Media Streaming – Potential Danger to the Consumer?
16April 20, 2015 by Aleksandra Łuczak
Author: Jan Warkocz, Kozminski University
Nowadays the Internet is being used for more and more things. Just 10, 15 years ago, media consumption was based on a physical product that you, as a consumer, owned. Music CD’s, or discs with movies and TV shows on them were prevalent.
A few years ago, all of that changed with the introduction of iTunes. The ability to buy music digitally from Apple was introduced in 2003 and quickly gained popularity. People stopped buying physical discs. They were still the owners of the content and could copy it, listen to it offline etc.
However, a few years ago, this went even further. Services like Netflix (streaming movies and TV shows from the Internet) or Spotify (streaming music) are taking over. Their popularity comes mostly from their ease of use – consumer pays a low monthly fee (usually ranging from $10- $30 a month in the US) and enjoys unlimited access to thousands of songs, movies or TV shows.
It doesn’t come without its flaws, though. No access to the Internet means no access to the content you paid for. If the company goes bankrupt, you no longer have access to any of the media which you preciously paid for (this has already happened with some of the smaller streaming companies). Another con, which is potentially dangerous to the whole industry, is the amount of money these streaming companies pay to the creators of the content. Some artists reported that they are being paid just a few dollars for every 100,000 times people enjoyed their work. Unfortunately, corners have to be cut somewhere to provide attractive prices for the end consumer.
What do you think? Is it a natural progression of the way we enjoy media? Or could it have negative consequences if media streaming is going to be the only way to watch a movie or listen to an album in a few years (outside of going to the cinema or to a concert)?
Have your say!
Category consumer law, film, Internet, media, money, music, streaming | Tags:
I could hazard a guess that traditional CD or DVD discs will soon be replaced by their online versions. Can you remember black boxes called VHS tapes? Well, I can hardly recall what they looked like. Nowadays, people live in a convenient world. You may buy convenience food in a convenience store and pay using your mobile app. How convenient is that? This trend appears in all spheres of our lives including entertainment and media. I wouldn’t say it has many negative consequences. It’s a natural progression, however it will never be as good as a meeting with one’s BFFs at the cinema or a concert.
In my view the change is natural because of few reasons. First, it is the big advantage to the consumer. It enables to listen to the favourite music or watch film you like wherever you are and whenever you want and the cost of it is more affordable. Moreover it is an advantage for a musicians and film makers. The artists can release their albums or movies more freely, because of lower costs. The artists are not so dependent on producer taste, so the market is regulated rather by the consumers taste than one person decision, what is for me a big advantage. This change is also advantageous to the enviroment, because a phicical discs are not produced any more and people are not buying discs to listen to it once and decide that they don’t like it or to watch mocie once. Of course, the online market should be more regulated, so the artists will be paid in accordance to their contribution.
I think that there is no escape from media streaming. Nowadays we are surrounded by the virtual data. Even if the people don’t understand what the cloud really is and how the cloud computing works, they use it anyway. This is the omnipresent trend, which leads us to using streaming services rather than storing files on our computers or keeping hundreds of books or records in our houses.
However, as all these services like Spotify or Netflix grow, we can also see a significant rise in the sales of all the old-fashioned media such as vinyl records for example.
In my opinion, using the streaming services can be positive and often helps us to find the work that we wouldn’t normally hear about. But also there is a possibility that some of these cultural assets will be deleted in not so distant future. We all remember when Amazon erases Orwell’s book from Kindle devices in 2009. Several times I also personally experienced that I wanted to listen to some specific song that was saved on my playlist, but it wasn’t available anymore for some reason. Maybe the artists started to pull out of the deal for the reasons you mentioned in the article?
All in all, I really like using streaming services with music, movies or even books. But if I truly love some content, I go to the store and buy ‘the real thing’ to make sure I can keep it for a long time. I think that this is a healthy balance.
Nowadays people are getting mad every time they hear a pop stars or actors saying about not downloading their work, but paying for it. Our argument is “they already have a lot of money, we don’t, so we can do it”. But is it true? What would happen if internet is going to be the only way to watch a movie or listen to music?
I have some downloaded music and films. Does it make me a thief? According to Intellectual property law – yes. But there’s appears another argument – everyone is doing it.
And I am sure that no matter what we are going to say or do, we can’t stop it. It’s gone to far and it is convenient and (what more important) free.
Summing up I can understand big stars who don’t like it, but I don’t think it is going to change, so they just have to accept it or they would lose their fans.
In my opinion internet has become such necessity as current or water. There is no ability to fully function in modern society without access to internet. Given the fact that people are lazy and the vast majority of people who can afford a ticket to the cinema or buy their favorite artist CD have permanent access to the internet, streaming services are just natural consequence. Why would anyone, who is not a cinema passionate, go to the loud, full of people cinema if they can enjoy same movie in their living room on their comfortable couch without even leaving the house. Given that fact why would any one go to the store to buy DVD or Blu-Ray if they can purchase same product with just a click? The same applies to music, buying or listening to music online is just simpler and quicker than going to the store.
