Canadian Media – So You’re Indie eh?

So you’ve weighed the pros and cons, and you’ve read up on the history of media in North America. And you’ve decided that cutting your own path is the way to go. Congratulations! Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves, because you’ve got work to do.

The good news is, there has probably not been a better time in the last 100 years to be indie in communications industry. There is a wide variety of things you can do.

Video Games

Games have provided a way for many companies to thrive as independent studios, but it wasn’t always so. It used to be that game engines and software development kits were extremely expensive. When games could only be produced for consoles and distributed through approved vendors, the price of entry was very high. But times have changed. Now it is possible to achieve sophisticated game development with tools that are well within reach of small studios who have just a bit to spend. But more importantly, brand new channels exist for distributing the games you make, and likewise new ways exist to promote your work without breaking the bank.

Entertainment

While video games are amazing to work on, there is more that you can do. These days, there are studios proving that independent video production is a reality, and the quality can be very high. Small teams are creating entertainment products that grow large numbers of viewers, at a fraction of the usual cost to do so. Again, this is made possible by improvements in technology, lowered prices for entry, and a wide variety of modern distribution methods. This is a particularly exciting area of opportunity, given that only recently has high-quality production been possible.

Writing

Absolutely anyone who has the urge can write and gain an audience with the wide availability of blogging software. In recent times, traditional “expert” media has been challenged by user-contributions to sites like the Huffington Post, and before that Wikipedia. Peer-review has the capability to improve the value of anyone’s opinion online. Some writers for newspapers and magazines (which frankly aren’t doing so well right now) have renewed their careers by switching to digital distribution of their work.

These are the usual means of making a content company independently, but there is much more that you might consider.

Software

Most indie companies working in interactive media can benefit highly from having some knowledge of programming. If you’ve got it, you may be able to use that knowledge in a variety of ways, including creating software either for yourself or other companies to help fund your efforts. There are a wide variety of uses for programming skills today, including website, software-as-service, desktop and mobile applications and more. In many cases, only a simple text editor is needed to get started.

Marketing

Companies that can make strong communications, and also wrap them in the right technologies for distribution can often make a decent living helping others market their products and services. Frankly, to be indie you’re going to need a good dose of marketing savvy to survive. Why not improve your knowledge at the same time as paying the bills by creating marketing strategies for company brands? You can bring specific knowledge based on techniques you’ve tried yourself and clients will respect that you’re “putting your money where your mouth is” by using the techniques you suggest.

Community Management

Companies today realize the value of a strong community, thanks to social media. They know that transparency is important, and creating a strong base of followers is a core part of their strategy. Yet many are unused to building an online following, and don’t know how to begin. Others are simply too busy to maintain their presence online. More and more, studios that can assist in maintaining and growing an online community are finding clients and offering them real value.

Each of these digital media pursuits can prove great for indie companies. Of course, if you try out enough of them, and find the right people to be good at all of them, you may be able to enter a brand new area of expertise.

Cross Media Production

This is also sometimes called “transmedia” production. This is a very new expertise, and essentially it involves launching properties across multiple mediums, using each for their strengths. The second part of the job is looking for ways to create bridges between the mediums, so that someone who comes across your property in one is likely to seek it out in others. This kind of thing used to take large teams across multiple organizations, but some studios are proving that even a small group of highly skilled people can achieve amazing things.

In the following article, lets take one of these examples – entertainment media production, and look at some of the tools now available to help us make a serious go of things as an independent producer. After that we’ll look at some success examples, and we’ll wind up with a call to action for Canadian indie developers.