So Vimeo is dead… Now what?
In the era of online video, Vimeo quickly became one of the top players. With a focus on quality and creative control, the site has been a favorite among independent filmmakers and video professionals. However, Vimeo has recently shifted its focus from the independent creator to enterprise level B2B service.
Normal everyday content creators can no longer afford to subscribe to Vimeo’s service with many reporting that their fees have been raised more then 1000%. This has led to a number of users looking for Vimeo alternatives. There are a number of great sites that can serve as substitutes for Vimeo and below we’ve listed the top 4.
What is Vimeo?
Vimeo is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. Unlike YouTube, videos on Vimeo tend to be of higher quality, both in terms of content and production value. This made the site a popular destination for filmmakers, musicians, and other artists looking to showcase their work. In addition to user-generated content, Vimeo also hosts a wide range of movies and TV shows.
The Vimeo Alternatives
- Youtube
Love it or hate it, Youtube is the most obvious choice for a Vimeo alternative. With their 360 million daily active users, there is no larger audience in existence for medium form content consumption. Of course there are obvious drawbacks.
Monetization is incredibly difficult on Youtube, which promotes channels that have recurring content that brings back audiences as opposed to event-type content such as films. This makes it difficult for independent filmmakers to reach any sort of sustainable income without pumping out lower quality content for the sake of consistency.
There is also very little customization on Youtube. Your channel can have a banner and re-arrange playlists but that’s about it. And if you’re looking for creating a cinematic experience you can forget about it. Dark mode is an option that’s restricted to users and not the content creator.
Learn more at https://youtube.com
- Dailymotion
Often referred to as the “French Youtube”, Dailymotion is actually more similar to Vimeo than Youtube. You are unrestricted in the content you post and it’s experienced some significant growth over the past few years. There are also professional features via their partnerships program, however it’s free to use albeit with limited monetization tools.
Learn more at https://dailymotion.com/us
- Filmocracy
On the opposite spectrum from Youtube is Filmocracy, which is the home of independent films and film festivals. Filmocracy doesn’t allow users to upload directly to their platform, instead requiring content to be curated by their team before publishing it on the platform. While this methodology is more restrictive, their focus is on building a community of filmmakers and film lovers with high quality content. Since there is a high focus on curation, the monetization potential is much higher than any other platform as they offer AVOD (advertising video on demand), TVOD (transactional video on demand), and SVOD (subscription video on demand).
Filmocracy also hosts between 4-8 virtual film festivals per month and allows paying subcribers to attend all of them for one monthly fee of $29.99/mo. They source many films directly through the film festivals they host and share revenue with not only the creators but the viewers as well through their virtual currency called Popcorn. The users who watch and rate the most films each month share 10% of their monthly revenue.
Learn more at https://filmocracy.com
- Projektor
Projektor, formerly Reelhouse is an online video community that provides filmmakers complete control to self-distribute content directly to their viewers. Filmmakers access the latest monetization, social, and showcasing features, which in turn engage viewers in what Projektor is setting as the new standard for online viewing experiences. They’ve recently released their latest redesign and it’s absolutely stunning and completely cinematic.
Projektor is mostly focused on TVOD (transactional video on demand) and is the most similar to Vimeo in the sense that it allows creators to completely control the content they’re selling and exhibiting.
Learn more at https://projektor.com/
Vimeo was providing a valuable service to independent filmmakers as both a storage locker and exhibition/monetization platform. As a platform, Filmocracy knows the costs involved in streaming and storage that many users fail to comprehend, however there was definitely still a way for Vimeo to continue servicing both sets of clients. It serves as a strategic position in the world of haves and have-nots that anything that doesn’t yield maximum revenue potential is seen as an unworthy pursuit. We at Filmocracy don’t believe content creation is a zero sum game. It’s the stories that are big and small, local and global, short form and long form, that are critical to better understanding the culture we live in. Whether you find the right platform or you house your content on an external hard drive, never stop creating. The world needs you.
So crazy – good to know!!