Media & Entertainment at the age of genAI

5 ideas to still make money in the Media & Entertainment industry, in the age of genAI.

Recent deals between genAI companies and movie studios have sparked the notion that studios might be sitting on a new pile of gold : their library. But if you look ahead five years, will the genAI companies still need these movies to train their models ?
Consider how Netflix initially relied on “premium” content to stand out (as provided by deals with Starz and Disney in 2008), but a few years later, they started their producing their originals (e.g., House of Cards in 2013) and became self-sufficient. I would argue that the same is going to happen with genAI companies.

So how will you be able to make money in the Media & Entertainment industry in the coming years ?

Let’s go back to basics : what is scarce is expensive !

With the internet, access to content became abundant, and with genAI, quality content will be nearly infinite !

Faced with an infinite choice of quality content, what becomes scarce is consumer attention.

Therefore, the future winners in the Media & Entertainment industry will be those who can capture consumer attention.

Here are 5 ways to achieve this.

1. Creating a Hit.
Just like VCs fund many startups in the hope that one will become a unicorn, movie studios will need to adopt a quantity game coupled with strong marketing. Traditionally, movie studios have focused on a hand-full of low risk movies a year, so this strategy is probably better suited for YouTube studios.

2. Solving the Curation and Recommendation Problem
Despite significant investments, recommendation algorithms from streaming platforms often fall short. People tend to prefer recommendations from other people, which is why I believe web3 could provide a great framework to make this work.

3. Building Fandom and Communities
Fans are loyal and communities are where we like to hang out. Those who will manage to create such environments around their IP will be the winners. Again, web3 tools can be incredibly helpful here.

4. IRL Experiences
Just as music artists make money from concerts rather than streaming, the movie industry will have to develop IRL experiences. Netflix is likely paving the way for this with their recently announced “Netflix Houses”.

5. Picks and shovels
Just as the real winners of the gold rush were those selling shovels ; in media & entertainment, tech companies building video generation tools, digital rights management tools, or specialised blockchains could be the true winners !

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