recorded 7 years ago and did not own the recording right to. So, #BeLikeTaylor. Treat all platforms (even HackerNoon) as DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS rather than Center Stage Host. No platform should ever own your content or have exclusive rights to it. You do. Taylor Fucking Swift In the meantime, if you have any tips/ideas on how to download your entire Instagram library and host it elsewhere (yes, I’m still guilty of over-reliance on that one platform 🙄), I’m all ears! Until next time, repeat after me (preferably in the voice of Michael Scott): Don't ever, for any reason, do anything to anyone for any reason ever, no matter what, no matter where, or who, or who you are with, or where you are going, or where you've been... ever, for any reason whatsoever...   HOST YOUR CONTENT EXCLUSIVELY ON ONE SINGLE PLATFORM!!!!! Originally published on my blog . here

Diversify Your Digital Footprint Today!

“ ” is my new favorite podcast. It’s a fictional comedy about the redemption of a paranormal late night radio host, but it’s not just the content that keeps the show top of mind. Terry Carnation by Rainn Wilson could be a monumental example for how character creators can monetize the short and long tail of their creations. Dark Air with Terry Carnation It’s made by two creators, two producers, outsourced production assistance, six voice actors, and slew of guests. The weekly guests play characters who call into the show with paranormal issues like what to do when you find a dead witch in a wall during your house remodel, as well as, versions of themselves operating in Terry Carnation’s world ( ). a great example being Nathan Fillion playing a hauntingly accurate version of himself at Comic Con What I like about the Dark Air by Terry Carnation business model: Creator Owned Lean Production Team Direct Relationship with Customer Evergreen Content in a Topically Saturated Marketplace Long Term Licensing Rights Rainn Wilson is the co-creator and the star of the show.  He decides what business his character does and does not do. Will Ferrell can go on to create a podcast as Anchorman because he is the co-creator on the character and the movies. While Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox made great money filming Friends and continue to get related business opportunities because of their work, they do not earn the same residuals from licensing agreements and do not have the right to create a podcast like or any other spinoff show, podcast, or really anything with the character. IMHO It’s better - or at least more likely to be true to character’s character - when the creator, and not the network, decide the fate of the character. “Rachel Green and Monica Geller Revisit Central Perk: Divorced and ” Ready to Mingle Rainn Wilson’s old Office co-stars via and are walking this line in an interesting way, talking about their experiences in making The Office. It’s a viable way for an actor to monetize a past experience via podcasts, but it is not the actor playing the character in the present. If you can’t take a character to a new location, you don’t own it. Rainn Wilson on the other hand, if he wants to be a guest on a bunch of other podcasts acting as Terry Carnation, . But more importantly, he owns the character and the concept so that if he wants to do a Terry Carnation movie, a Dr. Lizzie spinoff show, or turn Vernonica into the face of any spiritual pet products - that revenue and outcome is decided by the creator and not another entity. If you are looking to learn more about the value of owning characters, I highly recommend listening to . Office Ladies The Office Deep Dive with Brian Baumgartner he can do it anytime this Planet Money podcast series on owning super heros According to its , Dark Air’s core team is only about ten people. I’m unsure on the labor, distribution, and anything else provided by the outsourced production assistance of Imperial Mammoth, Audioboom and Kelly&Kelly.  Either way, this lean team coupled with direct access to their fans (they choose when the publish), gives Dark Air “ ” vibes. A small podcast sitcom can produce episodes, learn from fans, and iterate on content or even produce new characters or shows much quicker than the traditional TV network sitcom model. Bill Wade, who has 15+ years ‘in the industry,’ : onsite credits Lean Startup summarized the makeup of a sitcom production as “For a major cable tv or broadcast network show it can easily number in the hundreds and sometimes thousands if it has multiple seasons. Consider the following: several producers, showrunners, dozens of cast members some with recurring roles others seen in only one show, writing staff can be dozens over several seasons and they have to be the very best for it to succeed, rotating episode directors, art direction teams, production designers, makeup artists, set designers, wardrobe and costume people, postproduction and editing staff (sometimes an entire postproduction company is put to work on a series/show including sound design, graphics, and editing as well as video editing)” In 2020, reported that 55 percent of US consumers listen to audio podcasts (up from 51 percent in the previous year), while and . So the consumer demand clearly remains higher for video shows than podcasts. But the margin isn’t as wide as it used to be. In the early 2000s , only 22% of the adult population in the United States were even aware of what podcasting was. Statista 120M homes pay for cable 62% of US adults pay for a streaming video service according to BuzzSprout We are still early days of the podcasting industry. People tend to think that the production approach of the early hits will be the production approach to future hits. Joe Rogan’s massive audience has convinced millions that a podcast structure should be deep winding conversations, and a top podcasters’ team is editing, scheduling, marketing, and business development (and whoever else Joe employs, I’m guessing from afar bruh). The interview style gave podcasting life, it will never die, but saying interviewing is the only way to make podcasts is like saying doing the news is the only way to make TV. convinced many (new and experienced podcast listeners) that podcasting could be episodic. But Serial remained grounded in our nonfiction world. I think the majority of time watching TV is spent in the fictional world. Could fictional podcasts, centered around stories, characters, and scripted entertainment lead to another cataclysmic leap in podcast consumption? Some can certainly argue that people prefer topical informations in their