YouTube continues to assert its dominance in the podcasting space, presenting significant competition to both Spotify and Apple Podcasts. In an announcement on Wednesday, the company revealed YouTube has surpassed 1 billion monthly active podcast viewers. 

This milestone highlights YouTube’s popularity in the podcast industry and emphasizes consumer preference for video-first formats. Last year, YouTube reported that over 400 million hours of podcast content were watched on living room TVs.

YouTube’s biggest rival in the podcast industry, Spotify, has taken notice and has been embracing video content to attract hosts and users. Recently, Spotify increased its investment in video-first podcasting, starting to pay popular video hosts in November 2024. This move may help Spotify catch up to YouTube, which already shares billions in ad revenue with creators.

Additionally, YouTube announced that it’s implementing changes to mid-roll ads aimed at enhancing the viewing experience while also enabling creators to possibly earn more revenue. Beginning May 12, YouTube will place mid-roll ads at appropriate break points in videos, such as pauses and transitions, rather than disrupting videos with an ad in the middle of a conversation or action sequence.

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Starting May 12, the Google-owned platform is going to show fewer ads during moments that feel interruptive or may cause viewers to abandon the video — like in the middle of a sentence or action sequence. Instead, it will display more mid-roll ads at natural break points in videos, like pauses and transitions.

YouTube will be updating older videos uploaded before February 24 to automatically include ad slots at natural break points. Creators can opt out of this in YouTube Studio if they prefer to manage their ads manually. However, videos with interruptive ad slots may earn less revenue after May 12, YouTube says.

The company notes that creators who manually place mid-roll ads should consider if their ads are considered interruptive to viewers. To help with this, YouTube is introducing a new feature that will show creators if their mid-roll ads would be better placed at a moment with a natural break instead of at a disruptive time.

In addition, YouTube is encouraging creators who have manual mid-roll ads to consider letting its systems automatically identify other places to show ads to allow for a balanced ad experience.

YouTube found that creators who had a mix of both auto mid-roll ads and manual mid-rolls saw an average of over 5% increase in YouTube ad revenue compared to those with only manually placed slots.

“Our goal with these features is to provide you with more information and new options,” YouTube said on a help page speaking to creators. “You still control whether to show mid-roll ads in your videos and where you would like those ads to be shown.”

YouTube notes that reducing interruptive ads will help creators keep more viewers on their videos.

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Music streamer SoundCloud announced a partnership with Ticketmaster and Universe, owned by Live Nation, to let artists list events on their profile in a customized way.

The company said it would create more promotion opportunities for artists in the future in partnership with Ticketmaster through a new promotion program but didn’t give any more details.

Artists with SoundCloud’s top-tier Pro plan will be able to use the self-serve ticketing platform Universe to list their events on their profile pages without leaving SoundCloud. They will be able to add or modify events on their page depending on what events they want to promote.

SoundCloud will pull the artist’s event data from different ticket platforms, like Ticketmaster and Dice.

After that, artists can choose what events to display on their page. Artists can also choose to manually add links to other ticketing platforms.

The platform said that it will promote these events through a concert discovery widget on the SoundCloud home page, which will be powered by Ticketmaster data. Users can sort through these events by city, time, and genre. SoundCloud takes a cut from any affiliate ticket sales made through Ticketmaster links on its platform.

Before this, the audio streaming service had an integration with the music community platform Resident Advisor for three of the artists’ latest events. However, there were no customization features.

Event display and ticket selling are becoming an important area of growth for music streaming platforms. In 2022, Spotify started testing direct ticket sales from its app. The company is also exploring a $6 per month subscription for super fans, which will give them early access to concert tickets, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The story has been updated to reflect SoundCloud takes an unspecified cut from Ticketmaster.

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The U.K. government is pushing forward with plans to attract more AI companies to the region through changes to copyright law that would allow developers to train AI models on artists’ content on the internet — without permission or payment — unless creators proactively “opt out.” Not everyone is marching to the same beat, though.

