Membership Site Video Hosting
Selling exclusive video to paying members? You need encryption, per-member access, and a way to identify leakers if exclusive content shows up publicly.
What you get
- AES-128 multi-key encryption on every segment
- Per-session embed tokens issued via REST API after your member auth check
- Per-member dynamic watermark (Enterprise) — leaker identification at glance
- Domain whitelist — iframe only renders on your membership site domain
- Predictable bill — flat $100/month per 5 TB, traffic spikes don’t hurt
The underlying tech: encrypted video streaming + custom embed player.
The membership site stack
- Member auth in your application (Stripe + your DB, or Memberstack, Outseta, etc.)
- Content gate that checks membership before showing pages
- Video host that delivers encrypted streams only to authenticated members
AVCaption is the third layer. Plug it in via iframe + REST API embed token generation.
Setup in 4 steps
- Configure domain whitelist for your membership site domain.
- Upload member-only videos to AVCaption.
- Wire your auth check to the embed-token REST endpoint — mint a 1-hour token per session.
- Render the iframe with the fresh token; refresh on expiry.
Per-session embed tokens
For high-value membership content, generate fresh embed tokens per authenticated session:
- Member logs in to your site.
- Your application generates a 1-hour embed token via AVCaption REST API.
- Iframe renders with that token.
- Token expires; if member refreshes, your app generates a new one.
If a member copies the iframe URL and shares it with a non-member, the token expires within an hour — useless for redistribution.
Per-member dynamic watermark
Enterprise tier renders the member’s email into the video stream. If a paid-tier-only video shows up on YouTube or a piracy site, you screenshot a frame and the watermark tells you exactly which member leaked.
This works because membership sites are small enough that members are individually identifiable. (At YouTube scale this doesn’t scale, but for a 1,000-member site, it’s perfect.)
Domain whitelisting
The iframe only loads on your membership site domain. Anyone scraping your iframe URL and pasting it on another site gets a 403.
Common stacks
Stack A — Custom built: Stripe + your DB + AVCaption REST API. Maximum control, more dev work.
Stack B — Memberstack/Outseta: Use their member auth, generate AVCaption tokens via their webhooks. Faster to ship.
Stack C — Substack/Beehiiv with paid newsletter video: Paid post HTML accepts iframe embed; restrict via domain whitelist. Lowest dev work.
Why this beats Patreon’s hosted video
Patreon’s hosted video has 200MB upload limit, no encryption, no domain restriction, no watermark. For exclusive content, members can right-click-save the video. For a real paid-content business, host the video properly. Closely related: digital products for one-off paid downloads, and online courses for structured curricula.
Get started
Premium handles a typical paid-membership catalog at flat cost — most membership sites under 1,000 members never approach the 5 TB tier. Enterprise adds signed URLs for time-limited access drops (think monthly bonus content that expires in 30 days) plus the per-member watermark for high-trust gated content.
Spin up a free account, upload one members-only video, and test the iframe + token flow against your real auth check before wiring the full catalog.