podcasts - and that may be true right now - but I’d argue that the demand for fictional audio content is sizable and rising. the audio book market at $2.67 billion in 2019 and expects it to reach $13.45 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.4% during the period. Meanwhile, was valued at $9.28 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at CAGR)of 27.5% yearly through 2027. I think fictional podcast series will thrive in the overlap of audiobooks and podcasts, meaning there’s a lot of potential to grow this lean sitcom-esque podcast production style. Serial’s breakthrough Global Audiobooks Market estimated the global podcasting market size Also, the ads are pretty clever. Sometimes they air during the actual Dark Air radio show within the context of the story, other times, they are just midplot like when Terry offers his therapist complementary MeUndies. His custom URLs are always “/Dark” which is short and direct. His customers will know if Dark Air creates customers for them. And they’ll get ad placements in content that will be listened to for a long time. Ideally, these direct relationships with sponsors make it easier to cover the upfront costs of creating new seasons, while retaining the long term business opportunities that will come Terry Carnation’s way. But the tradeoff is not selling the show up front for a large lump sum. Do you think when The Office ended, the people who made the show anticipated that the viewership would be larger today than when it was airing? How about the people who own the streaming rights? Who knows how your character will resonate in the future? And who knows how you could generate future revenue on the next yet to be invented distribution channel? More than ever, it’s wise for talented creators like Rainn Wilson to hold on to their characters’ rights in the long run and find out.

Terry Carnation, and The Lean Sitcom Podcast Business Model

The Pros & Cons Of Anonymous Assassination Betting Sites

SEGA announced via the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account that there will be a special digital livestream event for the Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary celebration this week. The "Sonic Central" celebration is scheduled for Thursday, May 27 at 9:00 am PT. The livestream will be available on YouTube.com/sonic or Twitch.com/sonic. The tweet noted that the celebration will feature "a first look at some projects, partnerships, and events." In terms of new projects, it will be interesting to see if a new mainline Sonic the Hedgehog game is coming out. , last February, Paramount Pictures dropped the title announcement video for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the upcoming sequel to the hit live-action movie based on the iconic video game franchise.  The movie currently has an April 8, 2022 release date, director Jeff Fowler that the film wrapped shooting in Vancouver earlier this month. As noted announced It would very much make sense if there were some new reveals for the upcoming sequel during the livestream this week as the announcement did mention partnerships. Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Livestream Set for This Week Additionally, Netflix is working on a new Sonic the Hedgehog animated series called Sonic Prime. Sonic Prime is also expected to debut later next year. It's being animated by WildBrain's Vancouver Studio, with Man of Action Entertainment serving as showrunners and executive producers. So, it would also make sense if new material is revealed for that upcoming series as well. You can see the reveal tweet from SEGA below: More in Gaming: TimeSplitters is Coming Back via a New Development Studio E3 Reveals Broadcast Distribution Partners for 2021 Online-Only Event Back 4 Blood Trailer Introduces The Cleaners and Showcases Game Story Keep up with all the latest gaming news, features, and guides. Subscribe to our newsletter in the footer below!

Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Livestream Scheduled for May 27

Netflix may well be a haven for original voices in filmmaking. But recently Netflix also alienated artists by testing a feature that would allow viewers to adjust the playback speed of the content they watch. As first reported in , the feature, known as variable playback speed, is being tested with a small group of Netflix customers who use Android devices. Variable playback speed would make it possible for viewers to reduce the speed of content to 0.5x or 0.75x or accelerate the speed to 1.25x or 1.5x. Android Police Why would Netflix experiment with variable playback speed? Well, the idea is to give customers more control over their entertainment experience by allowing them to adjust the pace of the content (a capability that is popular with podcast listeners), which is especially appealing for people who experience Netflix on the go with their mobile devices. Artists Revolt But the notion . Just to cite a few noteworthy reactions from the twitterverse: hasn’t gone over well with some notable artists Judd Apatow , “No no. Don’t make me have to call every director and show creator on Earth to fight you on this. Save me the time. I will win but it will take a ton of time. Don’t f— with our timing. We give you nice things. Leave them as they were intended to be seen.” tweeted @Netflix Brad Bird , “Whelp— another spectacularly bad idea, and another cut to the already bleeding-out cinema experience. Why support & finance filmmakers visions on one hand and then work to destroy the presentation of those films on the other???” tweeted You get the idea. It’s like Netflix just launched a new program playing out on Twitter feed, . Artists at War with Technology Netflix Responds Netflix took the complaints in stride. Keela Robinson, vice president, responded : via a blog post as follows It’s a feature that has long been available on DVD players - and has been frequently requested by our members. For example, people looking to rewatch their favorite scene or wanting to go slower because it’s a foreign language title. And there it is, the refrain of the digital age: give the people what they want. Netflix wants to use technology to empower its customers to customize their experience. But the artists want to keep control of their content. A Sign of the Times Netflix reflects the current commercial and cultural zeitgeist. The self-described flourishes at a time when businesses across multiple industries use technology to empower consumers through personalization and customization. world's leading internet entertainment service Spotify, for example, has