Review of Distribber an Indie GoGo company

This blog post is a review of the aggregator Distribber, an indie Go Go Company. I noticed that there were many people asking about this company and were not able to find many review from actual filmmakers who have distributed a feature film through them. Here is my experience with them. I have my film, Bang Bang, currently being distributed by them to iTunes, and Amazon VOD. The thing with this company that makes them different from other traditional aggregators is that they ask for an upfront payment and in return, they give you 100% of the revenue profit. They advertise on their website that they can get your film into iTunes, Amazon VOD, Netflix, Hulu, and major cable companies for PPV and VOD.

I have since made roughly close to $8,000 through Distribber after subtracting their fee of $1300. However, after using them for the last year and a half, my conclusion is that I would not use them for any other films.

First off, this is not a good choice to go if you don't have a following for your film already established. In my case, my film had a small following and fan base due to my main actor being an underground rap star THAI VIET G.

They did get my film onto iTunes, but it took over 3months from the moment that they received my deliverables. Keep this in mind when planning your distribution strategy. I'm told this is how long it usually takes even with other aggregators.

They successfully put my film in Amazon VOD after 2months from the date that I requested it. Again, very slow in my opinion, but it could be due to 3rd party factors like Amazon's own processing time.

They were NOT able to get my film into Netflix. They added the film on their "pitch list" and it was not selected by Netflix. I'm not sure how actively they tried to put it into netflix, it seems like it was submitted with a list of many other films. I'm not sure how netflix chooses their films, but I've been told that in recent years, they have been straying away from picking up indie-films unless it's a big indie film with some star power attached.

Now for the issues of Distribber which I have a big problem with.

1. Their revenue tracker is not updated ever, and is unreliable. There's no way you can tell how much your film has earned because their site is never updated. There's a 3 month lag time. I stopped checking as of 6months ago and I'm not sure if they've fixed this issue.

2. Their customer support is almost no-existent. There's no way to directly reach any of the 2 people that work there. Their phone numbers reach a message machine that doesn't allow you to leave messages. Emails are rarely returned until anywhere from a few days, to months after. This is due to their business model design. Because you're paying an upfront fee, after they put your film in iTunes, they have no incentive to support or help you with your film because they've already made their money. There is still a $79 annual fee, FYI.

3. When a programmer for a channel on Comcast contacted me to acquire my film for PPV on Comcast during their monthly programming, I sent them to distribber to make the deal since they asked to work with an aggregator. Distribber was extremely unhelpful in this and the lack of communication has since cost me the opportunity with this programmer to have my film on Comcast, at least for now. I'm now going to find another traditional aggregator to go with to make this deal. Distribber can't even figure out what their fee for this simple transaction would be, and their lack of client support cost my film a golden opportunity to be seen and to make some sort of revenue.

Overall Conclusion of Distribber and of using aggregators for distribution:

The most important thing is to build a fan base around your film. Marketing through social media, blogs, festivals, etc. etc. Once you have a fan base established, I would not recommend driving them to purchase your film on iTunes or Amazon VOD because you are losing more revenue since the aggregator and ITunes will both take a cut of your revenue. Rather, send them to a streaming platform like CHILL.COM where they can watch it directly from the filmmaker. This way, you skip the middle man and you only share revenue with one company.

UPDATE:(1/28/14) Chill.com has shut down, they have gone out of business just like Dynamo Player. I've switched over to REELHOUSE.ORG and I LOVE their platform because they have 100% transparency of sales since every payment goes directly to my paypal, and they only take 6%. This means I get my money right away, and don't have to deal with waiting for money being sent, or not sent at all like the situation with Chill right now. I'm STILL waiting for a check. Unbelievable.

Another thing that most people dont' realize is that just because your film is on iTunes or Amazon, they are not going to show up in browsing. Your film will only be seen if the customers search your exact title, or if sent through a direct link like from your youtube trailer or facebook post. My advice would be to still have your film available on those platforms, but go through a traditional aggregator where they do a profit share of typically 70/30. But don't drive your fans to those platforms, only drive fans towards your direct lines of distribution such as DVD sales through the use of Bigcartel.com, and use Chill.com platform to embedd the film into its website like how i have it for Bang Bang. This strategy will maximize your profit, but at the same time, if some fans want to use iTunes or Amazon, they will still be able to find your title.

Hope this helps for some of you who have questions about DIY filmmaking and distribution. I will post more reviews about other companies I've used such as Chill.com and bigcartel.com in future blogs. Thanks for reading! To connect with me below!

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