Experience the Internet through the Ages > Entertainment through the Internet
Entertainment through the Internet
Experience the Internet through the Ages >
“I used to have a hi-fi, a television set, a VCR, and a video game console,” says one Internet Society member. “Now, my phone does all that and more.”
From the very beginning of the Internet, people didn’t just use the network of networks to exchange information. They also used it for entertainment, sharing stories, and playing games.
During the “golden age” of the video arcade, games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders swallowed up the allowances of teenagers around the world.
The home computer and video console revolution took these games out of the arcade and into the bedroom. But even multiplayer mode couldn’t capture the communal experience of the arcade.
The development of online gaming changed this. Now, friends and family could compete against each other wherever they were in the world. You could play against complete strangers and build new networks of like-minded gamers.
Starting with early text-based multiplayer online games–like Multi User Dungeon (MUD) –online gaming became more sophisticated and immersive as Internet speeds increased.
Now, entire worlds exist online, from Minecraft to PUBG and Fortnite . Some of these online worlds have even crossed over into the physical world. In 2016, the augmented reality game Pokémon Go saw people across the globe trying to catch and evolve Pokémon creatures using their mobile devices.
In recent years, live-streaming of video games has become increasingly popular on sites like YouTube and Twitch, with the rise of esports where teams of highly skilled gamers compete against one another.
Gaming has now become a true global spectator sport, with thousands of people attending esports events and watching online. In 2023, Singapore hosted the first Olympic Esports Week and there are calls for esports to be included in the main Games.
Online streaming has also transformed the way we consume and discover other forms of entertainment.
Traditional radio has always been controlled by cultural gatekeepers who decide which tracks get playlisted and which don’t . Music stores have physical limits to what they can stock, space is restricted. Also, music was expensive, and access was limited. The Internet changed all this.
Music downloads and streaming have come a long way since the somewhat shady days of file sharing sites . Despite early resistance, the music industry was unable to ignore the digital revolution and has come to embrace it. Streaming is now the most lucrative recorded music format around the world.
I used to sit in my bedroom with my finger hovering over the record button on my cassette player, waiting for my favorite songs to be played on the radio. I would raid my sister’s record collection to find out about cool bands to impress my friends. But now, nearly every song ever recorded is instantly available at my fingertips. The Internet has opened up a whole new world of music for me.” An Internet Society Member
Streaming broke the traditional format of the “album” into individual tracks. Instead of compiling mixtapes to share with friends, now you can create playlists and share them with the world . Algorithms recommend new tracks based on your listening or viewing habits, allowing people to discover new artists from all over the world and take deep dives into genres they might never have heard before.
The dominance of English as the language of pop music is waning. Of the 35 non-English language songs to reach the top 10 in the Billboard charts, six were in 2023 alone .
Gangnam Style by Psy became the first video to reach a billion views on YouTube and introduced many people around the world to Korean music for the first time. But it was devoted fan bases like the BTS A.R.M.Y. who used social media to turn K-pop into a global phenomenon .
The Internet has also introduced people to films and TV shows from all over the world, opening up new markets. From Squid Game and Money Heist to All of Us Are Dead , more and more people are overcoming the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles to enjoy content from across the globe.
With the window between a movie’s theatrical release and its appearance on streaming services, some people are choosing to wait to watch the latest blockbuster from the comfort of their own homes rather than going to the movie theater.
But the Internet hasn’t stopped people from going to the cinema completely. In some cases, it’s helped boost ticket sales. Online excitement about the same-day release of Barbie and Oppenheimer led to the global Barbenheimer phenomenon. People online made plans to see both films, but in which order? Barbie first or Oppenheimer first? And what to wear, Barbie pink or Oppenheimer black? The phenomenon resulted in record-breaking global box office sales for both movies.
Video streaming services have also impacted how we discover new and old music. When Stranger Things featured the Kate Bush song Running Up That Hill in one episode, the moment went viral with clips being shared on YouTube and TikTok .
Stranger Things viewers– many of whom had never heard the song before –began playing the song. Around the world, the song was propelled into the charts 37 years after it was originally released.
