Price, how to upload your films and everything you need to know about the service

Amazon Prime Video Direct is a lesser-known service provided by Amazon Prime Video that can be a useful tool for creators who have yet to hear of it. As one of the major streaming services, Amazon Prime Video is a key player in the film and television creation and distribution space, and they are constantly looking for new ways to improve their market cap and take territory from rivals like YouTube, Netflix, Apple, and more. However, Amazon is not just a video streaming service and, with its vast amounts of money, Amazon can try any new project it wants.

Amazon has produced many original movies and TV shows and continues to curate their ever-expanding library of offerings to entice users to come to the platform. As a massive business, Amazon can afford to make mistakes, as some believe Prime did when it started putting ads in videos in 2024. They have also made some smart moves, including Amazon Prime Direct Video, which became available in May 2016. The service was a boon for small and independent creators, though Recent decisions have made some users wary.

Amazon Prime Video Direct is a content submission and viewing platform

The service allows anyone to upload videos

Amazon Prime Video Direct is a content submission platform which allows users to upload their self-made videos to the service, for free. It launched in May 2016, with only a few changes made since then. The service allows content creators, independent filmmakers, studios and distributors to put their content on Prime Video and monetize what they create. The creators can reach a global audience through various devices like Amazon Fire Stick and gaming consoles. The service is available to those in the US. US, UK, Germany, Austria and Japan.

Amazon Prime Video Direct is free to use

This service only requires an Amazon Prime subscription

Originally, Prime Video Direct was supposed to be a way for Amazon to encroach on YouTube’s content creation space. The idea was that instead of creatives uploading whatever they want to YouTube, Prime Video would become the place to find irreverent, well-made, unique and unusual videos. The service is free to use for Amazon Prime subscribersBoth as a viewer and as a content creator, if the content creator wants to make their products available for purchase or rent.

Of course, YouTube is YouTube, and even an organization as powerful as Amazon may have trouble changing the way everyone consumes their content. So Prime Video Direct never knocked YouTube off its perch. The two services are different anyway, with Prime Video Direct serving as a more “serious” platform with more care to what is submitted and approved.

Users can earn money on their submissions

Creators receive profits and royalties

Creators can earn money in two ways on Prime Video Direct. First, creators receive 50% of net revenue from licensed productions as rentals or purchases (via Amazon). In general, Prime Video Direct only licenses professionally produced feature-length movies and TV shows. However, Amazon reserves the right to offer episodes and seasons of a show at a discounted price if a user has already purchased an episode. Payments are issued approximately 90 days after the end of the month if a revenue threshold is met.

Creators also receive royalties for every hour of their show watched, similar to how Spotify pays music creators on their platform. Each region receives a different amount of royalties, but they usually work out to a few cents per hour watched.

How to upload content to Amazon Prime Video Direct

Uploading content is as easy as signing up

Uploading content to Prime Video Direct is simple. Creators only need to create an account on Prime Video Direct. Users will need to create a company profile with a name and address, but people can simply add their own name as the company. Users will also need to enter banking and payment information and tax information when creating a profile. Once this is done, users can start uploading videos to Prime Video Direct. The videos that Amazon deems policy compliant can be submitted by rent or purchase on Amazon Video.

Prime Video has a huge content library

Prime has the largest library of all the streaming services

Thanks to submissions by Prime Video Direct, Amazon Prime Video now has a larger content library than all of its competitorsby a wide margin. Amazon has over 18,000 titles in its library (via Quartz). The second-largest streamer, Netflix, only has around 6,800 titles. Apple TV + has the smallest library, just approaching 300 titles. This is a double-edged sword for content creators using Prime Video Direct because a larger library means more people will be interested in the platform, but it also means titles can get lost in the vast swath of offerings.

Prime Video Direct is no longer accepting documentaries

In 2021, Prime Video Direct narrowed down which videos can be submitted

In February 2021, Amazon has made the controversial decision to stop accepting short films and documentaries Via Prime Video Direct (via Indiewire). The policy, which is still in effect (by Amazon), also includes but is not limited to product reviews, product unboxing, compilation videos, news segments, vlogs, health videos, toy play, selfie / YouTube videos (Tik Tok / reaction videos), home videos, slideshows, lectures, video Gameplay, tutorials, listicles and ambient content.

The decision was met with anger from content creators, who also noted that documentary titles on the platform were leaked, despite being previously approved. All questions about why a documentary or short film has been rejected on the platform are met with the same automated response,

“Unless otherwise noted, withdrawn titles (or titles not selected for licensing) may not be resubmitted or appealed.”

With non-fiction still a very popular form of entertainment, it’s interesting why Amazon decided to target documentaries and similar content. At least it can be said that Amazon is not playing favorites. Independent creators and established brands have had their content removed and rejected in equal measure. It could be that Amazon wants to have a certain standard of production in their documentary and thus clean house to start fresh, but After three years, nothing much has changed in what can and cannot be presented.

Is Prime Video Direct a worthwhile service for filmmakers?

Prime Video Direct is a useful tool for those who want to extend the reach of their movie or show

Whether or not Prime Video Direct is advantageous to filmmakers is most likely up to the individual filmmaker. For one, it’s an easy way for an independent production to get its film or show to a global audience, with little licensing cost or time commitment. on the other hand, There is no guarantee of income And there seems to be the chance that a project could be removed from the platform just as quickly as it was put on.

Distributing movies and TV shows can be a big problem for smaller filmmakers and content creators, so Prime Video Direct offers a global reach that few services can match. At the same time, viewers need an Amazon Prime account to watch these productions, which will naturally shrink viewership compared to something completely free like YouTube. Then again, as Prime Video Direct is somewhat curated, people who go on the platform will know what they’re watching is approved as quality in some capacity.

Although it is not perfect, with a content distribution platform like Prime Video Direct is better than nothing and any independent filmmaker, content creator or studio should at least try to put their video on the platform before they give up.