On Monday, a group of 1,000 musicians released a “silent album,” protesting the planned changes. The album — titled “Is This What We Want?” — features tracks from Kate Bush, Imogen Heap, and contemporary classical composers Max Richter and Thomas Hewitt Jones, among others. It also features co-writing credits from hundreds more, including big names like Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, Billy Ocean, The Clash, Mystery Jets, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Riz Ahmed, Tori Amos, and Hans Zimmer. 

But this is not Band Aid part 2. And it’s not a collection of music. Instead, the artists have put together recordings of empty studios and performance spaces — a symbolic representation of what they believe will be the impact of the planned copyright law changes. 

“You can hear my cats moving around,” is how Hewitt Jones described his contribution to the album. “I have two cats in my studio who bother me all day when I’m working.”

To put an even more blunt point on it, the titles of the 12 tracks that make up the album spell out a message: “The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies.”

The album is just the latest move in the U.K. to bring attention to the issue of how copyright is being handled in AI training. Similar protests are underway in other markets, like the U.S., highlighting a global concern among artists.

Ed Newton-Rex, who organized the project, has simultaneously been leading a bigger campaign against AI training without licensing. A petition he started has now been signed by more than 47,000 writers, visual artists, actors, and others in the creative industries, with nearly 10,000 of them signing up in just the last five weeks since the U.K. government announced its big AI strategy. 

Newton-Rex said he has also been “running a nonprofit in AI for the last year where we’ve been certifying companies that basically don’t scrape and train on great work without permission.” 

Newton-Rex arrived at advocating for artists after having batted for both sides. Classically trained as a composer, he later built an AI-based music composition platform called Jukedeck that let people bypass using copyrighted works by creating their own. Its catchy pitch, where he rapped and riffed on the virtues of using AI to write music, won the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield competition in 2015. Jukedeck was eventually acquired by TikTok, where he worked for some time on music services. 

After several years at other tech companies like Snap and Stability, Newton-Rex is back to considering how to build the future without burning the past. He’s contemplating that idea from a pretty interesting vantage point: He now lives in the Bay Area with wife Alice Newton-Rex, VP of product at WhatsApp. 

The album release comes just ahead of the planned changes to copyright law in the U.K, which would force artists who do not want their work used for AI training purposes to proactively “opt out.”

Newton-Rex thinks this effectively creates a lose-lose situation for artists since there is no opt-out method in place, or any clear way of being able to track what specific material has been fed into any AI system. 

“We know that opt-out schemes are just not taken up,” he said. “This is just going to give 90% [to] 95% of people’s work to AI companies. That’s without a doubt.”

The solution, say the artists, is to produce work in other markets where there might be better protections for it. Hewitt Jones — who threw a working keyboard into a harbor in Kent at an in-person protest not long ago (he fished it out, broken, afterwards) — said he’s considering markets like Switzerland for distributing his music in the future. 

But the rock and hard place of a harbor in Kent are nothing compared to the Wild West of the internet. 

“We’ve been told for decades to share our work online because it’s good for exposure. But now AI companies and, incredibly, governments are turning around and saying, ‘Well, you put that online for free …” Newton-Rex said. “So now artists are just stopping making and sharing their work. A number of artists have contacted me to say this is what they’re doing.”

The album will be posted widely on music platforms sometime Tuesday, the organizers said, and any donations or proceeds from playing it will go to the charity Help Musicians. 

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This week, we spoke to Jody Avirgan, who co-hosts “Summer Album / Winter Album” with the frontman of the American indie rock band The Hold Steady, Craig Finn. Each episode finds Avirgan and Finn debating whether a classic record should be categorized as a “summer album” or “winter album.”

Avirgan – who previously hosted shows for Radiotopia, TED, FiveThirtyEight, and ESPN – told us about his podcasting set-up of choice. Here he is in his own words:

“Even when I worked at ESPN/FiveThirtyEight, I always had a home recording setup. Since leaving — which happened to coincide with the start of the pandemic — I’ve made my basement recording studio my main home. It’s actually the kitchen of a basement studio apartment, so just off-frame, behind some curtains, is a fridge (unplugged), sink, and lots of cabinets.