mastered the use of artificial intelligence to personalize content, or recommend music without altering the song itself. In fact, Spotify is so good at personalization that its customers discover songs and artists they did not know about. AI helps Spotify analyzes its customers’ habits and expand their horizons. Of course, personalization is not new. But with AI, businesses ranging from Amazon to Stitch Fix are taking personalization to a level where the customer can passively allow the algorithm to cater to their every possible taste, and then some. Netflix uses technology to personalize and customize visual storytelling. Netflix uses AI to make viewing recommendations personalized to the audience based on their viewing tastes. Netflix also allows the audience to customize how they watch content. Binge watching, made popular on Netflix, makes it possible for people to adapt, or customize, the pace with which they gobble up episodes of TV shows. With binge watching, audiences can watch entire episodes one after another with only a few seconds to break up the ending of one episode and the beginning of another. In addition, Netflix is introducing the ability for an audience to actually customize the content of the program itself. , a Netflix original released as a standalone film in December 2018, gives audiences (with compatible apps) the ability to choose their own narrative. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch With , the content creator was a willing participant. Series creator Charles Brooker collaborated with Netflix with the express purpose of harnessing digital technology to present an interactive TV episode. In fact, the interactivity is essential to telling the story. is about a programmer who wants to develop a “choose your own adventure” fantasy novel into a video game. In doing so, he begins to question his own grasp of reality. Bandersnatch Bandersnatch Variable playback speed is a natural by-product of this audience-first ethos. Personalization encourages an audience mentality of “Here we are now, entertain us.” Customization (“Let me share the steering wheel”) lets the audience adapt the experience without needing to do much work. With customization, the audience is still pretty passive, sitting on their sofas and using their remotes to tweak and shape the storytelling. Binge watching makes it possible for them to accelerate the content flow from one show to the next. Variable playback speed would enable people to accelerate the flow within the original program, thus changing the nature of the art, which is a crucial distinction. When artists lack a voice in the way technology is used in such service of the audience, they protest, which is what is going on with the reaction to variable playback speed. An Inherent Tension The outcry against variable playback speed demonstrates what happens when technology ratchets up the tension between art and audience in the era of personalization and customization. On the one hand, when an artist creates a movie, song, or any other expression, the art in theory belongs to the audience to interpret however they want. But the creator wants the audience to experience the art as it was conceived so that the audience can respond to the artist’s vision in full. When the audience has the power to change the original expression, the artist feels marginalized. But today when the audience is denied that power, the audience revolts. Consider the petition that a million fans signed to demand a remake of the entire final season of Game of Thrones. “[Showrunners] David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on,” the petition claimed. “This series deserves a final season that makes sense.” The howls of protest got so ugly that toxic fan culture was one of the factors influencing Benioff’s and Weiss’s decision to scrap plans to work with Lucas films on a Star Wars trilogy for HBO. The other factor? They have a $250 million deal to work with Netflix, which they cited officially as their reason for eschewing Lucas films. reportedly Netflix Sails into Dangerous Waters And herein lies one of two problems with variable playback speed (if it sees the light of day) – one a matter of commercial success and the other, of artistic integrity. Commercial risk: variable playback speed seems counter to the Netflix brand. Netflix has attracted storytellers such as Alfonso Cuarón and Natasha Lyonne by promoting itself as the entertainment company that respects artists with original voices. To implement variable playback speed without the consent of the storyteller breaks Netflix’s promise to the artist. Artistic risk: to allow audiences to adjust movie speeds without the consent of the creator may damage the integrity of the art itself. For example, a movie like Cuarón’s Academy-award winning Roma, which Netflix distributed, tells its story through quiet moments that unfold slowly. As Cuarón , “We wanted the film to have a pace of life itself. Sometimes the most meaningful moments are the ones in which apparently nothing happens.” Blasting through Roma at an accelerated speed would defeat the purpose of the film, which won Oscars for best cinematography, best director, and foreign language film. Variable playback speed turns a movie like Roma into generic content that a person “gets through” on their way to doing something else. once commented We’re living in an exciting but dangerous time for artists. Streaming services such as Netflix do indeed give artists more choices. As Martin Scorsese pointed out, traditional Hollywood studios passed on his high-risk, expensive production of The Irishman. So he went to Netflix, which is distributing the movie. But the combination of toxic fan culture and empowering technology puts art at risk. It’s not difficult to imagine a future in which viewers will be given tools to do whatever they want to movies: manipulate speeds, edit Lawrence of Arabia down to an hour, dub new dialogue into The Godfather so that Don Corleone mumbles less, insert Taylor Swift songs into the Easy Rider soundtrack, and program a Darth Vader cameo into Casablanca. Why not? The customer is always right — right? Well, maybe not. Art should not be a cafe latte that people can order to their liking. When fans get exactly what they want from artists — when fans dictate terms to the artist and bend them to their will — they deny themselves the chance to be challenged by art that asks them to see the world through the viewpoint of the artist. The technology that’s supposed to empower the audience instead makes their world smaller. I am a Netflix investor.

