Four online destinations for indie films

A look at iTunes, Amazon, Jaman and IndieFlix By DANIEL FRANKEL

ITUNES - www.itunes.com is the dominant, legal online marketplace for movies, delivering an average 50,000 pics a day for rental and purchase. Apple's entertainment store has made package deals with known indie suppliers. Recently, smaller distributors including New Video (with 5,000 hours of programming) have made inroads into iTunes, offering a slice of the Apple to a lot more small-profile
filmmakers.

AMAZON UNBOX - www.amazon.com is the second most popular movie download destination and using the Amazon service CreateSpace (createspace.com), filmmakers can deliver their masters and have a digital version of their pics for sale on Unbox. Filmmakers earn 50% royalties on transactions but do not have the luxury of setting their own price. Like iTunes, visibility for indie fare is limited among the myriad big studio titles.

JAMAN - www.jaman.com is the most sophisticated portal and offers self-distribbers about a third of the revenues. Emphasizing and merchandising indie and foreign fare, 90% of Jaman's 3,500 titles are either arthouse or international. The site has contrcats with First Look, Magnolia, Lionsgate, Paramount Vantage and Bollywood supplier Eros Intl.

INDIEFLIX - www.indieflix.com (with 125,000 viewers globally) offers a direct, no-fee, totally non-exclusive distribution arrangement whereby filmmakers can collect 70% of revenues while setting their own prices (minimum of $9.95 for features, $5.95 for shorts). Free site takes care of "manufacturing," fulfillment and customer service while providing multiple revenue streams that include PPV, sponsored streaming, downloads and DVD delivery.

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