“But I’ve hung tons of curtains, scattered soft things around, and put some sound dampening panels up. I think it’s now both cozy and pretty warm-sounding. My mic is an Electro-Voice RE27N/D, a $500 studio mic.

“To be clear: I don’t make RE27 money. We bought this mic when I was hosting 30 for 30. I left ESPN three weeks before the pandemic hit, and somewhere in there I wrote them an email asking if they wanted me to return the mic. I never got a response, and I certainly didn’t write a follow-up. So I kept it. This is probably why Disney stock is down 20% over the last five years. It’s a very warm mic, but it’s a behemoth.

“When I’m on the road, I pack an AT2020-USB+, which plugs right into my computer and I can knock out tracking from wherever — usually under a blanket in a hotel closet, which is a podcaster’s natural habitat.

“I run my mic through the FocusRite Scarlett 2i2, a simple but mighty interface that lets me control my mic levels and route right into my computer, where I am often joining people over Zoom or Riverside. I always record a local backup file using Hindenburg, which I then save to Dropbox. All roads eventually lead to Dropbox.

“The one place I deviate from the typical Podcaster 101 kit is in my headphones. Everyone has the Sony MDR-7506, and I’ve run through my fair share of those, but I really like the Rode NTH-100 headphones. They are just a little more comfortable, look a little slicker, and so far the padding hasn’t broken down in the way that the padding on the Sony’s inevitably does, leading one to find little black flecks in their ears after taping.

“Like a lot of podcasters, I’ve been doing more and more video stuff lately. I’ve used Descript for years, but as the worlds of audio and video have merged, I do almost all my editing in it at this point. I make social videos of our conversations for “This Day” and “Summer Album / Winter Album,” but also original stuff I’ve been playing with on Instagram.

“I’m doing a series each week where I try to guess the title of that week’s New Yorker cover, and I record that right into Descript and turn it around in like 20 minutes using a template I built. Descript — I’m a big fan. It’s very versatile, and it’s nice to work with a program that seems to give a crap about what podcasters want, as opposed to ProTools.

“I suppose I’ve had to think about my visual setup a fair amount, too. I bought the webcam that the Wirecutter recommended, but honestly I prefer the look of the MacBook camera, so I usually just use that. In my background, I put some books to prove that I know how to read; a signed photo of George Mikan, about whom there was a running bit in “Death At The Wing” — and $28 worth of fake plants from Ikea.

“I block the view so I don’t think people can even see that the plants are there; but I like to know that they are there, and will always be there, because of forever plastics.”

We’ve previously asked others of our favorite podcast hosts and producers to highlight their workflows — the equipment and software they use to get the job done. The list so far includes:

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And for fans of the production itself, a companion podcast with creator Ben Stiller and star Adam Scott delves into the nuts and bolts of how scenes were filmed and other behind-the-scenes content. 

Currently the most popular Apple TV+ series ever, “Severance” has gained attention and awards for its cinematic techniques, direction, production design, and more, but is also resonating with viewers because it reflects a certain discontent with American society.

With its borderline absurdist takes on topics like the perils of capitalism, the lengths people will go to achieve work-life balance, corporate oppression, classism, and the evils of technology, “Severance” is reaching a broader group than those who normally watch sci-fi. 

The marketing around the “puzzle box-style” TV series, where online content becomes a part of the show itself, is something that brings to mind the work that was done in previous years around the cult classic, “Lost,” where website tie-ins offered further clues about the show’s mysteries, like the Dharma Initiative.  

Unlike “Lost,” however, “Severance’s” creators have promised that they know where the series is going and how it will end – which makes it more fun to go down the rabbit hole chasing online clues. 

Below are some of the supplemental materials that expand “Severance’s” universe and offer hints at what’s to come. 

