Jessica Ryan
@jessicaryan
Piratical pioneer of experiences live on the Internet (circa 2013) // CEO Broadway Unlocked, your friendly theatre on the internet // Indefatigable advocate for arts
Jessica Ryan
@jessicaryan
Piratical pioneer of experiences live on the Internet (circa 2013) // CEO Broadway Unlocked, your friendly theatre on the internet // Indefatigable advocate for arts

Live Digital and

“The League doesn’t ask patrons to rank the primary driver in their ticket purchase. (Individual shows sometimes do in their own research surveys. I’ve heard various figures from producers throughout the years—and most are similar to what I found. Though it has varied to a certain extent show to show.) That’s what I asked of people—what truly drove their purchase. I went to musicals as well as plays from last spring to this fall; I did not poll at any show running over two years. For Shucked, a show that several people told me greatly benefited from influencers, I spoke to twenty people during previews and then another fifteen people later in the run. In total, two of 200 people I spoke to said an influencer was the primary reason they purchased a ticket. Both of those people were under 30. Several others had seen influencer content, but that content was not the primary reason they purchased tickets. (Source material, stars, personal recommendations, and press topped the reasons; show specific obviously.)
There are likely many reasons that influencers are not driving ticket sales. According to the League, last season the average theatergoer was 40.4 years old, older than the typical influencer target. Theater tickets are generally expensive, so it may take more than one person’s word to take the plunge and buy. But, additionally, most influencers that push theater consistently are so-called "theater influencers" and primarily have their content pushed to theater fans.”
Their feedback loop is instant
They understand internet culture
They publish, adapt, and evolve in real time.
It’s not just that creators use the internet
It’s that they were raised by it.
Their feedback loop is instant
They understand internet culture
They publish, adapt, and evolve in real time.
They’re more attuned to thinking like product designers than studio executives
They test ideas, respond to feedback, and ship what connects.
They understand momentum.
They’ve already absorbed the logic of bottom-up SaaS, intuitively.
This is why the next great storytellers won’t come from film school.
They’ll come from YouTube, Discord, & Substack
All thats missing is proper infrastructure.

Future of Fandom and
IP Strategy and
The scale of differentiation necessary to produce an MVIP has historically been determined based on the past behavior and preferences of demand. People liked to consume IP via books, movies, TV shows and comic books, not via an outline, or a few chapters, or a single picture.
Now, however, the disruption of traditional IP distributors via streaming and social media networks allows IP owner to have more flexibility in terms of production and distribution.
Lil Nas X, for example, is able to distribute his music (his IP) instantly by publishing a song (‘Old Town Road’) on SoundCloud and have it explode in popularity via remixing and UGC on TikTok. Previously, he would have had to wait to be discovered by a record label, who then would decide when to release his music and in what form factor — most likely as an album rather than a single.