CreateSpace was known in its early days as CustomFlix, a corporate identity that reflected the company’s emphasis on providing a DVD-on-demand service for independent filmmakers that wanted to distribute copies of their films without investing up front in inventory. These days, the company still works with indie movie projects, but has expanded its purview to include music and books — in both physical and digital-delivery versions — among its on-demand offerings. Check out this Studio Monthly story from 2009 for more on CreateSpace, including info on how the makers of hockey documentary In the Crease successfully marketed that film.

Earlier this month, the company announced its upcoming DVD of the 2010 Daytona 500, a release that was advertised on television while the event was actually taking place. And today CreateSpace said it is exclusively handling the DVD release of MTV’s already iconic Jersey Shore UNCENSORED: Season One. “Collaborating with CreateSpace to provide fans with the official Season One DVD is a great way to get them the product quickly and efficiently,” said MTV Senior VP of Program Enterprise Lisa Silfen in a prepared statement. StudioDaily asked Mike Haney, the head of content acquisition at CreateSpace, about the future of content distribution as old retail models fall away.

StudioDaily: With high-profile DVD on-demand deals in effect with studios like Universal and Fox, it seems like you’ve made a lot of progress this year.

Mike Haney: The state of retail has changed drastically, leaving less shelf space for products from Hollywood studios and television networks. This is a no-brainer for them. Amazon has virtual shelf space, so it’s not like we can’t merchandise and shelve each piece of product. And for independents, the on-demand model lets them get into business.


Here in New York, all of the big record stores and most of the big video stores are gone.

I never thought Tower was going to go out of business. I was in a meeting eight months ago, and I was looking across Times Square to the giant “going out of business sale” sign in the Virgin Megastore window. It was a poignant moment. And here we are, working with all these providers to get all these products out in a low-touch, low-cost way — but still making them available.


You’ve just announced an agreement to bring out the Daytona 500 with Team Marketing.

This announcement was really to talk about what we’ve been doing with Team Marketing recently, which is NASCAR and some of the college bowl games. This is not unique, because we are also doing things like this with the NFL and other sports franchises. It’s a good way to get content out, because we can do it quickly. We can put up a DVD preorder page right when an event is happening. With sports, you have to strike while the iron is hot. It’s exciting news while it’s happening. Two weeks later, everyone has moved onto the next game.

But it’s a way to get some value out of archival content, too.

Studio announcements are pretty focused on that as well. Warner’s probably got 7,000 titles in its archive that have never been released on DVD. MGM has 5,000. These titles are not out on DVD for a couple of reasons. Some of them have rights clearance issues. But for a large part [of the back catalog] the question is, is if they put them out, who’s going to carry them? For film and television, the seamless integration between CreateSpace and amazon is great. Independent movies were CustomFlix’s main business model. Once we became CreateSpace, we extended that across all platforms — books, music, and other media types in the digital space we make available digitally through Amazon. We have thousands of indie authors, filmmakers, and musicians.

If I’m an independent filmmaker, what’s required of me to start selling my movie? Is there a set-up fee?

It’s a revenue-share deal, and the terms vary depending on the channels that you choose. It’s easy and low-touch to get things set up. You set your title up, and as soon as things start selling, we send you checks.

There are arguments that physical media distribution is a losing proposition because of the increasing move to digital delivery. How long do you see physical media being an important part of your business model?

We are very much supportive of the digital business. We can make content available digitally for video, MP3s for audio, and even Kindle book content. We’re focused on the on-demand solution because it’s the core business of the company. But we’re all about making sure the end customer is able to consume the product in any format they want to. We have content in physical form and also in digital form. The customer is going to decide when to move away from physical and go 100 percent digital. And there will be certain parts of the country that go digital quickly and certain parts that won’t. Amazon.com has a wide reach, and we want to make sure consumers can buy physical products if they want.

It doesn’t do a filmmaker any good to have a retail outlet for their film if they’re unable to market it effectively. How sophisticated are your users when it comes to getting the word out, and how much hand-holding are you able to do to get them started?

That’s a great question. It’s hugely important for people to get the word out. Believe it or not, there is hand-holding that goes on with networks and studios. The larger providers have started to come into this understanding that the best way to reach their core audience is to do TV commercials or advertising on their own Web sites, especially with big brands. That’s been very effective. As a fast-to-market example, when Obama was inaugurated last year, we had his inauguration DVD up for sale while that inauguration was happening. We didn’t have the content yet, but CNN was promoting, on air, that it was available. Who best to get to but the people watching right then?

On the indie side, we have lots of tools for independents to help them market their content. But generally it’s very important for an indie filmmaker to be out there at fests and events to make people aware. On the web site, we have ways to help them drive people over.

Does CreateSpace have a presence at film festivals, reaching out to filmmakers?

We don’t necessarily go out and hawk our services, but, depending on the festival, we certainly may have a presence there. We talk to filmmakers and sales agents, and we have good relationships with all the festival folks. One of the things that’s really interesting about this business is there’s something like 560 festivals every year. You couldn’t possibly get to all of them. More and more, my experience is that, over the past several years, we no longer have to explain to people what it is we do. People go, “I know exactly what you do. I need to be doing it.” We’ve seen a sea change in the awareness that this is a viable distribution platform for films and music and books – and that’s driven by the fact that there have been a lot of success stories.

For more information: www.createspace.com