Official Companions

• “Severance: The Lexington Letter,” published by Apple Books. This companion story and tell-all is told from the perspective of a severed Lumon Industries employee Margaret “Peg” Kincaid, who discovers some of the dark truths about her employer.

• Included in this download is also the Macrodate Refiner’s Orientation Booklet for newly-severed employees, which features a Lumon version of Microsoft’s Clippy — except he’s an anthropomorphized severance chip, not a paperclip.

• “The You You Are,” published by Apple Books. In the series, this book is penned by “Severance” character Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale, PhD, and ends up playing a role in the severed employees’ awakening. The companion book, which is available as both an e-book and a narrated audiobook, offers the first 8 chapters of Ricken’s oeuvre devoted to self-discovery and bizarre anecdotes. 

• The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott. Produced by Audacy, the creator’s official podcast recaps and reveals behind-the-scenes details alongside actor interviews. 
• Lumon Industires’ LinkedIn profile. Researching your next job on LinkedIn and you might come across the Lumon Industries business profile, which introduces fans to founder Kier Eagan’s concepts, including his 9 core principles of Vision, Verve, Wit, Cheer, Humility, Benevolence, Nimbleness, Probity, and Wiles. The page often posts try-hard odes to corporate fulfillment and self-improvement alongside its attempts to recruit new workers to join Lumon, headquartered in the fictional town of Kier. The sinister undertones of its content aren’t all that different from some of the corporate speak that surrounds it on LinkedIn, oddly. 

• Catch up with “Severance” creator Dan Erickson in his Reddit AMA. It’s a few years old, but still worth a read for any fans looking for “official” –  if limited – answers to their questions. (For example, Erickson dismissed the “it’s all a simulation theory” by responding, “Yes, the office is real. It exists physically and everything we see there is actually happening.”)
• Roku’s Free Fan Experience. The streaming media player and TV maker partnered with Apple TV+ to offer “Severance” fans a free Season 2 preview that included character intros for Mark S., Helly R., and others, plus other behind-the-scenes content, including an exclusive cast interview. (As the premiere has now passed, you can access the fan experience via Roku Search instead of the Home Screen menu.)

• Lumon Industries on TikTok. This TikTok account hosts the video content produced by Lumon (aka Apple’s marketing team), but appears to be independently run. On the page, you’ll find the retro-looking video footage of the town called Kier and additional excerpts from Lumon’s Management Program (“LUMP”) – like what to do when low morale plagues your team. For example, it recommends you purge all distractions so employees can focus on their “important and mysterious” work.

• There are also social media accounts for Lumon Industries on X, Instagram, Threads, and YouTube, but these are also not verified or run by Apple.
• Reddit users can delve into “Severance” theories and share ideas in communities like r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus, r/SeveranceTVshow, r/WelcometoLumon, or can share shitposts in r/okbuddyseverance, 
• Tumblr users can join the online Tumblr Community devoted to “Severance,” where you can find fans’ blog posts and fan-made art.
• Since it’s a “real” book, you can leave “The You You Are” tome a Goodreads review. One selected review reads: “Bullies are nothing but bull and lies. I am looking forward to reading the book in its entirety, but every time I order a copy, it gets stolen off my front steps. So frustrating.”

Fan-Made Fun

• Lumon Industries website. Designed by programmer Daniel Shiffman and several of his YouTube series viewers, this fan-made website lets you pretend to be an MDR employee, refining the numbers – scary and otherwise – by binning them into boxes at the bottom of the screen. While the fan version doesn’t look quite like the software seen on TV – the bins aren’t labeled with the various “tempers” as on the show, for instance – there is a little Easter Egg referencing the screen pulled from Season 2, Episode 1 on the website.  
• Also from Shiffman, the You You Are bot on Bluesky and X auto-posts excerpts from Dr. Ricken Hale’s book, like: “A society adrift dines on illusions, but the famished mind feasts upon profundity hidden within reality’s kaleidoscope.” Shiffman also put the bot’s source code on GitHub.
• Severance Wiki. This fan-made wiki devoted to all things “Severance,” lets you research characters, music, locations, episodes, events, theories, and more, all in one destination. (There are also wikis available on Fandom and wikiwand.)
• A fan-made Lumon office is available for the Sims 4 game. 