Automatic for the People: Why Netflix Is at the Center of a Fight Between Artists and Audiences

From Silicon Valley To Bollywood 🎥 I’ve consistently been surprised by the many similarities between investing in startups and making TV shows. I transitioned from investing in and building startups to running a long-form content house last summer. Over the past year, I have built a creative team, led the scripting of 6 web-series, produced 4 shows and built a pipeline of 15+ ideas that we’re actively pitching to platforms. The move has definitely been challenging: making a show is work. You’re managing sets of 60–80 freelancers with very different skill-sets. It often takes at least a year to write, shoot, edit and release a series. It’s also more fun and stimulating than I could have imagined. hard Some of the similarities I’ve found striking are: The pain and pleasure of being in a hits business Just as in early-stage investing, despite your carefully thought out hypotheses, frameworks and screens, you can’t predict what’s going to work. You bring a strong idea of what you want to make and why to the table: but in the end, your success or failure is determined by what your consumer wants. You take a portfolio approach: you know that you’ll end up having some hits, and some flops, and do your best to ensure that your hits are large enough to more than make up for the failures. : you start by taking small, inexpensive bets on ideas and faces, and testing shorter form content on free platforms. Diversification matters You invest in building your brand, so that you can develop as large of a funnel as possible. In both cases, you’re often looking for a needle in a haystack: we’ve been through over 150 ideas to build our current pipeline. And you learn to be intentional about how much energy and time you dedicate across your portfolio, and tend to the higher potential teams more carefully: they will decide whether you break out or not. But when you do have a hit on your hands, the synergies it brings are absolutely beautiful. You’re caught in an upward spiral, where everyone wants what you have. It’s so much easier to place the next product or season, and make it even better. A heady mix of art and science Great investors and producers are always switching from using their left brain to their right brain and back: you need to be equally creative and pragmatic. Logic doesn’t always win: you’re taking leaps of faith, and visualising what’s never existed before when you initially decide to back a founding team or writer. I love working with a blank sheet of paper: brainstorming characters and settings for our shows brings me joy. You’re doing your homework, but you’re also often operating on gut and instinct. You’re balancing making the best show possible- developing a great script, finding actors who can bring your story to life, a director with a strong vision- both highly subjective and taste-driven- with cost and time constraints- in the same way you’re helping young companies build their initial core teams and run experiments, with scarce resources. In both cases, you run as structured and sensible a process as you can, while allowing room for creativity and unexpected fires, in order to be able to package the elements together, sell the end product, and make the show/product on time and on budget. A long term game: relationships and reputations Supporting startups and making shows are long-term games. They’re heavily relationship based. A lot of people have resources and networks: why should the best creators and entrepreneurs choose you? The quality of your networks and reputation will determine how much people trust you and want to work with you. They’re counting on your support and guidance to bring their vision to their life. It’s not enough to provide the capital or place the show with a platform or brand. You invest for the long term: you start building relationships before they’re ready to pitch to you, and meet as many creators as you can. Your best relationships will arise from taking risks: when you take a chance on people, and give them a platform no one else has. Often your biggest value-add will come from who you can introduce to the team- whether that’s a rockstar VP, co-founder or fabulous director. What your creators say on the ground about you matters most. They will remember how you made them feel, and not just what you did. Adding value without stepping on toes: a careful dance As a producer, you’re shaping the product alongside a range of creative teams: writers, directors, actors and editors, that have their own vision. Your role in is to bring a strong creative and practical perspective to the group: but to also allow the final product to be shaped as collaboratively as possible. I think having high emotional intelligence is key to both being early-stage investing and being a showrunner. You need to have serious respect and empathy for your teams, to not only help them work together and support them as needed- you’re often a counselor, agony agent, therapist, given the high-stress environment- but also to leave them alone, when they need the space. And this is important: as much as you’re there to provide feedback and motivation, you have to know when to back off and allow them to create. Knowing when to get out of the way, instead of becoming a roadblock, is a delicate skill. Open-minded but opinionated: stories evolve Storytelling matters in both early-stage investing and making long-form content. What idea are you supporting that will capture people’s hearts and minds? Why would they want to spend time on your product- given all the choices they have? How can you bring the most authentic and relatable voices to the table? On the other hand, you bring a strong hypothesis. You’re here because you want to create. You have some ideas about what you want to build and why. You have to feel strongly about what you’re backing, given what a long term, uncertain and relationship-based ride this is. But it’s your audience that will make or break you. Just as you find while building any consumer tech product: your audience often can’t articulate what they’re looking for, or like or need, until it’s in their hands. You test cheaper versions of your product, before you roll it out. You keep in touch with your audiences, and stop yourself from developing such a high-level view or such strong