So while derping around the internets between completing mountains of homeworks and activities I came across a thought-provoking article on Kickstarter's blog. Let's talk about it after the break!
The basic idea is that Kickstarter has grown so large in the past three years that the masses can now crowd-fund series that were once made by large companies. Over the years, it has become apparent that the media industry is on the verge of transformative change: It can't survive in its current form because it can't turn a profit on media that it has invested heavily in, since once their data is out there it spreads uncontrollably. So to try and bail themselves out they chase after 'pirates' and try to make laws that don't agree the average person's common sense.
But what if the media industry operated a different way? What if they pitched ideas for shows, or for new seasons of shows, on Kickstarter, got their funding and profits from that initial investment, produced the show, and then gave it out to the public for free? If there's high demand for a new show, media companies wouldn't have to bother investing large sums hoping that returns are enough, and then persecuting people when they aren't. And the people who "invest" aren't looking for a profit, but rather the product of the process, so from that mindset there's no risk by its wall-street definition. Such a media industry could be stable, practical and fair compared to the current one.
But anyways: with a budget of around a million dollars per season, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is in the ballpark for the current scale of kickstarter crowd-sourcing. If Hasbro were to cancel the show, it's quite possible that the fans could buy a license off of them and continue making official seasons of it via kickstarter funding. So the big question is, what if that happened? Would it be awesome or terrible, or would it depend on the situation? How much freedom might Hasbro give? What episode would you make if you could? Would you want to make any changes to the current format? Those are just a few things you could think about - just getting people's thought's flowing.