“Severance” Season 2 is on Apple TV+, which recently arrived on Android mobile devices too. Season 2 began airing on Jan. 17, 2025, and will include 10 episodes, ending on March 21, 2025.

Do you have a favorite Severance fan-made experience? Let me know: sarahp@techcrunch.com.

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This guide can help you identify and remove common surveillance apps from your Android phone, including TheTruthSpy, Cocospy and Spyic, among others.

Consumer-grade spyware apps are frequently sold under the guise of child monitoring or family-tracking software, but are referred to as “stalkerware” and “spouseware” for their ability to also track and monitor partners or spouses without their consent. These spyware apps are downloaded from outside of Google Play’s app store, planted on a phone without a person’s permission and often disappear from the home screen to avoid detection.

Stalkerware apps rely on abusing in-built Android features that are typically used by companies to remotely manage their employees’ work phones or use Android’s accessibility mode to snoop on someone’s device.

You may notice your phone acting unusually, running warmer or slower than usual, or using large amounts of network data, even when you are not actively using it.

Checking to see if your Android device is compromised can be done quickly and easily.

Before you start

It’s important to have a safety plan in place and trusted support if you need it. Keep in mind that removing the spyware from your phone may alert the person who planted it, which could create an unsafe situation. The Coalition Against Stalkerware offers advice and guidance for victims and survivors of stalkerware.

Note that this guide only helps you to identify and remove spyware apps, it does not delete the data that was already collected and uploaded to its servers. Also, some versions of Android may have slightly different menu options. As is standard with any advice, you follow these steps at your own risk.

Make sure Google Play Protect is switched on

Google Play Protect is one of the best safeguards to protect against malicious Android apps by screening apps downloaded from Google’s app store and outside sources for signs of potentially malicious activity. Those protections stop working when Play Protect is switched off. It’s important to ensure that Play Protect is switched on to ensure that it’s working and scanning for malicious apps.

You can check that Play Protect is enabled through the Play Store app settings. You also can scan for harmful apps, if a scan hasn’t been done already.

Check if accessibility services have been changed

Stalkerware relies on deep access to your device to access the data, and is known to abuse Android’s accessibility mode which, by design, requires broader access to the operating system and your data for screen readers and other accessibility features to work.

Android users who do not use accessibility apps or features should not see any apps in this section of Android’s settings.

If you do not recognize a downloaded service in the Accessibility options, you may want to switch it off in the settings and remove the app. Some stalkerware apps are disguised as ordinary looking apps and are often called “Accessibility,” “Device Health,” “System Service” or other innocuous-sounding names.

Check any app access to notifications

Much like the accessibility features, Android also allows third-party apps to access and read your incoming notifications, such as allowing smart speakers to read alerts out loud or your car to display notifications on its dashboard. Granting notification access to a stalkerware app allows for persistent surveillance of your notifications, which includes the contents of messages and other alerts.

You can check which apps have access to your notifications by checking your Android notification access settings under Special app access. Some of these apps you may recognize, like Android Auto. You can switch off notification access for any app that you do not recognize.

Check if a device admin app is installed

Other features commonly abused by stalkerware are Android’s device admin options, which have similar but even broader access to Android devices and users’ data.

Device admin options are usually used by companies to remotely manage their employees’ phones, such as wiping the phone in the event of device theft to prevent data loss. But these features also allow stalkerware apps to snoop on the Android display and the device’s data.

You can find the device admin app settings in Settings under Security.

Most people won’t have a device admin app on their personal phone, so be aware if you see an app that you don’t recognize, named something similarly obscure and vague like “System Service,” “Device Health” or “Device Admin.”

Check the apps to uninstall

You may not see a home screen icon for any of these stalkerware apps, but they will still appear in your Android device’s app list.