conviction that you forget to ask them what you want. You listen to the feedback, engage with the comments, ask them what they want to see, and keep tailoring for them. Their tastes continue to evolve: particularly in crowded markets, as they grow more choosy. Humbling and inspiring: there’s always hope My favourite part of both businesses are the people you meet along the way. I love how resilient the entrepreneurs and creators I’ve met are. I’ve learned that when the journey is long, persistence and consistency matters as much as talent. I have so much respect for our creators: I see the same passion and vision in the entrepreneurs we backed at my previous firm. I’m inspired every day by being around people who love what they do. I hope you find that too! Do leave your comments below- I’d love to hear what you think. <a href="https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href">https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href</a>

From Silicon Valley To Bollywood

We spent 3 days with 25,000 tweens — here’s what we learned! Last week, we attended our first , an online video convention for creators, fans, and the media industry founded by and . We were a bit late to the party — the conference started in 2010 with 1,400 attendees, and has since ballooned to 25,000+ people. It’s now widely recognized as a key destination for brands to reach the Gen Z demographic. VidCon Hank Green John Green As early stage consumer investors, we saw VidCon as a great opportunity to better understand the online habits of today’s teens. They may be young, but they’re often influential early adopters of the next big brands, social networks, and content distribution platforms. According to Nielsen, Gen Zers now make up the largest percentage of the population (27%), and consume an average of 30 hours of digital content weekly. We bounced around between the conference’s three tracks, which each attracted different audiences — (millennial/Gen Z fans), (aspiring influencers), and (media and finance executives). We also spent time in the Expo Hall, which featured booths and lounges from brands ranging from Instagram to Snickers to Audible (check out TubeFilter’s review ) — even Invisalign sponsored a and a . Community Creator Industry here ferris wheel giant candy dispenser For anyone who couldn’t make it to Anaheim (or got stuck at ), we recapped our top ten takeaways from the week, grouped into key categories. TanaCon For VidCon week, the outside of the Anaheim Convention Center was plastered with promo materials for upcoming original content from YouTubers — including Liza Koshy’s Liza on Demand, and Joey Graceffa’s Escape the Night, which are both hosted on YouTube Red. Creators/Influencers . This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who read our post on the , but being a successful creator is big business. As gamer (1.8M subscribers) said on a panel about brand deals, “We’re all companies at this point.” Though social media stars may get started making webcam videos in their basements, many eventually hire teams of agents, managers, and staff who handle editing, social posts, brand engagements, and production schedules. The creator still ultimately owns his or her brand, but just like traditional celebrities, day-to-day decisions are abstracted away from them to people who can monetize their image. 1.Creators are companies rise of influencers StacyPlays One of the strongest influencer brands for Gen Z at VidCon was that of 15-year-old JoJo Siwa (pictured above as part of the Nickelodeon display). Siwa, a former Dance Moms star, is now a YouTuber, singer, and author, and is signed to Nick’s talent label — she performed at VidCon’s Night of Dance and at the Night of Awesome. Grant Thompson, “ ,” is a perfect example of how a creator turns into a brand. He started YouTube has a hobby, but ended up leaving his job as a pilot to make videos full-time for his almost 10M subscribers. He now employs a team of 13 people that serve as a full production company and help him find new ways to monetize his content. The King of Random Brands are tempted to script influencer posts, but creators don’t want to feel like they’re shilling a product. (Fine Brothers Entertainment, 17M subscribers) includes a clause in contracts that allows him to ignore 50% of edits that brands propose. Creators are more positive on longer-term partnerships that integrate the brand naturally, like a video series or a channel takeover. If fans feel a like brand is enabling content the creator otherwise couldn’t make, they’re more likely to have a positive association. (10M subscribers) said he only works on brand campaigns that feel consistent with “what fans expect” from him, and where he can make the brand the “hero” of the video in an authentic way. 2. Struggle for authenticity. Benny Fine Kurt Schneider Schneider cited his Candyman brand video with M&M’s as a successful example of an influencer/brand collaboration — it looked like something he might normally make, got a great reception from his audience, and the like/dislike ratio was in line with his non-sponsored content. On the topic of authenticity, producers of YouTube Red series said they’ve found success in treating influencers like stars, not actors. Fans want to see influencers appearing as themselves, not as another character. is what showrunner Adam Lawson calls a “surreality” show — influencers are placed in a historical setting and have to complete challenges to make it back to the present. While the show has a group of background actors with scripted lines, the influencers were completely unscripted and were asked to just respond naturally to the action around them. Escape the Night Escape the Night Along with CPO Neal Mohan’s product announcements, YouTube’s featured two creators — music producer , who boasts 10M+ subscribers, and therapist , who has a relatively modest 360k subscribers. YouTube’s decision to highlight Morton, whose videos help people worldwide struggling with mental health issues, illustrates a repeated theme that creators should make a positive impact on the world. Jennifer Wiener from Fullscreen Media, an agency that manages influencers, said that the most successful creators focus on a message of “empowerment, diversity, and inclusion,” and highlighted that younger viewers “want to do good and see others doing the same.” 3. Creators