Vessel Subscription Video Site Now Open to the Public
A few weeks ago, a service/site called Vessel.com was released to a select few, offering unlimited viewing subscriptions to early access content from a number of prominent media companies and persons. The site, now entering its beta stage, is currently operating on an invite-only basis, according to co-founder/CEO Jason Kilar, in a blog post. For more info, let’s go to the man himself:
Last month, we opened Vessel to content creators. Today, we’re excited to invite their fans to try Vessel as we start an invite-required beta of our service.
With Vessel, fans will get early access to the web’s best short-form videos in a beautiful, cinematic environment – for only $2.99 per month. Fans will discover an amazing variety of videos, representing virtually any interest: music, food and travel; beauty, science and vlogging; gaming, pranks and sports; comedy, ideas and pop culture; and many more. These videos – from many of the world’s most talented video creators, channels and artists – are enjoyed by hundreds of millions of fans around the world.
The Vessel experience was designed for mobile devices, which enable fans to snack on videos wherever and whenever they want. Today, Vessel is available on iOS devices (iPhones and iPads) and on the web (all laptop and desktop computers). Soon, we’ll also release Vessel for Android devices. Our vision is to make Vessel accessible anywhere fans have an internet-connected screen, including gaming consoles, set-top boxes and smart TVs.
We’re in the process of inviting fans who have registered to try our service, sending invites on a first-come, first-served basis. If you’d like to join our beta and try Vessel free for a month, you can sign up here <http://vessel.com>.
We’re very thankful for the trust that creators have placed in us as we welcome their fans on this first day. Our team will be carefully reading every piece of feedback we receive during this beta…and working hard to improve the service each day.
On behalf of our team, thank you for this opportunity to serve creators and their fans the world over.
Thus far, Vessel has snagged the likes of Sports Illustrated, Alec Baldwin, Machinima, boy band Boyce Avenue, and beauty vlogger Ingrid Nilsen (aka, MissGlamorazzi), as well as Anna Akana, Roman Atwood, Tanya Burr, Epic Meal Time, Equals Three, Explosm Entertainment, Connor Franta, Nerdist Industries, Arden Rose, Jimmy Tatro, Brittani Louise Taylor, Unbox Therapy, Jack Vale, and Wassabi Productions. Other previously announced creators include Warner Music Group, A+E Networks, YouTube stars Shane Dawson, Marcus Butler and Caspar Lee, and Jay Z‘s Life+Times.
For funding (which has totaled some $75 million to date), Kilar and co-founder Richard Tom (former chief technical officer of Hulu) have attracted Kilar’s old boss Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Benchmark (which has backed Uber, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram), and Greylock Partners (Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pandora).
Another truly unique feature of Vessel? Its distribution & compensation method. Until now, ad-supported, free distribution sites such like YouTube were the only option, and everyone gained access to the material at the same time. With Vessel, die-hard fans of creators and content providers can get see their favorite shows up to several days before all the non-subscribing peasants.
Because of this feature, content providers will be able to cash in more than they would with a revenue sharing service like YouTube (and much more than Facebook, Twitter, and other non-paying sites). Not only that, but Vessel has offered contracts that would guarantee revenues at levels much higher than other sites.
Sure, this all will create more of a hierarchy within content distribution, but we’ve always had that. Just ask anyone who has seen all of Game of Thrones simply by borrowing someone else’s HBO GO account, or House of Cards and a bummed Netflix password.
You know, people like everyone.
[via Deadline]
