How Dropout Cracked Internet Comedy
5/22/202642 min
How do you build a streaming service from scratch? On this week’s “Galaxy Brain,” Charlie Warzel speaks with Sam Reich, the CEO of Dropout, a comedy streaming platform that’s found success eschewing the growth-at-all-costs model of the mega streamers. The two discuss the pre-YouTube days of online video and how Reich acquired Dropout, formerly known as the internet site CollegeHumor, for $0. They talk about how comedy has evolved online, how to build a cinematic universe of content, and whether Reich sees Dropout as a feeder for places like “Saturday Night Live.” Reich shares his philosophies on how to make things that people love and why he steers away from the venture-capital and big-media playbooks. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 1· Soundbite0:00
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Speaker 20:12
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Sam Reich· Guest0:44
I'm an open book.
Charlie Warzel· Host0:50
Ooh, very exciting.
Sam Reich· Guest0:52
I am a cr- I am a creased open, uh, dusty, worn library book with too many, uh, dog-eared pages.
Charlie Warzel· Host0:59
I'm Charlie Warzel, and this is Galaxy Brain, a show where today we're going to talk about how to make things online that people actually enjoy. We are living through an era of pretty remarkable media consolidation. The streaming wars started out scrappy, and they have landed in this place where we now have this constellation of increasingly expensive apps and media catalogs. It's kind of an on-demand reconstruction of the old school cable package,