For much of human history, hunters have lived on the fringes of society. Leaving the comfort and familiarity of home to find better hunting grounds, more game, and to follow the herd.
For all of the growing interest in sourcing food, self-reliance, and acquiring wild game, hunters continue to find themselves in familiar territory—the fringes of society.
Randy Newberg, an educator who we respect and admire greatly, puts out content on numerous platforms—podcasts, shows, YouTube tutorials, etc. He recently announced the launching of his own native platform for his content to live, FreshTracks+.
While it may seem like just another new streaming service, Randy's motivations are more out of necessity than lucrative economic opportunity. The following is an excerpt from Randy's email announcing the new platform...
"In the past year, we’ve experienced several issues with Facebook, Amazon, and YouTube. In the spring of 2021, our Facebook page was hacked and taken over by a foreign spam farm. It took a month for Facebook to restore our access.
This summer, Amazon removed our shows from streaming through Amazon Prime, forcing our audience to pay for episodes when they already invested in a Prime account. Amazon was where a large portion of our audience watched Fresh Tracks.
YouTube is cracking down on content that they deem ‘potentially offensive’ to advertisers–including content that shows hunting, guns, or butchering animals–making this content harder for you to find and watch.
Fresh Tracks+ addresses all of these issues. We have complete control over our content, so no censorship from Facebook, Amazon, or Google. We can show everything that goes into a hunting trip, from equipment set-up to turning your harvest into dinner. Soon we will launch apps for mobile devices (Apple and Android) and smart TVs (Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, and Fire TV) that will make the content easier to navigate and more enjoyable to watch."
Expect to see more content creators like Randy making similar moves in the coming months and years to own their traffic and produce content directly for the folks who are most tuned in.
As participants in the outdoors, rather than mere spectators, expect that we will continue to operate on the fringes of social acceptance. No amount of pandering to the masses will ever get them to fully understand or appreciate what it takes to step out into the untamed and come back with something suitable for the table.
