Ep. 392: Are “Micro-Streamers” the Future of Media? + Why Cal Spent $60 on a Task App

Hey, so I recently filmed a course for masterclass. Now this was a really interesting experience, and I think the final product was great, and you can check it out at uh masterclass.com slash calnewport. But the thing I want to focus on here is the production values. Because Masterclass really makes these things look good. They have uh big cameras with fancy lenses, there's a director of photography, they have dedicated crew to do nothing but set up and adjust lights.

I mean, you can really tell. Like I'm gonna load up a scene here on the screen for people who are watching instead of just listening, um, just so you can get a sense of what this looks like when they're using the the full production crew. All right, now this stuff, when we see it, we have to admit, is a level better than most of the video that's being produced by independent creators like us here at this podcast. And here's the thing I want to argue today that gap has been making a really big difference in the media landscape. We have become trained as consumers that when we see video content at the level of quality of something like Masterclass or Netflix, we say, okay, that's something I'll pay for.

But if you move down just a little bit to the level below, like these really good video podcasts where people have nice DSLR cameras and some diffused light and it looks pretty good, people say, no, no, no, that is for free platforms like YouTube. So this difference of production value has really uh kept a moat around video that people will pay for. But here's what I think is interesting about our current moment. There's a small but growing movement of independent producers. that are starting to create content at the same quality level as those big players.

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