should do good. annual keynote Kurt Schneider Kati Morton This theme carried through the track sessions for young fans — we counted more than 25 sessions on topics like racial equality, sexuality, feminism, and cyberbullying, including: “Body Image, Gender, Presentation, and Online Video,” “We’re Here: Talking about Marginalized Identities,” and “They See Me Trolling: How to Create a Kind Community.” The trailer for the upcoming movie based on Angie Thomas’ also premiered at VidCon, and the encouraged visitors to “Spread Love” by putting up positive messages on a public board. Community The Hate U Give brand’s popular booth Photos of The Hate U Give booth at VidCon. Courtesy of @cathhick . Brands and Monetization It’s no surprise that teens hate pre-roll ads. Ads are also an inconsistent revenue stream for creators, as they have to rely on the platform’s algorithm and CPMs are low. Smart creators diversify their revenue through subscriptions for premium content, brand partnerships, and merch/live shows. In a panel on monetization, (2.5M subscribers), Burnie Burns (9.5M subscribers via ), and (6.2M subscribers) all emphasized that they’ve focused on non-ad revenue — Rooster Teeth has 300k+ paying subscribers for its , while merch and live shows have been crucial for Hannah and Phillip. 4. Pre-roll ads are passé. Hannah Hart Rooster Teeth Philip DeFranco SVOD service Nielsen’s Amanda Tarpey released data at VidCon on SVOD growth in households between 2017 and 2018 — their data shows growth across all generations, with strongest adoption for millennials and Gen Z. YouTube’s at VidCon focused on making it easier for creators to monetize beyond ads, including channel subscriptions and merch shelves that live directly below videos. The company also released early stats on some of its other monetization initiatives — 50% of channels using doubled their revenue in the first three months of 2018, and 65% of channels using have more than doubled their livestream income. product announcements FameBit SuperChat Though many creators are grateful to YouTube for launching their careers, there’s an underlying tension around who “owns” the relationship with fans. This issue has become increasingly important as YouTube recently required users to “opt in” to notifications for new videos on channels they’ve already subscribed to (which resulted in a significant for many creators), as well as stricter . 5. Who “owns” the fans? drop in views monetization policies Hannah Hart voiced her frustration with the new notification policy, noting that it created unnecessary friction for fans to access her content. When asked about the best piece of advice she’s received, she responded: “Don’t build mansions in someone else’s backyard.” Burnie Burns also warned creators against relying too heavily on one platform, arguing that the demise of Vine illustrated the importance of moving your audience to a destination that you control. Philip DeFranco took more aggressive action when he launched his own app, DeFranco Now, in May 2018 after comparing YouTube to an “alcoholic, negligent stepfather.” It was DeFranco’s at VidCon, as he plans to start focusing on his own events. last year Frustration with YouTube and VidCon motivated the launch of TanaCon, an alternative conference organized by YouTube influencer Tana Mongeau. The event, which was held in Anaheim the same week as VidCon, was born out of Mongeau’s that VidCon wouldn’t feature controversial creators like herself. Though TanaCon was poorly and eventually shut down, Mongeau was able to attract more than 20k teen fans as well as like Shane Dawson, TheGabbieShow, Casey Neistat, and Miranda Sings. frustration organized huge creators TanaCon sold 5,000 tickets but was by another 15,000 teens eager to meet their favorite YouTubers. Photo courtesy of . reportedly mobbed @SocialBlade . To generate real value from campaigns, many brands have set the following priorities for influencers they partner with: (1) engagement (likes, comments); (2) views; (3) subscribers. As purchase behavior continues to shift towards mobile and social platforms, influencers have a huge ability to drive sales, but it’s key that viewers actually watch and engage with the content, and use it to make purchasing decisions. 6. Engagement > views The increasing focus on engagement over reach was echoed by brands and publishers, whose KPIs for content have shifted away from pure views. Jay Holzer, Head of Linear Programming at Tastemade, mentioned that his team primarily focuses on watch time over number of views — they want to ensure they are building a real connection with viewers who will return to their page. Similarly, NBC worked with 40 music YouTubers for a — while they tracked views, they specifically focused on boosting search traffic for , which was up 170% over the course of the campaign. campaign The Voice The Voice . The rapid rise of e-sports caught many brands by surprise, and they continue to struggle with how to reach these viewers in an authentic way. It’s a valuable demographic — viewers often stream hours of content with no break and are eager for opportunities to emulate the gaming lifestyle. Brands need to think of creative ways to establish a value-add presence in the space — Perrin Kaplan of Zebra Partners cited IKEA’s new for gamers as an example of this. 7. Brands need to catch up on e-sports ergonomic furniture HyperX and Allied Esports on a mobile touring arena that made a stop on the VidCon Expo Hall floor — conveniently located next to the Axe (yes, the body spray company) Gaming Lounge. partnered Other industry experts encouraged brands to think more strategically about which games best fit their ethos and not scramble to sponsor top hits like Fortnite. UEG’s Lauren Flanagan said that the current environment reminds her of youth soccer, where “everyone is chasing the same ball up and down the field” rather than spreading out and pursuing different properties. VidCon did feature a case study of one successful partnership in the space — Hot Pockets ran a social in 2017 where they dedicated most of their marketing budget to 20 gaming influencers, and saw a 6–7% lift in business. campaign Wandering around VidCon’s giant Expo Hall, we that almost every booth had two things in common: they were interactive, and they were optimized for Instagram. At the very least, this meant a trendy wall to snap a photo against (Facebook had mini photo-rooms dedicated to this), but most brands got a little more creative. Hubert’s Lemonade had a ball pit filled with lemonade floaties and a claw machine of merch, while Nickelodeon built a giant obstacle course. Brands weren’t shy about encouraging social posts, putting up signs with a hashtag and request to share on Instagram. 