Streaming is here to stay. Check out this New York Times article about Disney’s entrance into the sphere. Do not be put off by the rough technological start (glitchy/crashing app). When the biggest content provider on the planet decides to go all in on streaming, we all have to do more than take notice. Oh and Apple, Comcast, and HBO are also jumping in. 2019 marked the first time that more people subscribed to streaming services (613 million) than they did cable (556 million). Streaming allows us to customize our user experience, watching whatever we want to watch, whenever and wherever we want to watch it. All for a relatively modest fee that is already collectively less than cable.
Make no mistake, this is about data and the ability to generate content that consumers will want to watch at the micro level. It is the long tail in the most extreme. Streaming validates the power of doing things for those that care and being ok that it is not for everyone. Streaming also changes to value of ownership of intellectual property. Like the music business, why would you buy a movie when you can always have it available to stream? The economics are easy: if say you have to pay $400-$800/year to have access to all the content you would ever consume and it is $15-20 to buy a movie and/or CD, if you ever wanted to consume more than thirtyish of these items in a year, streaming wins. Also, if you feel like you are not getting value, you can stop and start at any time.
What does this mean for creative business? That really is not the right question, the right question is what doesn’t it mean? When mega businesses are doing all they can to create relevant content that will matter to the smallest viable audience, our culture shifts. Your clients will expect a level of granularity that “trust me” will never provide. Your portfolio is irrelevant other than as a generic marker of who you are as an artist and creative business. No more than a storefront, your portfolio might lure someone in, but it will never ever make the sale for you again. Your collateral had better do more than just show pretty pictures if you expect to move forward. It must tell your story and the journey of creation your clients can expect.
Next, micro consumption. M.A.S.H. had 106 million viewers for its final episode and averaged 50 or so million per week at its height (and it was never a number one show). For the first half of 2019, The Big Bang Theory was the number one show and averages 18 million viewers. BBTs stars all made more than one million dollars per episode and, of course, have a percentage of syndication. Streaming is going to take that even further because each of these services will know who is watching, when and where. Think about that. If Netflix knows everything about the five million people who are obsessed with baking shows, wedding shows, interior design shows, what does that let them talk about? What about Amazon? Apple? Disney? No connection? How about Le Creuset, one of the highest end cookware companies partnering with Disney to create a Star Wars line? Of course, the success of the line is yet to be determined but the idea was not borne out of thin air. Somebody figured out that avid at-home chefs are also Star Wars fans. Good luck being the same but just a little better in the future.
We are about to live in a world (if we are not already) where mega businesses know more about your clients than you ever will. The expectation will be that because clients will know that this is true they will expect ever more personal experiences. It used to be that, to paraphrase Seth Godin, “we made this for you” was unique and special versus here is your Starbucks Latte. Now, it will be a baseline. So if this is true, then what will you and your creative business need to do to move forward?
Simple. Invest in relationship. Creative businesses have nothing to do with the art they sell. They are communication businesses tasked with first translating senses and then using the translation to create a transformational experience. The foundation is information flow through profound and on-going multi-media communication. While you may never have the upfront information about a client that mega-businesses have, you do have the ability to dig incredible deep into the humanity of all that you do. Most of you have built your businesses to do the exact opposite. If you make your money on the sale of stuff or the amount of stuff you service, then the more you sell, the more you make. If value does not come from creation (as it so often does not), then your business is built to diminish communication not grow it — you will do as little as possible to get to yes as the faster you get to yes, the more you will make. Pushing the edge of communication makes no sense if there is a risk of losing the sale (i.e., the yes). If you get paid for creation, you will invest in what it takes to communicate creation and the spiral will ratchet upwards.
The lesson that streaming should be teaching you is that if you do not pay attention to the implications of the long tail, the need to invest in relationship and all the communication tools (of all media) to redefine the value most creative businesses have heretofore delivered, you are going to be left behind. Individual human relationship, with compassion, empathy, even sympathy for the journey ahead is a prerequisite to your art and your creative business, now more than ever. To make that a reality, how your creative business runs and redefining what matters to you as an artist and business has to happen — yesterday. Those who are unaligned in their art and business (i.e., the mission of your business and art are opposite) will be exposed ever faster and marginalized out of existence much faster than even I ever thought. Be who you are with impunity or exit stage right.
