As
a society, we consume streamed videos constantly. The song “Gangnam Style” by Psy
has received almost 360 million views on YouTube since its upload date on July
15, 2012. But how is it possible to
watch this video so conveniently without having to wait minutes for it to
load? The answer is that the video is
streamed to your device. According to this
article, whenever a video is streamed, the user clicks the file he/she
would like to view and the web server sends a message to the media server
requesting the specific file. The media
server turns the video into the correct format for your computer by encoding
it. The media server then sends the
video to the device being used which then decodes the file so that the user can
consume it. The stream is sent to the device
being used to watch the stream which has a decoder to display the encoded video
for the user. However, a full version of
the file never exists on your device when you stream because the device gets
rid of the data as it is consumed unless the data is downloaded.
Streaming Video on
YouTube has Become the Go-To for the Music Industry
According
to YouTube facts, as
of February in 2011, YouTube users consumed an estimated 92 billion page views
each month. These page views are
translated into revenues for certain industries however music is definitely one
of the industries affected most by YouTube.
Musical artists such as, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lady Gaga, and
Eminem (who has two of the top ten most watched videos on YouTube) have
benefitted in many ways from YouTube. The
most popular bands and artists all have very popular music videos with many
views showing a definite association between the two. Even small time bands have been gaining major
popularity because of views on their streaming online videos. The music industry cannot thrive on the views
of music videos on television anymore because it is less convenient than using
a mobile device.
The Music Industry
Uses Streaming Video to Gain Popularity
One
of the most important uses of video streaming today is to gain as many views as
possible. In the music industry,
popularity equals money. If a band is on
top of the Billboard 100 then they are getting their music involved with
everything such as, commercials, movies, television shows and more. All of these opportunities bring in a unique
opportunity to gain a lot of revenue but the song or album has to get popular
before it can transform from raw music to cold hard cash. An artist is going to have to get their song
out there and one of the most popular ways to do that now is through a music
video. This
article states that television shows like MTV have dropped in the ratings
by double digits and are relying on old shows such as “Jersey Shore” to keep up
the ratings. Music Television is not
even relying on music videos to keep up their views because people are not
watching MTV anymore because of the convenience of streaming them on the
internet. If an artist wants to gain
popularity through music videos then the way to go is through the internet and
streaming.
Major Success Stories
from Music Video Streaming (Journey)
Streaming Videos is
the Way for Musical Artists to Spread Music
Overall,
the music industry needs video streaming in order to keep music videos
relevant. It is often that people gain
an enormous amount of popularity through a music video found on the internet, another
story is about a woman who goes by Birdy and covered Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love”. Streaming videos has become an integral part
of the music industries focus on marketing artists and it also plays a large
role in unsigned artists trying to gain popularity. Streaming videos affects many different
industries and the music industry is definitely one of them.
