[This essay is part of the essay series "Everything I Need to Know About HitRECord I Learned in Kindergarten" http://hitrecord.org/records/42282]

Ch 5: Expanded Visions - Multiple Media, Multiple Revenues

Mister B wrote - "Thanks, guys. I think these ideas [for printed photography books, licensing digital images, etc.] would allow Joe to show the world that the term "production company" isn't just about film and sound. He would be the first to take the concept and business of a "creative" production company to a new and higher level. A very unique idea and I can't think of any other production company in existence that does this."

I see hitRECord in just such expansive terms. The term production company is somewhat of a misnomer because it has such a strong connotation specifically of moviemaking. I believe HitRECord is headed to a much more expansive vision, becoming sort of a Digital Creativity Company.

Joe's initial layout of the concept was already this expansive. In the "New Deal" video he says: "I want us to make movies, I want us to publish literature and graphic art, I wanna curate live events, I want us to have a TV show, I want us to have a space, a venue for cinema and performance but also a studio for all sorts of creativity. These are all things that we can make happen."

I am glad to see attention beginning to be paid to the other forms of media. With such a vast number of people, there is no reason to limit vision, we really can do it all.

Virtually every RECord has multiple potential in multiple media. Traditional media companies know this: they will take a concept that was originally a movie and make it a brand - with add-on revenue streams from books, live shows, CD's, websites, physical merchandising. This is a specific type of REmixing known as re-purposing. The big, old-media companies all know this, and I have no doubt hitRECord can and will, very profitably, go down this road. Being built on the REmix concept, we are, in fact, much better poised to take advantage of it than they are. For one thing, we need not start with the movie - we can start a brand in *any* medium, and expand it to all others.

MMM is our first (but only the first of many) such brands with such multiple media potential. Consider the multiple potentials inherent in everything we create here.

There are quick-start revenue possibilities here. It would be entirely possible to get printed works out there for commercial sale with minimal effort through lulu.com, merchandising through cafepress.com, music through iTunes.

The business model portion needs to be worked out, of course. For one thing, there is the matter of the effort of marketing. There is already a vast array of creative product. Multiply several thousand products (and growing exponentially!) by several dozen potential revenue opportunities each, and this could become unmanageable.

Is there perhaps a way to crowdsource the marketing of hitRECord products, as we do with their creation?

Then there is the potential of automation - say, another website drawing directly on the hitRECord database, allowing shopping for either digital rights or physical products from the *entire* hitRECord catalog. Maybe through tie-in/mashup with other websites like Amazon. A digital store sort of like iTunes, but for the hitRECord community.

These are things to begin thinking about.

Previous Ch 4: REmixing is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
http://hitrecord.org/records/43072

Next: Ch 6:What HitRECord Has Meant to Me
http://hitrecord.org/records/66245/forum