mDistribute.com

What is mDistribute?
Does mDistribute cost money?
What kind of film content is licensed on mDistribute?
What kind of film content sells well in the mobile environment?
Who are the buyers on the mDistribute platform?
Can I really make money licensing my films on mDistribute?
What price should I set for my films?
What kind of license can I sell through mDistribute?
What can I do to improve my licensing sales on mDistribute?
What file format does mDistribute accept for film uploads?
If I sell a license on mDistribute, can I still submit my film to film festivals?
If I sell a license on mDistribute, how can somebody else use my work?
How is my video content delivered to mobile phones once it's licensed?
How are consumers paying for my video content once it's licensed?

What is mDistribute?

mDistribute is a marketplace for independent filmmakers to instantly license their films to buyers in the mobile and web industries. We are the first and largest self-serve marketplace for premium film content, specializing in short films and animation.

Does mDistribute cost money?

No, the mDistribute.com service is free. We make money from Transaction Fees when a license is sold on our platform.

What kind of film content is licensed on mDistribute?

mDistribute generally allows the following types of films, however at this time short films and animation are our most active categories:

Short films
Feature films
Animation
Instructional/educational
Adult

You can browse the content catalog at the link below, and click the "Sold this Month" link to see what's been selling this month.

http://www.mdistribute.com/catalog/contents/category/all.php

What kind of film content sells well in the mobile environment?

You can browse the list of films which have sold this month at the below link:

http://www.mdistribute.com/catalog/contents/sold.php

In addition, here are some guidelines about what's selling on mobile:

Length: 5 min. - 30 min. is most popular, however 2 - 5 mins. and 30 - 90 mins are also active segments. Also, the Video Ringtone genre is now hot, which is strictly relegated to 20 - 30 second clips with music.

Hot Genres: Comedy, Drama, Kids / Animation, Series Formats, Documentaries, News & Information.

Hot Buyer Markets: North America (~50% sales), Western Europe, Brazil, India, South Africa, Australia.

Hot Languages: English. Even our foreign buyers are searching for English films primarily.

Who are the buyers on the mDistribute platform?

Since mDistribute is owned by Golivemobile.com, a large mobile technology company, we primarily serve content buyers in the mobile industry. These buyers deliver mobile video content to mobile devices such as iPhone, Android, and Blackberry phones. Other non-mobile digital film rights buyers also use the mDistribute platform.

Here is a list of the type of licensees to expect on mDistribute:

Mobile Content Aggregators: Direct-to-Consumer mobile content aggregators are heavy buyers on our platform. These companies aggregate mobile content which they sell to their end-users on a per-download or subscription basis.

Wireless Carriers: Wireless carriers in 47 countries use our platform to license their mobile video.

Mobile Content Brokers: Brokers check our catalog regularly and refer clients to specific pieces or groups of content.

Website Owners: Aside from mobile, we have buyers from the traditional web industry.

Can I really make money licensing my films on mDistribute?

mDistribute has hundreds of mobile content buyers using our platform every day looking to buy film content, and many of our filmmakers are making considerable money selling licenses using the platform. While there is no guarantee that your films will be licensed, reasonably priced films of good quality often sell multiple licenses per quarter.

What price should I set for my films?

There are no rules on pricing, and filmmakers on our platform are successfully experimenting with various pricing strategies. Based on the current data, we recommend pricing short form film content between $50 - $300 per license, and long form content between $150 - $500 per license.

What kind of license can I sell through mDistribute?

While we are willing to consider custom licensing agreements for premiere content providers, our standard licenses are royalty-free, non-exclusive, non-transferable, perpetual and worldwide licenses for mobile and web distribution. This grants licensees the right to use and distribute your Work forever, by paying you an upfront fee. You can license a single film you upload to an unlimited number of mDistribute buyers. The majority of mDistribute buyers will in practice use your content to sell and/or freely distribute to mobile end-users.

Please click here to view the Licensing Agreement. , and we strongly encourage you to have your lawyer review the agreement as well!

What can I do to improve my licensing sales on mDistribute?

Price: Like on any marketplace, the price and quality of your goods (films, in this case) will determine how much you sell. If you aren't satisfied with your level of sales, the first thing to try is lowering your price. Your film may not be selling due to the subject matter or lower quality compared to peers in the same price group.

Film Info: Include a good looking icon image for your film, along with professional descriptions and credits. While many buyers watch the films before buying, there are in fact many who do not and rather rely on the artwork, description, and filmmaker profile.

Profile Info: Upload a quality profile pic and accompanying information about you and/or your production company. This may significantly impact sales.

Maintain A Catalog: Sometimes there is a discrepancy between what films sell on mobile versus traditional mediums. Therefore, you should avoid guessing which of your films will succeed on mobile, and try uploading as much of your short and long form film content as possible.

What file format does mDistribute accept for film uploads?

Please upload high quality content files in AVI or MOV. We will convert your file to various target formats which buyer's download in -- primarily MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format, 320x240 resolution, MP3 audio, 30 frames per second. We will shortly offer higher resolution download formats to our buyer's, given the rapid pace of improvement of mobile phones.

If you have trouble getting your content in this format, please email us at support@mdistribute.com and we may be able to assist on a case by case basis.

Once uploaded to the platform, all content is displayed in .FLV (flash video) format however upon purchase the buyer will download the MPEG4 version of the file which you uploaded.

You can get more detailed information about file uploads in our Upload Guide.

If I sell a license on mDistribute, can I still submit my film to film festivals?

In most cases, no. You should only submit to mDistribute once you are finished with the film festival process and ready for distribution. Most film festivals do not accept films which have been showed in any way prior to the film festival, so this applies to other distribution outlets and not just mDistribute.

If I sell a license on mDistribute, how can somebody else use my work?

Please refer to our Licensing Agreement. and always consult your attorney, however the permitted uses are use and distribution of your content through mobile and traditional web channels. Again, all licenses are non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable, perpetual, and worldwide.

How is my video content delivered to mobile phones once it's licensed?

The majority of our buyers are licensing content to deliver to mobile phones. In the mobile environment, the video content is delivered in a large variety of ways depending on the handset, carrier network, and other factors:

Mobile Apps: Android, iPhone, WebOS, and other mobile app platforms are available on a limited number of global smartphones, however they provide arguably the richest mobile video viewing experience. Curently iPhone and Android are the largest mobile app platforms in the U.S, with Nokia's Ovi platform as the international leader.

SMS Video Downloads: Many clients deliver video content via SMS download links. These text messages with a download link are typically sent to end-users via a short code.

WAP Push & MMS Video Downloads: Some carriers internationally offer true binary delivery of the video content via a WAP Push or MMS message. This style of delivery is rapidly falling out of favor due in the U.S and abroad.

Mobile Browser Video Streaming: Smartphones are rapidly gaining the ability to stream mobile video content from within the browser, similar to the web experience. The imminent adoption of FLV in mobile via Flash 10.1, as well as established mobile video standards such as RTSP and MPEG-4, are slowly making the dream of mobile browser based video streaming into a reality.

How are consumers paying for my video content once it's licensed?

Buyers on the mDistribute.com are using a variety of pricing models to distribute content to consumers once they have licensed it on the mDistribute platform. Some of the popular pricing models in the mobile content industry include:

Subscription Pricing: Consumers are charged a monthly recurring fee for unlimited access to a mobile content catalog, which may include any mix of ringtones, wallpapers, games, and videos.