gE Blog Series: Entertainment Part 5 - Future of Entertainment

It is no secret that the entertainment industry is undergoing massive changes (just like any other industry) with the rise of the internet and new technology. In part 2 of our blog series, we talked about how the industry has had a huge increase in pirating. I think there’s no doubt that increase is largely due to the internet making pirating much easier. While that’s one way that increased technology has negatively harmed the industry, there are many positive ways that technology is helping the entertainment industry.

One of the first ways that technology has helped the entertainment industry is with the rise of the digital streaming. While the home theatre is not a new thing by any means, the way content is delivered to it has drastically changed in the last few years. A couple years ago, companies like Blockbuster were thriving off of the home theatre by creating an outlet for people to rent movies for a night instead of having to own the movies to watch them at home. Now, people just subscribe to a service like Netflix and are able to stream the movies they want to watch without ever leaving their home. Needless to say, Blockbuster isn’t doing very well anymore as people enjoy the convenience of Netflix. The sheer convenience of being able to stream a movie or TV show whenever consumers like is a huge driver for change in the industry.

A similar change in the entertainment industry has been the increase in music downloads via the internet. No longer do people go to the music store and buy whole albums of their favorite artists; instead they download their favorite individual songs and create their own playlists. This is placing much more pressure on artists to create good songs as only their good songs will create revenue while their bad songs will simply not be downloaded.

Another huge driver is the rise of the tablet. With tablets like the iPad and the Xoom being purchased by more and more consumers, people are now being able to watch movies on the go in the compact package of a tablet. However, I personally think the tablet is going to significantly change a much older form of entertainment more: reading books. Tablets allow consumers to download books and digitally flip the pages though the book while reading on a tablet. This eliminates the need to have a library to store books after you are done reading them, as all of the books can then be stored on the tablet. The tablet can also be viewed as a mobile multimedia center. Tablets can store music, media, and books and will certainly change the entertainment industry.

In conclusion, the entertainment industry is seeing a movement towards being more consumer-oriented. This makes sense as entertainment is all about providing an experience that the consumer demands and will pay for. Since it appears that consumers are demanding their experiences to be more convenient, the entertainment industry is likely to follow those demands. It will be an interesting next few years for this industry to say the least as it is changing very rapidly.