You can view all of the installed apps in Android’s settings. Look for apps and icons that you don’t recognize. These apps may also show as having broad access to your calendar, call logs, camera, contacts and location data.

Force stopping and uninstalling a stalkerware app will likely alert the person who planted the stalkerware that the app no longer works.

Secure your device

If stalkerware was planted on your phone, there is a good chance that your phone was unlocked, unprotected or that your screen lock was guessed or learned. A stronger lock screen password can help to protect your phone from intruders. You should also protect email and other online accounts using two-factor authentication wherever possible.

If you or someone you know needs help, the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) provides 24/7 free, confidential support to victims of domestic abuse and violence. If you are in an emergency situation, call 911. The Coalition Against Stalkerware has resources if you think your phone has been compromised by spyware.

The post Your Android phone could have stalkerware — here’s how to remove it appeared first on Online Technology News.

According to a brief post on Google’s blog, users will now be able to click on a new “Get book” button in the Google Play Books iOS app which will take them to the Google Play website to complete their e-book or audiobook purchase.

From there, users will be able to see their recently opened book listings and complete a purchase using their Google Account and saved payment information.

By processing the transaction on its own website, Google can avoid paying Apple a commission (generally 30%) on in-app purchases of digital content.

In addition, the iOS app’s users will be able to share their books with a family group from Google Play’s Family Library, whether the family member uses iOS, Android, or the web as their reading or listening device.

To allow for this change, it seems Google applied for the exception called the External Link Account Entitlement, which was originally introduced as a result of Apple’s settlement with a Japanese regulator, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) in 2022.

The rule focuses on “reader apps” — meaning those designed primarily to provide access to some sort of digital content, like magazines, books, audio, music, or video. To use the entitlement, developers have to request additional approval from Apple and then follow other rules about how the website displays when their external link is clicked, how the link is formatted, how it’s referenced in the app’s code, and more.

It also specifies that users will have to see a full-screen announcement warning them that they’re no longer transacting with Apple after clicking the external link.

Netflix was among the first to adopt the new rule in 2022 by making it possible to sign up for a subscription via its website.

Google did not explain why it has only now decided to offer direct purchases, but it may have been waiting for the results of the lawsuit between Fortnite maker Epic Games and Apple.

That case ultimately discovered that Apple was not a monopolist, but confirmed that Apple would have to allow app developers to link to their own websites if they chose. The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal in January 2024, leaving the original ruling from the lower courts to stand.

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The New York Times is now allowing its product and editorial teams to use AI tools, which might one day write social copy, SEO headlines, and code, reports Semafor. 

The news came to staff via an email, in which the publication announced the debut of its new internal AI summary tool called Echo.

The New York Times also shared a suite of AI products that staff could use to build web products or develop editorial ideas, alongside editorial guidelines for using AI tools. The paper’s editorial staff is encouraged to use AI tools to suggest edits, brainstorm interview questions, and help with research. At the same time, staff was warned not to use AI to draft or significantly revise an article or input confidential source information.

Those guidelines also suggest the Times might use AI to implement digitally voiced articles and translations into other languages. 

Semafor reports that The Times said it would approve AI programs like GitHub Copilot programming assistant for coding, Google’s Vertex AI for product development, NotebookLM, some Amazon AI products, and OpenAI’s non-ChatGPT API through a business account. 

The New York Times’s embrace of AI tools comes as it is still embroiled in a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for allegedly violating copyright law by training generative AI on the publisher’s content.

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The answer is that the new platform, Olyn, claims to offer a new model for film and video distribution that leans on the power of social referrals to spread “à la carte” streaming content. Although any size of production — from Hollywood blockbuster downwards — can use the platform, the company claims it could be a game changer for the independent film industry, which tends to struggle against the marketing budgets of the bigger movies distributed on mainstream streaming platforms.  

