Premiers aren’t just for Hollywood theaters anymore. Now movies and entire TV series can materialize on Netflix or on some other streaming service sans the red carpet party and garner just as much success. This is due partially to the raise of the internet. While box office sales are still important, the web has an increasingly important role in a film’s pre and post release existence. You can follow films from funding to box set all via Twitter feeds and emails.

For new movies, the internet has somewhat infinite potential when it comes building hype. Think of how many times Netflix tried to get you to watch Blackfin or YouTube showed you yet another trailer for The Great Gatsby. In this day and age, you don’t have to go to a theatre to see a trailer anymore. You can watching a clip on infinite loop until the film premiers and then long after.

Here are some recent music documentaries/bio-dramas that have utilized it in different ways. Some used the web purely as a promotional tool, one used it to crowdsource the filming and another used it as its release platform. The main tread that ties them all together is that they have been popping up in forum discussions, some for years now, and the have the internet talking.

Straight Outta Compton

“Our art is a reflection of our reality”
Due out August 13th, this film follows the rise of rap group NWA. Raised in Compton, California, the group’s members Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella translated their experiences into music that in turn revolutionized the genre. The movie, named after the NWA’s 1988 debut album, was directed by F. Gary Gary. Gary also directed the music video for “It Was a Good Day” by Ice Cube (1992) as well as the video for “Natural Born Killaz” by Dr. Dre and Ice Cube (1994) and “Keep Their Heads Ringin” by Dr. Dre (1995).

Amy

“I’m not a girl trying to a star or trying to be anything other than a musician”

With the tag line “the girl behind the name”, “Amy” explores the musician’s short, but successful life up until her untimely death in 2011. The documentary uses unreleased tracks and archival footage, giving the movie a sort of in-her-words feel. It was directed by Asif Kapadia, who won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary for his 2010 film SENNA, and is scheduled to hit theaters July 3rd in Ireland and the UK. There isn’t a release date for the US, but there is the internet.

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

“Oh Our Final Name Is NIRVANA”
After premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Montage of Heck” has captivated the internet with clips of the rocker’s early life in Aberdeen. Brett Morgen began creating the documentary, the first about Kurt Cobain to be made with the cooperation of his family, in 2007. It includes footage from live performances and home movies as well as animations by Stefan Nadelman and Hisko Hulsing. It also features artwork, photography, journals and songbooks, unheard songs, demos and recordings, which together create an exhaustive look into the life of one of the most iconic musicians. It is due out on May 4, 2015 on HBO.

All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records

“I spent more money in Tower Records than any other human being.”
Colin Hanks is perhaps best known for his roles as Father Gil on “Mad Men” and as Travis Marshall “Dexter”. For “All Things Must Pass”, he stepped behind the camera and into the director’s chair to create this in-depth look at Tower Records and its founder Russ Solomon. After launching a campaign to fund the project on Kickstarter, Hanks received almost double in pledges and was able to not only bring the film to fruition, but also premier it at this year’s SXSW festival. For those who weren’t in Texas, Hanks has said via the film’s facebook that they are “still working out a distribution deal at the moment…In the mean time, there will be additional film festival screenings, around the world.” So stay tuned.

What Happened, Miss Simone?

“I want to shake people up so bad that when they leave a nightclub where I preformed- I just want them to be to pieces”
In this Netflix original documentary, director Liz Garbus mixes recordings and archival footage together and overlays the resulting film with Simone’s songs to crafts a portrait of the beloved musician. Netflix describes Simone as a “classically trained pianist, dive-bar chanteuse, black power icon and legendary recording artist [who] lived a life of brutal honesty, musical genius and tortured melancholy.” After premiering at Sundance, the film will release onto Netflix on June 26.

-Zoe Marquedant