Media streaming is a part of natural progression. People develop new technologies to make life more comfortable, enjoyable but also to be able to do things faster. In XXIst century we can do more things in 1 hour than our ancestors in a week. We are always in a hurry. That is why media streaming is so popular. We do not „waste” our precious time – we do not have to go the shop to buy a cd and wait in a queue, we do not need to install it. What is more we only need one computer or smartphone to enjoy music, movies etc. It is not neccessary to carry around full equipment all the time to f.ex. listen to music whenever and wherever we feel like it. I think we should be glad that we live in times like this when technology can affect us in such a positive way.
Personally speaking, streaming and sharing files, especially those of entertainment, will continue to grow bigger and wider. The convinience of using and public availability makes it so hard to stand against in business. Sharing is even coming out of the internet. Car companies and big dealer houses are even making such offert for cars, next to leasing, which was previous big change in car-selling sector.
The only way such streaming companies would pay fair contributions to the artist should start from the law of monopoly. Big powerhouses and leaders of certain areas should be somehow controlled in their offer towards artists and the way they draft contracts. Even if there exsist some procedures, it’s not enough as we can see.
Future seems to become really cool place, but maybe we should care a bit more about real artist and not about brokers, and go-betweeners.
Well i think that there is one additional reason people like spotify, netflix and others so much. We are lazy. Like really, really lazy. using any of these services do not even require us to move from a couch. Using one remote controle app on my phone I can now run a movie on my TV, order food and pay for it and when movie is over chill out and set some relaxing music. Everyone somtimes just want to do nothing, streaming services just make it easier.
I believe that fast development of media streaming is inevitable. Virtual copies of games, music, movies will finally prevail over traditional, phisycal ones. Most of my friend, including me, started purchasing virtual copies of games on Steam long ago. From my experience I can say that Steam prices are much lower then those in traditional stores like Empik or Saturn. Another adventage of digital distribution is easy access to purchased goods. I don’t have to worry about losing my physical copy, also I do not have to make an effort and go to shop. I believe that access to my digital goods via trustworthy company is more reliable then using a CD. Chance that a company like Valve will go bankrupt is very small, smaller than chance of breaking or loosing a CD with data.
I think that media streaming is a very good way to enjoy music and tvshows. Nowadays when we are living in a constant rush it is a very convenient way to watch your favorite sitcom or listen to some music. Of course it is a threat for music industry and companies selling CDs and DVDs. Those companies will always fight the progress that media streaming brings, but isn’t the costumers opinion the most important one?
In my opinion the services like Spotify, Steam and many others are brilliant! We have the opportunity to watch our favorite movies and listen to music whenever and wherever we want to for small amount of money… I think this is awesome, especially in Poland because some music content or tv-shows are very hard to get. The media streaming is really great option and probably this is the future of the entertainment, but it will never be the “ONLY” option. There will always be some specific group of people that likes collecting CDs, books or DVDs in physical form.
Media streaming has it’s pros and cons. But those cons not always are the fault of the companies. There is a lot of flaws in law, especially in intellectual property law.
But in times when media create ours lives it’s impossible to not use them. Those companies not only pay the authors but also create their own shows. Without them it is possible to watch or listen illegally and therefore nobody is paying the authors.
With January Netflix is available in Poland, a lot of people will still try not to pay for watching films or shows, because that’s carved in our mentality, but because access in Poland is so restricted those companies, even not as developed as in US, are in great spot to expand and try new things.
Progress is unavoidable and evolution of media is normal. There still will be people listening to CD’s, watching DVD’s, because when those thing were new, people still hold to things they knew
I have been using spotify for over a year now and I’m more than satisfied with it. It contain songs that I like , every week I get 30 new songs to check becouse spotify compare songs that i listen to other songs and suggest them as i might like them.
You DO have an access to your playlists without access to the internet as long as you saved them on your phone or other device.
I think it’s a natural progression just like it was with tapes or diskettes and in my opinion it’s great!
Media streaming is one of the natural consequences of world’s developing process. The world is gradually improving every particular area of our lives and things like music or movies on the Internet shouldn’t come as a surprise. In my opinion it has more advantages rather than disadvantages as long as people remember to use it with deliberation. Services such as Netlix and Spotify are a wonderful addition to our lives which is so much more convenient rather than going to the shop and buying CDs or movies on DVDs. These applications also makes us so much easier to be updated to recent music or movies because we can see it online, we do not have to wait until polish media distribute it to our country (which, as we all know, takes a lot of time and it’s released with a big delay comparing to other countries). So it’s a wonderful invention as long as people don’t lose themselves in it completely and don’t use it as a substitute instead of going out with friends.
Certainly, nowadays media streaming makes our lives easier and it’s the natural progression of the way we enjoy media. As we are always in a constant hurry, we have this convenience to watch our favourite sitcom or listen to the music in every place whenever we want to do it. There will always be people who will enjoy going to the cinema or concert and that’s why I think that that media streaming will not become the only way to watch a movie or listen to an album in a few years!
Media streaming is in my opinion an amazing thing. It makes our lifes easier, more comfortable and gives us access to the things that we have never heard of before. In shops it is physically impossible to listen just a little bit of all of the albums and on the internet before purchasing a cd you can listen to a few seconds of every track just to see if you enjoy it. Same goes with movies, we have a huge online library, perfectly organized by genre, actors, length etc. which makes searchig for what we want super easy. I am really glad that technology goes to this direction and I can’t wait to see how it will change in 10 years.