Biagio, I think you’re spot on here. Particularly with regard to the changes in distribution that new technologies have ushered in. Change, of course, isn’t always bad. With the all-powerful interweb at our fingertips, there’s never been a time of greater opportunity. Taking full advantage of this opportunity necessarily means getting creative. Period. This goes for not only content, but as you mentioned, the business of getting that content to the right audiences. That’s all well and good, but I think an important question is: where exactly does creativity come from?

For example, as an indie filmmaker and entrepreneur, I know the success of my movie, Self Helpless, (and my small business) rely on both the movie’s merits and my distribution strategy. Maybe even more on my distribution strategy. And since I have very very limited funds, creativity is my best friend and only shot. So I can’t say that this is always the case, but my team and I have found that getting creative with our business strategy stems from 1) knowing our industry and 2) being brutally honest with ourselves.

The first one is pretty clear: you can’t innovate if you don’t know where your industry has been, where it is, and make an educated guess at where it’s going. You get to know this by READING. Read everything, talk with folks, and then read some more. In our case, we’re focused on the power of the Free content movement. So we’ve crafted a revolutionary, BitTorrent-first release. We’ll be releasing Self Helpless as a .torrent for seven days before we put up any DVD or digital downloads for sale. It’s risky, but it’d be riskier for us to not do something to set ourselves apart.

Second, you’ve got to be honest with yourself. How good is your film really? Who is your target audience? How do they prefer to view movies? Are they willing to pay for them? If so, when, why and at what cost? Not until you’re honest with yourself about your product, and informed as to your industry, will you be able to come to some important conclusions. Once you have your conclusions, you may be able to fill in the blanks creatively.

So I feel like if you know where you are and what you have, and where the industry is going, you start sewing the seeds of creative problem solving. Just my two cents and a shameless plug to boot! http://www.selfhelplessmovie.com, check us out.