“I couldn’t believe it when I heard my 13-year-old son playing Kate Bush in his bedroom,” the Internet Society member said. “That was one of the records I borrowed from my sister all those years ago.”
More than ever, we are seeing a convergence between different types of entertainment–a blurring not just between genres and cultures but a blurring across time–producing new art forms that could only exist as a result of the Internet.
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The Internet’s Role in the Golden Age of Entertainment
Trevor Wagener · January 23, 2024
For decades, warnings about the dangers of digitization to the entertainment industry have dominated the public narrative. Creators and consumers alike have feared that with the growth of the internet, creativity and diverse expression would give way to a small number of mass-produced cultural products enabled by digital technologies. However, a new report from the CCIA Research Center proves the reality of the internet’s impact on entertainment is just the opposite: the internet and the digital tools it supports have catalyzed a golden age of entertainment, with creators and consumers thriving amid record growth in the music, film, gaming, and publishing sectors.
The CCIA Research Center report, produced in partnership with the Copia Institute, directly refutes the notion that the internet poses a threat to the entertainment industries, with data demonstrating impressive growth in each of four subsectors of the entertainment industry studied. For example, data shows that average annual U.S. consumer expenditure on entertainment has increased by approximately $1,700 since the internet began to become a widespread fixture of the American home and consumer behavior as well as an industry tool.
Data also demonstrates impressive growth in the music industry. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic limiting in-person entertainment like movie theaters and live musical performances in 2020-2021, consumers and creators alike are shown to be thriving within the entertainment economy, with tech-fueled growth expected to continue into 2024 and beyond. Data shows global music revenue to have reached a record-breaking $26.2 billion in 2022, with growth expected to continue. The research also demonstrates that the number of tracks released has boasted a steady and steep incline since 2018, proving that the internet served as a valuable tool and a buoy for the industry while in-person gatherings for live concerts were restricted or limited during the pandemic.
The research paints an exciting picture for the global movie industry, which brought in a record $99.7 billion in revenue in 2021 despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s hit on theater revenues. Data clearly shows that the sky is rising for the broader video industry, with both the number of movies and U.S. scripted TV series released annually reaching new heights in recent years.
The global gaming industry has also seen dramatic growth since the year 2000. In the past five years alone, global video game revenue jumped over $90 billion — an impressive increase nearly entirely facilitated by the internet as a core tenet of the gaming industry. The stark growth in video gamers worldwide since 2015 also serves as an encouraging data point illustrating the internet’s ability to broaden consumer bases with its global reach.
As for the global publishing industry, the internet’s impact has been transformative. Digital tools and services introduced not just new modes of consumption like audiobooks and eBooks, but entirely new products and subsectors of the publishing industry like podcasts. Global book revenues have been boosted significantly by these new digitally-enabled entertainment products.
Despite pessimistic predictions for the internet’s impact on entertainment, the data clearly shows what many of us are observing: the internet is facilitating an entertainment renaissance that gives consumers a wider breadth and more diverse pool of creative content than ever before. Far from bringing about the demise of creativity and the entertainment economy, authors of the new report contend that the internet’s role in the economic growth of the entertainment industry is “the single largest driver of success, not just for those industries but for creativity as a whole.”
In order to empower both creators and consumers of creative content as well as the global economy, policy should support, not impede, digital innovation in entertainment.
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New technologies are constantly emerging that promise to change our lives for the better. These disruptive technologies give us an increase in choice, make technologies more accessible, make things more affordable, and give consumers a voice. And the pace of innovation has only quickened in recent years, as the Internet has enabled a wave of new, inter-connected devices that have benefited consumers around the world, seemingly in all aspects of their lives. Preserving an innovation-friendly market is, therefore, tantamount not only to businesses but society at large.
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Home / Essay Samples / Information Science and Technology / Internet / The Use Of Internet For Entertainment
The Use Of Internet For Entertainment
- Category: Information Science and Technology
- Topic: Internet , World Wide Web
Pages: 3 (1274 words)
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Online video streaming, benefits of online video streaming, major service providers.
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