You Are The Media

The revolution has come, and it seems it's being televised after all. Well, sorta.

By now, nearly everyone has heard the Myspace and YouTube explosions. By combining the tools on these two sites, it's possible to build a nice little social network around your video, or video series. You can lead people to your work, and keep them updated on new installments quite easily.

What's not so widely explored yet are the possibilities in building your own stream of content, much like a TV channel in the old media world.

You've had this in the audio world for some time, with small-scale net-only radio stations broadcasting content of a specialized sort, such as the folks at SomaFM We've even seen much more hyper-specialized channels, such as Eve Radio, a 24/7 station for people who play the video game Eve Online.

One factor in favor of the hyper-niche stations is that their audience is built-in. They target an existing small group that has some commonality before they tune in to the station. Identifying these niche groups will be key to building channels of your own.

Sites are starting to arise to aggregate these niche channels, such as ChannelChooser. ChannelChooser merely collects free feeds from around the world and puts a basic interface around them. Some of the channels are widely known, if narrowly defined (CSpan, for instance). But others exist for niche audiences, such as European Affairs or The Sail Channel. Some of the channels are clearly small repackagers of other people's content, like some of the "independent" channels, or a couple of the "adult" channels.

So what seems to be the obvious next step? A streaming independent channel of self-produced content. A new, cheap way to establish a global TV network showing content created and produced in backyards and basements. Undoubtedly, the first steps have been taken, and this revolution is well underway.

For the first time, you can take control of your own distribution.

You Are The Media.

Coming soon- identifying and playing to your niche.

Digital Distribution | Filmmaking | Web Video | YouTube | MySpace | Soma FM | ChannelChooser | Eve Radio