Vyer Films, a subscription startup for film buffs, shuts down

Vyer Films wanted to be the go-to streaming platform for Criterion-toting film buffs.
When we spoke to founder and CEO K.C. McLeod last May, he explained that he goes through piles of films from festivals and picks a few each month to host on Vyer’s streaming service. Since starting in 2010, the company had picked 65 films that McLeod felt were deep enough to merit wider attention but too grown-up and nuanced to ever make a splash on the big screen.
No longer.
“There will be no new Vyer releases today. There will also be no new releases tomorrow, the day after, or at any time in the foreseeable future. I am sorry to say that today Vyer is beginning an indefinite hiatus, after having wound down our operations over the past weeks,” McLeod wrote in a release.
The release keeps open the possibility of the company returning, of course, but the top of its About page now says “Farewell” and McLeod’s note to users was signed “Adjø,” which means the same thing in Danish. McLeod is a native of New York’s Southern Tier.

Adjø

— Vyer Films (@vyerfilms) April 1, 2015

McLeod announced that Vyer was on indefinite hiatus as of April 1. (While that date may sound suspicious, a press release went around the next morning confirming that the company had shut down.) We’ve reached out to McLeod to find out exactly why he was forced to close up shop.
All of the Vyer films will remain available for the foreseeable future through VHX, at a pretty great price: $2.99 each.
Most startups that shut down do so pretty quietly. In October, we explored how the profitable (albeit small) robotics startup, I Heart Engineering, shut down due to an oversized legal bill. We only noticed it was gone after checking back to see if it had any new products. On the other hand, Togather shut down by a surprise public announcement over email.
Other local distributors — Brooklyn On Demand and Nukhu — appear to be going strong. The Brooklyn Film Festival starts May 29.
Update: 4/3/15, 10:18 a.m.
We heard back from McLeod. He writes:

Unfortunately, there’s no single issue that I can point to as the reason. It’s more of a confluence of trends and issues that led to this decision, and it was because there was no silver bullet that made it such a difficult one to make. Ultimately, the reason lies with me as the leader of the venture: I couldn’t figure out a way to deliver an experience that provided a valuable enough experience to a large enough audience that could support independent filmmakers in the way the service was set up to do. Opportunities emerge when there is change, and when I founded Vyer years ago it was with the belief a change was emerging in the streaming experience audiences desired. I think that’s still the case (the recent launch of TIDAL suggests that). I look forward to seeing what services will emerge in the near future that share this vision.