Vibhu Agarwal, CEO-Ullu discusses the future of content economy

The creative landscape has been drastically altered by the digital revolution, which has presented opportunities for different players in the content ecosystem. Over the last two decades, digitisation has changed the content economy. Prior to the advent of digital technology, content was sold and disseminated as a bundle. For instance, music was put together into albums, burnt into CDs, and distributed. Content and physical media are disjointed in the digital age. Vibhu Agarwal, the Founder and Group CEO of ULLU and Atrangii discusses the new era of creative industries in the present platform economy. 

“Because of digitisation, content can now move freely at pocket friendly charges. It is possible to unbundle content and repackage it. As a result of this, content production skyrocketed as new sources of supply appeared as a result of the accessibility of web technologies that made it possible for anyone to produce content at a low cost. It became more challenging for consumers to locate the content they want. Platforms were a logical response to this issue. Through their recommendation engines, they started curating content and aiding consumers in finding the music, movies, etc., that they desired,” says Vibhu Agarwal. Platforms have control points, including distinctive understanding of their users—resulting from the data we contribute each time we login to one these platforms and their recommendation engines, which help them entice additional users and creators. Due to this, they have enormous market power. Platforms can learn more about the formats that are successful from high-quality consumer data and can then go onto to produce more of the same. Atrangii TV channel series will be a mix of fiction and non-fiction, spanning genres such as action, mythology, comedy, horror, drama, suspense, and thriller. Hara Sindoor, Parshuram, Nishabd Love Next Door, and Bheja Fry are some of the shows on Atrangii TV popular among the audiences. 

Vibhu Agarwal highlights that the rise of the platform economy has gathered mixed reactions. Some believe that platforms are not doing enough to provide them with value because they are losing money. Others, however, emphasise how platforms have democratised access to the content market and allowed them to engage with their consumers directly and grow a loyal base. Creators must understand that under the platform economy, some works of protected intellectual property can be sold and others can be used as a marketing tool. The underlying problem for artists is that they have very little room for negotiation with the platforms. To interact with platforms on a large scale, the creative industry as a whole needs to adopt new technology-driven methods. All other policy or negotiated solutions will fall short without these tools,” says Vibhu Agarwal Ullu CEO.  

In conclusion, platforms might consider using Blockchain technology to develop a more open and long-lasting framework for the creative industries. The decentralised mechanisms of blockchain technology have the ability to digitise the whole creative value chain by employing smart contracts to compensate individual artists based on their output.