gaia.com
The whole thing is incredibly sad and I?ve barely made it through the first episode.
I swear, 99% of the content on premium streaming platforms these days consists of really generic shows that have very little to offer. Like, for instance, Blind Love? I don't even know what that is, but apparently it's a really popular show on Netflix right now. It's a reality TV show where two complete strangers are never allowed to see each other for an entire season. And by the end of it, they have to decide if they want to be together or not ? which is actually pretty heartbreaking. I don't think I've made it past the first episode yet.
Sure, okay, the argument could be made that this is not, in fact, as superficial as I am making it out to be, seeing as, well, the "lovers" in question are not basing their decision to be with one another on physical appearance at all. Okay, I hear that. But if you have never watched this show, jeez, you should hear the "conversations" that they have. They aren't discussing anything if import. They are not delving into important matters of the mind, the heart, their core beliefs. For a show that seems to go out of its way to evade the stereotypical reality TV cliché of being vain and narcissistic, it is almost admirable how shallow it still manages to be.
I wasn't really here to talk about the weirdly false cash grab that is Blind Love with you, I was just using this show, Netflix's most popular, to illustrate a larger point - there is not much in the way of conscious, philosophical, deep, or cosmic content to be found on most of the mainstream streaming services. Where are the shows that speak to our soul? Where are the movies about the interconnectedness of all things in the universe? Where can I stream something that sheds off the entrapments of the ego and delves into the inner light of all living beings?
I think I've stumbled upon a perfect streaming service for those who want more substantive entertainment. Gaia is a service that challenging the narratives around commercialism and materialism, and exploring some of the most fascinating mysteries about human existence. It's something that I believe is really special, and it's definitely worth checking out.
Gaia, the goddess of the Earth, is a streaming service with educational, exploratory, inquisitive, and thoughtful series and films. It aims to enlighten its viewers and make them one with the world and cosmic energy plane.
History
The media company, Gaia (formerly Gaiam) was founded in Boulder, Colorado by Jirka Rysavy in 1988. He had a vision of serving the conscious consumer, a demographic that has alternately been referred to by sociologist Paul Ray in 1966 as the cultural creatives. Apparently, Rysavy saw a huge missed opportunity in this underserved niche and decided to speak directly to consumers who are educated and tend to make purchases based more on their values than any other motivation. The original name of the company, Gaiam, comes from the aforementioned mother goddess Gaia being linguistically fused with the phrase ?I am,? as a nod to ?the interconnectivity of all things.?
Gaiam merged with the Californian company, Real Goods Solar in 2001. In 2005, Gaia acquired two media companies: Good Times Entertainment and Jetlag Productions. In 2007, Gaia acquired two more media companies: Lime.com and Zaadz.com in order to increase its online presence and begin to make the shift into digital media. The company continued its ascent, acquiring more media companies in 2009 - this time in the form of the sites TeachThis! and AppSumo.
In 2007, the company also launched Gaiam TV, which was an iteration of the streaming platform that looked pretty similar to the current form. It offered videos on yoga, meditation, and pseudoscientific theory. However, it wasn't until relatively recently, in 2015, that Gaia would officially change its name and expand its offerings exponentially.
In 2012, Gaiam acquired a DVD distributor from the Universal Music Group. They merged this distributor with its home entertainment division, resulting in a merger known as Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment. And in 2019, USA Today listed Gaia Inc. as one of the world's fastest-growing entertainment retailers.
Gaia began streaming live events from its newly acquired events center on its Louisville, Kentucky campus. These events are live-streamed to 187 different countries and also come equipped with live translation. They often feature big names in the pseudoscience and spiritualist world, such as Graham Hancock, Gregg Braden, Bruce Lipton, Caroline Myss.
Design
Gaia is one of the most popular streaming platforms out there. It offers a really simple and minimal layout that is refreshingly different from the other platforms. When you first visit Gaia, you'll be greeted by a white background with tags at the top of the page. Below that, you'll see a site menu bar and similar layout to Netflix. The main difference between Gaia and Netflix is that Gaia has a preview banner at the top that plays automatically muted (unlike Netflix). You can find tons of videos in different genres and content types below the banner.
In the site menu bar, you can quickly access whatever category or interest you like. You can choose from Yoga, Meditation, Series, Docs and Films, Topics, New Videos, Events, Recipes, or Articles. Beneath these options is your user menu which is conveniently splayed out. This allows you to access your customized playlists, watch history, the community blog, or the live channel Gaia Stream. Few streaming sites are so open in their design and it makes for a very effortless and streamlined user experience.
Content
This streaming site has a ton of content, with a range of different types of content to be found. I love that you can access yoga lessons, guided meditations, series about aliens and ancient mysteries, films about the collective conscious and metaphysics, delicious and healthy recipes, astrology, psychology, articles, a thriving community blog, and a live TV channel all in one place. Some of the stuff goes too far off the deep end for my preferences but there is something here for truth seekers of all stripes.
Desktop and Mobile Experience
This may be the first streaming service that has inspired me to recommend the app over the desktop site. Usually, I am not a huge fan of watching content on my phone or tablet- but the Gaia app is so good, that you can't make use of it if you subscribe. Other Gaia users seem to agree with me on this- seeing as it has an average rating of 4.8 stars on the Apple App Store (from over 49,000 reviews). I don't think I have ever seen an app rated that highly.
Pricing and Plans
Gaia offers three different subscription models: monthly, yearly, and lifetime.
-The monthly price for Live Access is $11.99, while the annual price is $99. You can pay either monthly or annually. The price for Live Access is $24.92 per month (or $299 per year).
To watch any of Gaia's live-streamed events, you'll need to purchase the live access tier. You also get access to live chat sessions with experts and replays of all archived events. While Gaia may not be the cheapest streaming service, it does offer a one-week free trial if you want to see if it is right for you.
Suggestions that I have for Gaia
I'd love to see Gaia become a bit cheaper as it grows in popularity. There are also a few design flaws, such as the fact that the scrub bar and title won't go away when you play a video in full-screen, and the font of the descriptions on the Roku/smart TV app is way too small to read from a reasonable distance. Other than that, though, Gaia has pretty much cracked the code of conscious streaming!
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