Black culture has historically driven the culture at large, from old-school entertainment tomodern internet trends(Opens in a new window). So, it’s no surprise to see Blacktag, an especially forward-looking video streaming service that focuses onBlack art. Blacktag presents genuinely cool ideas for what mobile video can offer in terms of format and community. However, a lack of content and missing features suggest Blacktag’s future is still a ways off.
Getting Started With Blacktag
Blacktag is afreemobile app foriOSandAndroid. I primarily tested on an iPhone 13. When you sign up, you enter basic personal information, including preferred pronouns, and add a user photo. I went with a sad picture of Will Smith fromRed Table Talk.
Once you’ve created an account, Blacktag’s slick interface leaves a dazzling first impression. The screens are dense, like the sheer amount of material is about to burst from your device. That said, you can easily find content. Scroll through the top row of artists to access their individual pages. Browse the featured shows, represented by differently sized blocks arranged in a grid. Jump to your list of favorite selections. Go to a show’s page and see a detailed rundown for every episode. Tapping the lightning bolt icon at the bottom of the screen brings you to Blacktag’s live channel. Blacktag has issues, but (for the most part) navigating the app isn’t one of them.
What Can You Watch on Blacktag?
Blacktag’s vague focus on Black art initially left me confused. First, I thought it might be the Black answer to TikTok. But as avideo streaming service, it’s more like the Black answer toQuibi(which sounds more insulting than what I’m trying to imply). Blacktag delivers a variety of high-quality videos designed to be viewed on your phone. The video content includes short films, full-length TV episodes, music videos, and snippets that serve as ads for other products.
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The best content, at least right now, comes directly from Blacktag itself. Its inaugural short film, “Black Art Is Black Money,” presents something of a thesis statement. With other streaming companies rushing to profit from Black audiences, Black creators should also have a hand on the wheel. Other shows carry forward this progressive political spirit, from documentaries about bikers in Ghana to queer astrology shows.
Blacktag’s professional and well-produced mobile videos help it coexist alongside other Black streaming apps. It’s more experimental and artistic than the mainstreamAllblkandBET+, more futuristic and “Gen Z-friendly” than the throwbackBrown Sugar. The closest comparison isKweliTV, still our favorite in this category, in how they both take a more worldly approach to the Black experience.
Unfortunately, Blacktag’s catalog still feels more like a promising proof of concept than a full-fledged service. There’s only a handful of shows. Blacktag has been in the news for more than a year, and apparently has managed to attract some interest from celebrities, such as Common and Issa Rae. However, even some of the artists on the platform, including DJs and content creators, haven’t uploaded anything. In that sense, Blacktag reminds us of the similarly sparseBlackOakTV. We hope both of these services build up a catalog that matches the power of their pitch.
Extra Features and Technical Issues
Blacktag has a handful of extra features for easier viewing. There are no subtitle options, but many videos have subtitles baked in. You can skip forward or back ten seconds. Some videos should be watched vertically, while others are horizontal, and you can flip orientation whenever you want. Parents can filter out mature videos. Since you watch all these videos on your phone, it’s nice that you can choose to not use mobile data while streaming. However, while you can share videos, you can’t download them for offline viewing, a great perk offered by other streaming video services.
As part of its goal to be a Black art community, not just a streaming platform, Blacktag even lets artists sell products through the app. On an artist’s page, you can check out the Goods tab to see what they have for sale. Unfortunately, I immediately saw someone sellingNFTs, which left a terrible taste in my mouth. I also saw concert tickets for sale. Just as Blacktag's video library lacks content, the user-driven storefront currently lacks a robust product catalog. Perhaps sellers are simply waiting for more customers to arrive.
Continuing the bad news, Blacktag suffers many technical issues. The search function is broken, a big blemish on otherwise excellent UI. Nothing I typed returned results—not even the word “Black.” Video playback was decent over my home Wi-Fi connection (60Mbps download), but it occasionally stuttered. Miraculously, Blacktag worked while using mobileProtonVPNconnected to servers in Japan. Unfortunately, the videos slowed to a crawl. The VPN may have kept me secure, it also kept me from enjoying the show.
Technical issues can be fixed, but Blacktag’s developers also have a lot of hard work ahead of them to pull off their grandiose promises. When it comes to user-generated content, currently the only people who can upload video are Blacktag’s hand-curated creators and brands. You can apply to be a creator via the website, which adds someClubhouse-esque exclusivity to the process. Ultimately, Blacktag needs more creators to fill its content void. .
Meanwhile, the live channel wants you to imagine live concerts and game shows to tune into, and a couple live shows did air a few months ago. However, as of this writing, the only thing on the live schedule for the next week is a looping static image that reads “Culture Lives Here Beautiful and Raw.” It’s a wonderful message, but I don’t want to stare at it for days.
Blacktag Has Potential
Using Blacktag feels like being on the ground floor of an exciting venue for Black art streaming. There’s tension from wondering whether this will blow up into the next big thing or fizzle into an afterthought. Blacktag could honestly go either way; it could fix its significant issues and expand its library or fail and cause early users to lose interest. Hopefully, the Blacktag future is bright. Our Editors' Choice picks for video streaming are still Hulu and Netflix, which have excellent Black entertainment themselves, as well as the free Peacock.
Blacktag presents an ambitious, artistic vision for mobile Black video streaming, but its current reality doesn’t quite reach that lofty aspiration.
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