8. Gen Z wants interactive and Instagrammable experiences. quickly realized A few of the brand booths in VidCon’s expo hall. Clockwise from upper left: Ugly Dolls, Hubert’s Lemonade, United Airlines, and Califia. It’s easy to make a physical booth interactive, but how can content creators do the same for YouTube? Chase Landau, VP of Partnerships at , said that the company’s creators focus on videos about things that kids can replicate at home. How-to videos on cooking, building things, and gaming are often the most popular content. In another interesting example of interactive content, Twisted Food launched a delivery-only restaurant that allows viewers to order the food they see in the company’s viral . pocket.watch Facebook videos Social and Entertainment Platforms UGC platforms often struggle with balancing freedom of speech and creating a safe community. At VidCon, many creators voiced the opinion that YouTube and other platforms should be doing more to ensure that users aren’t exposed to harassment or inappropriate content. On a panel titled “Why 2017 Sucked for Online Video,” vlogger criticized YouTube for leaving up Logan Paul’s “suicide forest” video for 12+ hours, and argued that real people (not bots) should review and approve featured or trending content. 9. Platforms are responsible for content. Jana Hisham Tech execs have historically disagreed with the idea that they are responsible for user content, but it seems the tide is beginning to shift. At Twitch’s keynote, co-founder Kevin Lin said that the company has a “responsibility to create a safe environment for creators and fans.” Trolls, be warned — platforms are making strides to rein in the Wild West of the Internet. YouTube, IG/Facebook, Snap, and Twitch are in a race to become the primary destination for video. YouTube is encroaching on Instagram with the launch of a for casual, short-form videos. Meanwhile, Instagram made waves with the , which allows users to create longer-form, YouTube style videos. Facebook VP of Product Fidji Simo said that her team is working to encourage more creator content on Facebook Watch due to consumer demand. And while Snap has lagged in creator videos, the company had a big — the Snapchat Shows feature will be opened up to creators, starting with a makeover show from of 10. Platforms converge to multi-format video. “Stories” product launch of IGTV VidCon announcement Patrick Starrr Face Forward. You can catch the full YouTube keynote above — other than YouTube Stories, some of the biggest announcements were the launch of monthly memberships, expanded merch opportunities (including a partnership with Teespring), and a new Premieres feature for the live debut of pre-recorded videos. Creators have mixed feelings on the idea of platform consolidation. Some seem exhausted by the challenge of producing content to fit the demographic, format, and viewing habits of each platform, and would welcome the ability to focus on one. Others, especially newer creators, appreciate the ability to publish across many platforms and figure out where their content “hits.” NBA Entertainment SVP David Denenberg said the NBA has benefited from platform diversity — they can livestream a game on Facebook, post highlights on YouTube, and do player Q&As on Instagram. Denenberg said the NBA works with social platforms to produce the best content for viewers —after a contact at Facebook recommended videos with tighter angles, the NBA installed new cameras in arenas and saw engagement increase 2.5x. Thanks for reading — we hope you found this post to be helpful! If you were at VidCon this year or in past years, we’d love to hear your feedback below, or you can reach us on email at twins@crv.com or on Twitter . @venturetwins Like this post? to help more people see our story, and share it with your friends! Clap for it Interested in reading more content from us? 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A VC’s top 10 takeaways from VidCon

Beginning with the most important skill of the 21st century Everyone is very busy these days. There is just so much going on with our personal and professional lives. On top of it, lo and behold, something like artificial intelligence starts to gather steam and you learn that your skillset is getting terribly outdated over next two years. , I woke up to this rude awakening. It looked like was missing out on something very unique. When I shutdown my startup Zeading The relevance of a full stack developer will not be enough in the changing scenario of things. In the next two years, full stack will not be full stack without AI skills. It was time to take action. And I did what I thought was the only course of action to take now — to update my skills as a developer, my mindset as a product guy and my philosophy as an entrepreneur to become data oriented. As , renowned venture capitalist and thought leader in AI and Fintech so eloquently said to me, Spiros Margaris If startups and companies rely only on cutting-edge AI and machine learning algorithms to compete — it will be not enough. AI will be not a competitive advantage but a requirement. Do you hear anyone saying they use electricity as a competitive edge? Building my first neural network Photo by — Unsplash The common advice was to sign up for . It is a great place to begin but I found it hard to stay awake for long. Not to say that the course was bad or anything, but I really suck at staying attentive in lectures. My mode of has always been by doing, so I thought why the hell not, let’s implement our own neural network. Andrew Ng’s course on Coursera learning I did not jump straight to neural nets because it is some better way to learn. I was trying to familiarize myself with all the words in the domain so I can learn to speak the language. The first assignment is not to learn. But to familiarize. Coming from a pure Javascript and Nodejs background, I didn’t want to switch stacks just yet. So I searched for a simple neural net module called nn and used it to