Modern entertainment has seen an enormous shift in the last few years as progressively larger audiences are looking to streaming for their TV, Film and Music fixes. Applications and resources such as Spotify and iTunes have taken a lot away from the physical music market; so much so that the sales charts have been forced into amending the way they categorise music.
Far short of the CD player in your car; people have little need for physical copies of their favourite songs and albums thanks to the wondrous accessibility of the likes of Spotify. For a fee, or free with advertising, Spotify allows the listener to stream any song within its expansive library and download them for offline play if the listener so desires.
However, it isn’t just music that has been affected by the shift towards streaming over live broadcasting and physical sales as television/film services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, are changing the way we view shows and movies with their on demand, instant access service.
Naturally, a fee is involved when viewers wish to use the services but it is far less per month than attempting to purchase the content physically. £6.99 a month for a basic Netflix subscription allows the user to view everything within the regularly updated library of content where £6.99 wouldn’t even buy half of a newly released DVD.
In addition to streaming dominating the Audio Visual markets; live streaming has arrived for the online gambling community via desktop and mobile devices. Players can now enjoy a complete live casino experience or a softer form of gambling with their favourite real money bingo games from the comfort of their own home – players have never been closer to the online action.
Within the gaming sector, online gaming has taken the console world by storm too as the modern crop of gaming devices (Xbox One and PS4) have online community and real-time gameplay features integrated into their systems. Players can play against one another, as before, but can also make use of new platforms for discussion.
Twitch is a live broadcasting platform which allows players to interact and share real-time gaming tips. Players broadcast footage of their in-play experiences to show successes, hilarious fails or sound advice to those who may be struggling with particular aspects of the games themselves.
The future of live streaming will no doubt be a domain that is run and stocked by user-generated content. Think of it as an entertainment hub run by those who have garnered fame through YouTube but on a live spectrum.
As the old adage claims; the customer is always right and the customer clearly wants live streaming; let them eat cake I say!
