New Media in Entertainment

New Media in Music
Since the rise of the Internet era, the music industry has drastically changed in terms of how music gets distributed, promoted and exploited. A vast array of music services have started emerging such as music streaming sites, online radio, music libraries and music blogs. These services provide users with the option of listening to their favorite artists, bands and composers through different music platforms.

Music Streaming Websites
Music streaming sites such as Spotify, Grooveshark, and Ubuntu One provide users with on-demand songs that can be played instantaneously without having to download an audio file. This is made possible through packets of data derived from audio files that were compressed to be small enough to be streamed. As long as there is a steady steam of small packets being delivered to the device, music streaming becomes possible. Users can create playlists from the millions of songs available on the site and even share their playlists with others through social media websites. Music streaming services can be accessed through devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones. The advantage of streaming music opposed to downloading music is that streamed music does not take up any hard drive space on devices since music is not downloaded.

Soundcloud is another music streaming site that has gained popularity since its creation in 2007. Soundcloud allows the user to upload their tracks for anyone to stream. The uploader has the option to make their content downloadable or strictly only available for streaming. Soundcloud has a unique commenting system where listeners can pinpoint exact parts of the song to comment to. As the song plays up to the part where the user commented it is displayed for other users to see. Users can also compile playlists by choosing from the vast amount of uploaded songs and they can also favorite the songs. Songs that are favorites become part of your favorites list and can be revisited whenever. Soundcloud also has apps that support smartphones. When streaming on a smartphone Soundcloud automatically saves the stream in it's temporary cache so that it can be listened to even when there is no data coverage.

Online Radio
Online radio companies such as Pandora, iHeartRadio, and iTunes Radio streams music from a specific genre based on the user’s preferences. Users can add genre based stations to their playlist and discover new music through the songs that their station plays. Users can even mix stations together. Songs are chosen for the user based on similar songs that are classified under that specific genre. If the user skips the track, songs that are similar to the skipped track will not play on their station.

Music Libraries
Music libraries such as iTunes and Amazon MP3 are music stores where users can purchase music and upload songs, videos and podcasts to their devices. iTunes and Amazon MP3 is compatible with both OS X and Windows systems. iTunes and Amazon MP3 both feature a media player available to its users to listen to their purchased audio and visual content. Purchased songs and videos that are stored as playlists can be shared and viewed by others with permission from the user. iTunes and Amazon MP3 contain millions of different updated content available for purchasing and downloading.

Music Blogs
Music blogs have been gaining increased popularity in terms of how people are discovering new music. Through music blogs such as Hype Machine, Hype Bot, and Stereo Gum, users can comment, share and discuss new and upcoming artists, read up on music industry news, discover new singles, albums and projects. There is a music blog for every genre of music, some more popular than others. Blogs dedicated to Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock and Country music are the most viewed. Blogs give Indie artists and aspiring artists the opportunity to display their talent and gain feedback on their music pieces. This is especially helpful since they do not have the resources to promote their music and music blogs can act as their main source of free distribution to the public. Popular artists such as Justin Bieber, Sean Kingston, and Colbie Caillat were discovered through the Internet.

Lyric Annotation Websites
Lyric annotation and interpretation websites are used to search lyrics of songs where interpretations through primary and secondary sources and user-generated content are available for users to read. One of the most well known lyric annotation sites is Rap Genius. Users can read annotations of lyrics line by line by clicking on the line of the lyrics that someone has interpreted. Interpretations can include direct quotes from artists about a specific line in their song or from what users believe is the meaning behind each line. The website works like a Wiki page, where users can contribute by editing already existing annotations, create new annotations and suggest changes that should be made. The more annotations and interpretations a user offers, the more points he or she will receive. The points are an indication of how many annotations the user has contributed to the website. Rap Genius offers more than just lyric annotation services it also features a blog where users can discover new music, interpretations of music videos, maps that pinpoint the exact locations that artists talk about in their lyrics and various podcasts are available for members to listen to. Certified accounts are available for well known artists such as Nas, who frequently writes annotations for his own lyrics as well as the lyrics for other artists.

New Media in Video
Before New Media, movies and music videos were something to be watched on either TV or at cinemas. With the rising popularity of personal computers, DVD's came along, and with the rise of the internet, video has transformed into a type of media that can be created and easily distributed by anyone. The "flea market" DIY atmosphere that came along with New Media has had an encompassing effect on video.

Video Streaming Websites


Video Streaming sites such as Vimeo and Youtube provide users with free on-demand videos in various lengths and character (from whole films to popular music videos or ameture videos) without having to download a large video file. In addition, Youtube users can create personal profiles and upload their own videos to their channels, and choose whether to make those videos available to all other Youtube users. Some TV channels, such as Channel 4 offer feature show related video clips on their website including episode previews and video interviews with cast members. Hulu is a website and over-the-top (OTT) subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, TBS, and many other networks and studios. Netflix offers Internet video streaming ("Watch Instantly") of selected titles to computers running Windows or Mac OS X and to compatible devices for a monthly subscription fee. According to a 2013 report by Sandvine, Netflix is the biggest source of North American downstream web traffic, at 32.3%, and registered 28.8% of aggregate traffic. In addition, there's a variety of pirate websites offering free streaming of a large variety of popular as well as "indie" films and shows.

Video Downloading on the Web


Anything from small to huge sized video files can be shared (downloaded and uploaded) on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks such as eMule and Torrent.

A P2P network is a type of decentralized and distributed network architecture in which individual nodes in the network (called "peers") act as both suppliers and consumers of resources, in contrast to the centralized client–server model where client nodes request access to resources provided by central servers. In a peer-to-peer network, tasks (such as searching for files or streaming audio/video) are shared amongst multiple interconnected peers who each make a portion of their resources (such as processing power, disk storage or network bandwidth) directly available to other network participants, without the need for centralized coordination by servers.

BitTorrent lets users quickly upload and download enormous amounts of data, files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than a single MP3. Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent, showed his code to the world at a hacker conference in 2002, as a free, open source project aimed at geeks who need a cheap way to swap Linux software online. But the real audience turned out to be TV and movie fanatics. It takes hours to download a ripped episode of Alias or Monk off Kazaa, but BitTorrent can do it in minutes.

Legal Issues
In November, the Motion Picture Association of America began suing downloaders of movies, in order to, as the MPAA's antipiracy chief John Malcolm put it, "avoid the fate of the music industry."