implement an gate with a dummy input. , I chose the problem that for any three inputs X,Y and Z the output should by X Y. AND Inspired by this tutorial AND var nn = require('nn')var opts = {layers: [ 4 ],iterations: 300000,errorThresh: 0.0000005,activation: 'logistic',learningRate: 0.4,momentum: 0.5,log: 100}var net = nn(opts) net.train([{ input: [ 0,0,1 ], output: [ 0 ] },{ input: [ 0,1,1 ], output: [ 0 ] },{ input: [ 1,0,1 ], output: [ 0 ] },{ input: [ 0,1,0 ], output: [ 0 ] },{ input: [ 1,0,0 ], output: [ 0 ] },{ input: [ 1,1,1 ], output: [ 1 ] },{ input: [ 0,0,0 ], output: [ 0 ] }]) // send it a new input to see its trained outputvar output = net.send([ 1,1,0])console.log(output); //0.9971279763719718 Such happiness! In my personal opinion, this was the most confidence building step that I had taken. When the output flashed as 0.9971, I realized that the network learned how to do an operation and ignore the additional input on its own. AND This is mostly the gist of machine learning. You give a computer program a set of data and it adjusts its internal parameters in such a way that it gains the ability to answer questions on new data with a decreasing error from what it observed from original data. This method, as I would later come to know, is also known as gradient descent. Photo by — Sebastian Raschka Priming my mind for artificial intelligence Photo courtesy — Unsplash O . nce I was brimming with confidence after I had made my first artificial intelligence program, I wanted to know what more I can do with machine learning as a developer I solved a couple of such as and . supervised learning problems regression classification I used a very limited data set to try to predict which team will win a given IPL match using (The predictions were really off, but it was kind of cool) multivariate linear regression . I played along with the to see what all things AI can do today (well enough that Google was doing it as a SaaS product) demos on Google Machine Learning cloud I stumbled upon , the esteemed venture fund. Truly one of the most handy resources for developers and entrepreneurs. AI Playbook , an awesome resource organized by Andreessen-Horowitz I started watching that is centered around Deep Learning and Machine Learning. Siraj Rawal’s awesome channel on Youtube I read this about how the showrunners at Silicon Valley built the . This was one of the most approachable examples of deep learning that we can do. awesome Hacker Noon post Not Hotdog app I read . Even though I couldn’t understand anything at much and it gave me a headache, I found out that after trying for some more time the concepts do actually begin to make sense. Andrej Karpathy’s blogs , who is Director of AI at Tesla With some courage, I started to implement (copy and paste) and tried to train the model and run the code on my local machine. Most times, it sucked because of the high training time most models take and I didn’t have a GPU. some of the deep learning tutorials verbatim Gradually, I switched my from Javascript to Python, and installed . tools Tensorflow on my windows machine This whole process was centred around passively consuming contents and building references in your mind so I can use later when I get a real consumer problem to work on. As Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots looking backward. Catching the chatbot train Photo by — Unsplash Being a major fan of the movie , I wanted to build chatbots. I took up the challenge and managed to build one using Tensorflow in less than two hours. I outlined this journey and the business needs of it in a few days back. Her one of my articles Fortunately, the article got really went viral and was featured in , , and . It was a great moment for me, personally, because I’ve just begun with tech blogging. But I think that this article was one of the landmark moments in my AI learning journey. TechInAsia CodeMentor KDNuggets It got me to make many friends on Twitter and LinkedIn, with whom I can discuss AI development at length and depth and can even reach out should I get stuck. I got a few offers to do consulting projects and the best part of all, young developers and AI beginners started to ask me how I began with AI. Which brings us to why I’ve written this article. To help more people take cues from my own journey and start their own. Starting is one of the most challenging parts of any journey. Salt and pepper Photo by — Unsplash It was definitely not easy. When I started getting stuck with Javascript, I jumped to Python almost overnight and picked up how to code in that. I started to get irritated when my models won’t train on my i7 machine or when even after hours of training, they would return gibberish results like a 50–50 probability of a team winning a Cricket match. Learning AI is not like learning a web framework. It is a skill that requires awareness of what is going on at the microscopic level of calculations and find what is more responsible for your output — your code or your data. AI is also not just one subject. It is an umbrella term used for anything from simple regression problems to killer robots that are going to kill us someday. Like every other discipline you get into, you might want to cherry pick the kinds of things in AI you want to be really good at like computer vision or natural language processing, or God forbid, world domination. In a conversation with from Atlantis Capital, a reputed industry leader in AI, Fintech, and Crypto, he confided to me that: Gaurav Sharma In the age of artificial intelligence, “being smart” will mean something completely different. We need people to perform the higher-order critical, creative, and thinking and the jobs that require high emotional engagement. You have to be fascinated by how computers suddenly how to do things on their own. Patience and wonder are the two key principles that you should cling. learn This is a big, big journey. Very tiring, very irritating and exceptionally time consuming. But the good part is, like every other journey in the world, this one also starts with a single step. Thanks for reading :) If you enjoyed it, hit that clap button below as many times as possible! It would mean a lot to me and encourage me to write more stories like this Let’s also connect on Twitter , LinkedIn , email or at my blog shivalgupta.com

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