Studio Countdown has always been an unconventional business. We started off with a team, a dream, and no outside investors - and that’s still the way it is for us today. We spend hours of our lives working on things like Countdown to Countdown not because it’s profitable (it isn’t), but because it’s what we’re passionate about. And ultimately, our mission is to create a haven for other artists and teams to work on what they’re passionate about too.

Here’s how we’re working towards that goal.

Playing the long game

We’re a business that loses thousands of £€$ every year without any guarantee of making back what we put in, but it’s a risk we’re willing to take. Most entertainment companies try to create things that earn them money quickly, and we don’t blame them (considering that money is admittedly a key factor in whether or not a business can stick around). But unlike them, we’re in it for the long game.

Playing the long game means prioritizing long-term goals over short-term gain. That brings us back to our mission statement: Create a haven for artists and teams to work on what they’re passionate about and build careers off of their creativity. And we’re already getting started.

Supporting artists

One of the more obvious examples of how we’re working to build spaces for artists to thrive is our own studio. Our main project Countdown to Countdown has a team of over 15 staff members creating art at their own pace and on their own time. But we can do even better than that, and that’s where collaborations come in.

We can’t say much about the collaborations we’re working on - these things tend to be kept confidential until shortly before they’re released. We can say that these collaborations are how we’re reaching out to other artists and teams to form partnerships where we can support each other, whether that’s through exposure to new audiences or simply help with funding. On top of collaborations, we’re also reaching out to a few independent projects we think we can support to provide things like IT management and content marketing/distribution: two aspects of independent creative work that tend to be pain points. Over the past year or so, we’ve built our own tools for these pain points so we can focus on the creative work we do best, and we’re giving back to the community by sharing these tools. While our IT/marketing/distribution services are currently only available to a limited number of creators, we’re hoping to open them up to almost any new and promising project in the future.

Reaching industry

To be able to support our own projects and other independent artists’ projects in the best ways currently possible, we need to be able to reach the mainstream animation industry. Thanks to our diverse team and direct outreach, we’ve built up direct and indirect lines of contact with YouTube Movies & TV, Amazon MGM Studios, and Netflix - just to name a few. This doesn’t mean you’ll be seeing CTC in particular on streaming platforms other than YouTube (yet), but it does mean that we have valuable connections that will serve as faster routes to bring CTC and other content (including content from artist & team partners) to even larger audiences than ever before.

In fact, we’re already working to build up our reputation as a distributor with streaming services - starting by helping other teams and artists get their work published and distributed. Once again, we can’t say much more than that because of confidentiality agreements. If you have an independent animated film or series and you’d be interested in working with us, feel free to inquire at contact@studiocountdown.com.

What’s next?

Truthfully, we’re not sure. But we believe this is the beginning of something great. With Countdown to Countdown scheduled to release in late 2026 alongside many other things coming this year, we think our foundations are becoming pretty solid for what we want to achieve at Studio Countdown.

That’s a wrap for today’s article - thanks for reading. If you’re looking for more news and updates, you can join the Studio Countdown Discord community for free or get Studio Countdown All Access to support our work while getting exclusive perks!