Raindance Releasing. The new home for independent film. Time to release your content.
Raindance Releasing is now live, and you can stream your film globally on the platform from just £12 a month.
If your film is your business, this is the infrastructure you’ve been asking for.
Raindance Releasing is now live, and you can stream your film globally on the platform from just £12 a month.
Behind it sits Hiway, the operating system built to bring transparency and control to the independent film industry. So you retain control of your IP, capture your own fanbase and get paid immediately every time a viewer pays to watch your content. And a whole lot more.
This is what every filmmaker who signs up gets from day one.
Already live. Already paying out.
The platform is live. Filmmakers are already on it. Films are already streaming. Money is already landing in filmmakers’ bank accounts.
The pattern in the numbers so far is clear. The filmmakers who lean in and market their films - sharing SmartLinks with their networks, embedding on their own sites, driving their communities to watch - are the ones earning. Every audience push turns into rentals, and every rental turns into a real-time payment to their bank the same day.
And Raindance has not started marketing the platform yet.
That comes next. When it does, every filmmaker already onboard is in position to benefit from the surge.
The same five things, on repeat
Since our very first conversation as we decided to build Hiway, we kept hearing the same complaints from filmmakers. Every meeting. Every festival. Every call. The same five things.
“I have no idea if anyone’s actually watching my film.” No dashboard, no analytics, no numbers. A quarterly PDF at best, and you’re supposed to be grateful for it.
“I hand over the master file and it’s locked away for years.” Exclusive deals. Territory restrictions. Contract terms that outlive the film’s cultural window.
“The money comes in six months later, if it comes at all.” Every other party in the chain gets paid before you do. You wait, then you chase, then you accept whatever number lands on the statement.
“Every fan is the platform’s fan, not mine.” The audience you fought to build gets handed over the moment a viewer clicks play. Next film, you start from zero again.
“My film disappeared after the festival.” Ten days of buzz, standing ovations, awards. Then the film goes back on a hard drive under the bed, waiting for something that never comes.
We heard these on repeat.
We listened.
Then we built the opposite.
From Raindance to you
Raindance has spent decades backing filmmakers before the rest of the industry knows what it is looking at. That is why we keep backing first-time filmmakers, and why we keep building a community where you’re taken seriously.
But backing a film is only the beginning. Release is where filmmakers are too often asked to give up control, and accept silence in return.
That is why we created Raindance Releasing. A permanent digital home for independent film where you can see every view and every rental, get paid straight into your bank account, and stay in control with a non-exclusive licence.
Signing up to Raindance Releasing means your film can stream globally or by any territory you define.
By using Hiway’s innovative technology, everything below is yours to use across your entire career.
What every filmmaker gets
1. Secure storage for your master file
Your final grade, ProRes, source files. All stored in your own private library. Lower cost than using multiple alternatives. And no need to use more than one tech platform or subscription. Encrypted. Backed up. Ready to send or stream the moment you need it.
Your master file lives with you, not with a platform.
2. Your own Screener Room
Send buyers, sales agents, distributors, financiers and press a link. See who opened it. How long they watched. Where they dropped off. Which territory. Attach presentations, artwork and press kits to the same room.
Sales agents pay hundreds a month for this alone. It’s yours in the £12.
3. Private secure sharing built in
No more WeTransfer links that expire. No more downloads floating around the industry. Every share tracked, revocable, watermarked. Send a cut to your editor. Send a rough to a financier. Send the trailer to a festival. All from one place.
4. Your own CRM, for both sides of your business
Every industry contact you’ve ever pitched. Every viewer who paid for a rental. Every fan who watched your trailer twice. All captured in one system.
Two lists. B2B for the industry. D2C for the fans. Yours to keep. Take them to the next film, the next investor pitch, the next theatrical run.
An audience is an asset. This is where you build it.
5. Real-time payments
A viewer in Melbourne rents your film at 22:47 on a Tuesday. Hiway pays your share into your bank account before you’re out of bed on Wednesday.
No 90-day royalty cycle. No spreadsheets. No chasing. Your money moves at the speed of the internet.
6. SmartLinks, tracked promo links and embed codes
Put your film’s watch page on your own website. Embed the trailer on your production company site. Send a unique tracked link to each press contact and see which one converted. Every link, every open, every purchase, attributed.
Marketing without guessing.
7. Non-exclusive by design
Nothing in your Hiway account stops you signing anywhere else. A platform deal. A distributor deal. A theatrical run. A broadcaster. You keep every right you’re not actively using.
The platform works around your career, not the other way round.
8. One master file. Everywhere it needs to be.
Syndicate the same file to Raindance Releasing, and to every other partner platform on Hiway, without re-encoding or re-uploading. Update the master once, it updates everywhere. Version drift disappears.
9. Real-time analytics
Every view. Every minute watched. Every territory. Every device. Every drop-off point. Not once a quarter. Now.
Pitch your next film with numbers you can prove.
10. Share your live reports with financiers, co-producers and your team
Every dashboard, every analytics view, every revenue report can be shared with one click. Send your financiers a live link and they see the same numbers you do, updated in real time. Loop in your co-producers, your sales agent, your accountant, your production partner. Choose what each person can see. Revoke access when you want.
No more monthly Excel round-ups. No more chasing statements. No more “can you send me the numbers again?”.
Everyone sees the same truth, at the same time.
11. Full ownership of your IP, your data and your revenue
The point of all of it. You own the master. You own the audience. You own the revenue. Hiway sits invisibly in the background and takes a small transaction fee when the film pays out.
Everything else is yours.
Built with the community, for the community
Every one of these features was requested by independent filmmakers.
Filmmakers who wanted their films actually seen. Their money paid, directly and immediately. Their fan data captured and kept. Their IP protected. Their financiers and co-producers kept in the loop without endless spreadsheets. Their investors vindicated.
We listened. Then we built it.
What the community is already saying
“We work with so many filmmakers whose films disappear after festivals. A solution that helps them keep visibility and generate revenue is incredibly valuable.” — Artistic Director
“You’ve created something that’s fascinating. Potentially huge for independent cinema.” — Co-Director
“What you’re selling here is security and transparency. That’s exactly what filmmakers and investors want.” — Co-Founder
“As independent filmmakers, we’re completely aligned with this. We’re so with you on what you’re building.” — Filmmaker
“It combines everything in one place instead of us going back and forth between different portals.” — Film Executive
What signing up looks like
Under thirty minutes from clicking the link to being live on Raindance Releasing with your own account, your own Screener Room, your own CRM, your own revenue dashboard and your own bank account connected for real-time payments.
You can be running your film business by lunchtime.
Start today
Every filmmaker who signs up unlocks the full stack from day one. No feature gating. No hidden add-ons. Cancel any time.
Cinema, not content. Business, not black box. The infrastructure is yours.
Published by Hiway, the operating system for independent film and the year-round streaming infrastructure powering Raindance Releasing.
Elliot Grove Raindance Film School Hiway