The transition from Vinyls, CDs and DVDS to a Streaming world
Introduction
The technology of streaming music and movies commenced in the 1990s, and has revolutionised and kept up to date with technological advancements to this day. Through starting to download music online and using television boxes to watch movies comfortably from home, one slowly moved away from the use of CDs and DVDs. Internet advancements and technological discoveries throughout the second half of the 20th c, were a big part of this change. As shown by the foundation of Youtube in 2005, which allowed people around the world to connect through videos uploaded and shared onto the network. This made everything much more accessible through an online public platform. This was both a digital base for the music industry and the first signs of the business to rent or buy movies.
Rise of Vinyls, back again
On another note, the market of vinyls has risen in the past year. This is because records are a nostalgic memory. We now live in a digital age and in my opinion it can sometimes create oppression and alienation, so often people like to recall past traditions. Vinyls have always been a big hit in the music industry for true music lovers. In 2019 the UK market had a 4.1% increase from 2018. “Vinyl albums now account for one in every 8 albums purchased in the UK across digital and physical formats’’ , with Liam Gallager’s ‘Why Me? Why Not’ album was the top selling.
Growth of Online industry
However, in 2018 the UK witnessed a CDs sales drop of 23%. This is principally due to the growth of new digital platforms accessing music on devices, like Spotify. Furthermore in America the decline was 80% in the last decade.The rise of online streaming, instead of buying CDs and records, was also because it was an easier way to access our music libraries digitally. This happened with the movies streaming too. However Netflix films are often presented cropped, rather than the original director’s choice of shooting. Having everything available online is convenient, but lacks the excitement of going to Blockbusters or a record/CD store to choose spontaneously.
Green, Greener, Greenest
During the 21st century growth of worries facing Climate Change, we also question this in this sector. CDs and Vinyls are a physical material that uses different resources, and while this could obviously seem like an immediate issue for the planet, online streaming and downloading is also extremely polluting. They now make non-recyclable Vinyl discs rather than environment-friendly shellac, but are often never thrown away. CDs and DVDs, which are made of polycarbonate and aluminium, supposedly better for the environment, often still end up in landfills when they are of no use. Furthermore the advanced digital world of music and movie streaming is amazing, yet a massive energy-consumer.
Solutions
Despite the environmental downfalls in the making of CDs/vinyls/DVDs, it shouldn’t necessarily stop you from buying it. If everything is consumed in moderation, one is automatically being more careful. Especially in our digitalised world, one likes to take breaks by listening or watching something. However one should be cautious of it’s afterlife. Most places that produce vinyls, will shred them and create new ones. However, compared to other plastics, vinyl material can be broken down better. This doesn’t save the fact that the PVC they use with records is predominantly composed of poisonous chlorine gas, therefore recyclers often refuse to melt and reuse them .
Online streaming increase
Nowadays Netflix and Amazon prime-video are two of the biggest industries for streaming. From a 2020 research Netflix creation disrupted the TV and cable industry in America with a decrease of cable-tv of 21.9 million American households. Netflix started peaking even more in 2010, with the launch of the app for I-phones and I-pods. The audience for both has grown extremely during Covid-19 lockdown. Only in April, Netflix reached 15.8 million new subscribers and they gained 709 million dollars, which doubled since 2019. This was emphasised by the creation of a larger variety of original Netflix produced tv-programmes. Cable industry also increased during the pandemic with the launch of new packages in America.
A digitalised world
This digital world is only growing and creating new innovations to connect us all even further; with an endless growing society estimated that we will be 9.7 billion people by 2050. However this is having an effect on the planet as well as generating an increase of online surveillance. Screens have become a more essential part of human life, connecting all of us digitally from anywhere at any time. Picking out the online streaming sector of the digital network is only one of many.
Control of our engagement
Our engagement online is tracked, therefore our streaming too. Platforms are doing this directly or indirectly, and this is creating a profile of each one of us as well as overflowing the online content. Through the use of streaming music and movies they can track our taste, therefore know exactly how the consumer’s market works. How do we feel about this?
However this has also had a positive impact through allowing us to share information quickly, but it all depends on the use of these digital platforms. We should take control of our actions online and do it in a moderate way, rather than excessively. Furthermore we need to respect each-other online as we don’t know how sensitive the receiver is through a screen.
Consumer Society
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has made a drastic change with the way we consume media. This has largely been contributed by the growth of streaming technology and OTT Internet. As the Euromonitor International’s Lifestyle Survey reported in 2019 that 72% of global consumers use a mobile phone to watch TV weekly. The digital consumer nowadays has high expectations of the quality of service, which technology lives up to continuously pleasing the consumer. Furthermore it is so easy to be influenced by others online now, with rapidly changing trends. Streaming commenced with the music industry, allowing an instant access to songs. Whereas movies and televisions are in the second wave of online streaming, increasing everyday.
Rounding up
To sum up I think the music and film industry have had its ups and downs overall, as they both follow consumer trends which are continuously changing. Moreover they are two of the most important sectors online thanks to all generations ongoing interest in relaxing with a song or a movie. The online platforms are always being upgraded led by the rise of nearly 60 percent of the global population connected through the internet. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, statistics show that streaming has been growing even more this year, due to the global lockdowns.