California-based Olyn — founded by Ana Maria Jipa, Jeremias Buireo, Kiran Thomas, and Malcolm Wood — allows filmmakers to retain up to 90% of their revenue while giving audiences access to a streaming experience. Instead of films being sold to platforms like Netflix, the model hinges on the marketing budget of the filmmakers themselves, combined with influencers, film critics, and content creators acting as distribution partners by embedding purchase links within their content, blogs, and social channels.

This peer-to-peer approach does away with the platform as a middleman and turns movie distribution into more of an e-commerce-style engagement. 

Jipa, Olyn’s CEO and co-founder, told TechCrunch that the company provides filmmakers with the equivalent of a full-blown streaming platform. “We provide all the tech that implies: from DRM, 4K streaming, casting, a full landing page that presents the film in the same way that it might appear on Netflix or Apple TV, plus all the other tools such as geo-targeting, analytics, and audience data. They promote their movie with PR, journalists, bloggers, film critics, etc,” she said, adding that a recommendation from someone you trust carries far more weight than a suggestion by an algorithm on a streaming platform.

Olyn also gives filmmakers analytics on viewership, such as which country the movie is doing well in, as well as minutes watched, and a database of users that have watched the movies. “Filmmakers can spend years making a film but don’t ever get to meet or own their audience at all. So we see this as a very powerful tool. It becomes an audience that you can directly address for your next movies and then grow from there,” said Jipa. 

The question is, can Olyn compete with the convenience and scale of major streamers? While its model offers much higher revenue shares for filmmakers, it also means all the weight is placed on the shoulders of production teams to drive marketing and partnerships. 

Perry Trevers, a producer at Studio POW, which used Olyn to distribute “Midas Man,” sees the platform as a helpful step in the right direction. “Olyn has enabled us to think beyond traditional platforms, letting us become our own streaming service […] It’s about empowering filmmakers to market and distribute films in a way that mirrors the direct-to-consumer success of e-commerce […] It’s a chance to retain control over our work and redefine how movies reach their viewers,” he said in a statement. 

One of the most pressing issues in the film industry is piracy. Many users turn to illegal sources simply because a movie is unavailable in their country. Jipa argues that Olyn’s global reach can help combat this issue, because if someone can pay for a movie and watch it instantly, they’re much more likely to do so.

Olyn’s foray into film streaming came about partly when entrepreneur and filmmaker Wood joined as a co-founder of the platform, which initially launched as a way to catalog physical assets. Wood launched his own film, “The Last Glaciers,” on the platform.

“Independent filmmakers have already taken the financial risk to produce their movies themselves. Studio POW is self-financed. They created the “Midas Man” movie. They have the freedom to be able to sell those rights to whoever they want. They did a deal in the U.K. market with Amazon, but they felt that it was more profitable to go direct to their audience in the U.S. market using Olyn as a tool,” he said.

Wood feels Olyn can be best thought of as “Shopify for filmmakers with a referral link.”

He noted the average film on Amazon in the U.K. gets only around 2,000 views per year. “So there’s a bunch of films that are getting millions of views, but the majority of films fall below the 2,000 view mark,” he added.

Major streaming services typically offer a lump-sum licensing deal, meaning filmmakers receive a one-time payment regardless of how many times their film is watched. Olyn flips this model on its head by allowing filmmakers to monetize directly based on viewership. 

“With Olyn, a filmmaker can still sell their rights to the U.S. market and use that to pre-fund the film, but then also capitalize on going direct-to-consumer in, say, Asia,” said Wood.

But could the platform be used by the adult film industry to distribute pornography? 

Jipa acknowledged the challenge: “Right now, this is not the tone we want to set, and it would be easy to attract that category,” she said. “At the beginning, we are setting the tone by ensuring that the films featured on Olyn are high quality.” 

“But in the long term, we aim to create a space where filmmakers, not the platform, decide what gets distributed,” she added. “We don’t want to act as gatekeepers. Our vision is to allow filmmakers to have full control over what they distribute, eventually moving to a full SaaS model.”

Olyn has so far raised only a small amount of funding — a total of $2.8 million — in a combination of $1.8 million from U.S. VC firm Hard Yaka and a number of angel investors. 

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