Why Do You Need an Aggregator to Get Your Film on iTunes?

While in the past filmmakers have decried their dependence on the "middlemen" of distribution, for this situation, an aggregator can be a great ally. With the growing trend of aggregators towards flat fees and small-to-no profit share, the option is getting more transparent and affordable for independent filmmakers with hybrid distribution strategies as a main priority. In case you're investigating this option for your next film, here is a quick crash course on what a film aggregator does, and where to discover more. 

Why Do You need a Film Aggregator? 

Aggregators are the gatekeepers between you and the various VOD platforms. iTunes, for instance, will just accept content from an approved encoding house, large numbers of which are likewise preferred, aggregators. In theory, you can apply to send them to content directly from an Apple-approved encoding house. 

iTunes Film Aggregator 

iTunes is the most widely known TVOD marketplace for digital downloads, and it is the largest dealer of movies worldwide with 85,000 titles. It has a reported 800 million users. Viewers can purchase or rent movies from the iTunes store to use on any Apple Device. iTunes will likewise take English language titles to 57 countries without the requirement for translation. 

At the point when your film is on iTunes, it is sold alongside blockbuster films, and your profit is just a tick away because of the simple nature of purchasing through an iTunes account. iTunes' profit is split 70% to filmmakers, content owners, and creators and 30% to Apple. 

Aggregators are experts in delivering content to iTunes. For a charge, they can correctly format and deliver your content to Apple's specifications. The majority of independent movies offered on iTunes are provided by aggregator partners. All content must be encoded and delivered by an Apple-approved encoding house. The encoding house processes the content in the Apple-explicit encode that is needed for distribution on iTunes.

So for what reason do you want your film to be on one of these platforms, once more? 

The choice of where to put your film online is different for each producer. One answer, nonetheless, is that getting on these various platforms gets you more eyeballs. A famous model for DIYers today is to get it in two spots: 

1) your site and 

2) wherever else you can get on for TVOD streams and downloads. 

This is in contrast to "subscription" or SVOD based models like Netflix where you don't bring in cash off singular perspectives, but are paid a flat licensing expense. 

The two-pronged methodology above depends on realizing you will hold a greater amount of the profits back from selling your film directly on your site. You'll be taking a gander at possibly a 90/10 split on the off chance that you are utilizing something like VHX to control your streaming/downloading option, and that's the place where you'll want your fanbase to go to see your film. On a platform like iTunes, the split is generally 70/30 or 60/40 depending on if the transaction is a deal or a rental. (That's 70% to the movie producer.) You're surrendering 30% of your offer to iTunes, but it's 30% of something you wouldn't have gotten if you weren't on iTunes. What's more, with an aggregator, you can get to iTunes without surrendering significantly a greater amount of that income to a distributor or sales agent.