{"id":217733,"date":"2026-04-03T17:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217733\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T17:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:46:08","slug":"miami-streaming-platform-gives-creators-control-and-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217733\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami streaming platform gives creators control and income"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Miami entrepreneur wants to help independent filmmakers thrive and have more control over their work with VURT<\/a>, a free movie and TV streaming app.<\/p>\n

Ted Lucas, 50, is familiar with the entertainment industry. As the founder of the Miami-based record label Slip-N-Slide Records, Lucas helped Miami rappers like Trick Daddy and Trina become stars.<\/p>\n

VURT has a heavy focus on allowing users to watch vertical videos on their phones and tablets. Lucas noticed how much consumers watch short form videos on their phones and wanted to build an app that capitalized on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cTikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube shorts proved that people like the experience of watching videos the way they naturally hold their phones,\u201d he said. \u201cVertical film and TV is just the natural evolution of the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

But entertainment has shifted from when those artists were at their peaks. Consumers no longer primarily buy physical media like CDs to hear new music \u2014 instead, they subscribe to apps like Spotify or Apple Music to hear it. The same is true for film, where streaming apps like Netflix have nudged aside movie theaters and DVDs.<\/p>\n

\"Ted Ted Lucas, founder of VURT, is photographed at the Florida Memorial University Innovation Lab on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Top streamers are spending big money to lure famous filmmakers<\/a> like Martin Scorsese. Netflix spent an estimated $18 billion on content in 2025. But lesser-known filmmakers are being left behind, Lucas said.<\/p>\n

The ability for VURT users to make money may be its biggest appeal. VURT makes its money off advertising that it splits 50-50 with creators.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to say they got their career started on VURT so that they can quit [their day jobs] and focus on their film careers,\u201d Lucas said.<\/p>\n

\"VurT VurT is a new streaming app designed to give independent filmmakers more control over their work. Courtesy photo <\/p>\n

Mark Samuels, 42, is a Miami filmmaker who already has his work on the app.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor every filmmaker, having a home to put your projects on is key,\u201d Samuels said. \u201cThe barrier of entry for VURT is so much lower\u201d than at traditional distributors, he said. \u201cWe are all trying to feed our families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuels graduated from Carol City High School in 2001 and immediately began working in a recording studio as an engineer before shooting music videos for artists.<\/p>\n

Shooting music videos led him into making his own films, and he directed one called \u201cMurder Gardens\u201d that came out in 2018. He found distribution for his movie, but he quickly became disenchanted with his project not having access to analytics.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a traditional film distributor, you don\u2019t know how things are going until eight or nine months later,\u201d he said. \u201cYou aren\u2019t seeing monetization and views.\u201d<\/p>\n

With VURT, Samuels appreciates the opportunity to be able to see how his film is performing on the app in real time and make adjustments to how he is promoting it. App users can see in real time how many people watch their projects.<\/p>\n

The app, which launched in March, is available on Apple\u2019s App Store<\/a> and Google Play<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lucas hopes VURT can become a go-to option for media makers who want to quickly distribute their films.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to disrupt the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Butler<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Michael Butler writes about minority business and trends that affect marginalized professionals in South Florida. As a business reporter for the Miami Herald, he tells inclusive stories that reflect South Florida\u2019s diversity. Just like Miami\u2019s diverse population, Butler, a Temple University graduate, has both local roots and a Panamanian heritage.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Miami entrepreneur wants to help independent filmmakers thrive and have more control over their work with VURT,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-217733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}