The digitization of media has revolutionized the entertainment industry over the past couple of decades. In these last few years, however, is when the change truly occurred. The advent of the smartphone, social media, streaming services like Spectrum tv service, and the string of inventions that followed have permanently altered the landscape of the entertainment industry. It has changed how artists interact with their fans, studios design marketing campaigns, and consumers engage with content.
What Is the Entertainment Industry?
The entertainment industry is constituted by all forms of media consumed for the purpose of entertainment, such as film, radio, television, and print. The industry is divided into categories based on the modes of entertainment, i.e. shows, movies, newspapers, books, magazines, and music. Read on to get more insight into how each of the following components of the entertainment industry is impacted by social media:
How Does Social Media Affect the Following Branches of the Industry?
Due to digital media, TV shows and movies have come to terms with the on-demand nature of new electronic device models, delivering content that aligns with its needs. Today, even newspapers, magazines, and other forms of print media are digitally distributed through their social media pages. Social media has developed into a network that homogenizes all forms of media and media consumption and entertainment.
Film and TV:
Film marketing is a task that calls for massive budget allocation. The advent of social media has, however, allowed film studios to advertise their movies freely, across social media outlets. This shift to organic and social media-based marketing has made for a very budget-friendly change in marketing dynamics, as this means everybody, starting from the director and actors to the crew members, is in on the marketing campaign and part of the promotional strategy.
Consequently, social media has normalized and facilitated the use of streaming services. Today, ‘Netflix and chill’ has been stylized into a pop culture reference through social media. Additionally, social media sites like Teleparty integrate both models (streaming and social media), by allowing people to chat whilst streaming shows and films.
Music:
Today, artists can use social media to engage with their fans and amplify their online presence. The implementation of social media marketing has branded artists, who on top of producing music, now have a brand to represent to their fans. This is defined by their social media presence.
Artists use different kinds of social media to fit this brand persona. For instance, if an artist wants to appear approachable or well-connected with their fanbase, they would be very active on Twitter and might even do live streams on Instagram, Twitch, or the likes. Social media humanizes artists and that is what can be branded and profited upon. Moreover, their social media pages also become their biggest advertising medium, where they can post teasers, promos, and album art before dropping new releases.
Radio:
When social media first emerged, nobody might have thought radio would be a medium that would survive and actually adapt to the new form of media distribution. However, it has come a long way. The traditional medium has now evolved into podcasts and audiobooks, which are distributed through different social media channels.
Today, podcasting has become a popular feature in the entertainment industry, such, that there are many people who are famous for being podcasters. There are websites and subscription-based services that are specifically designed for the distribution of podcasts. Additionally, audiobooks are becoming increasingly fashionable as they are more compatible with our fast-paced lifestyles than traditional books.
Print:
Print media is another channel that was forecasted to potentially become obsolete due to social media. Instead, it has adapted to the change most efficiently. Nearly all magazines and newspaper distributors now have online editions by the name of e-newspapers and e-magazines.
In addition to having websites, e-newspapers, and e-magazines are also distributed on social media. Most newscasting pages post headlines on Instagram, attaching the links to their e-newspapers in their account bios.
Gaming:
Gaming is another aspect of entertainment that has been optimized by social media. Game production companies, like movie producers and artists, use Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and the like to promote their video games and generate hype before they are released. In fact, social media has also increased game-related discourse as apps like Reddit are popularly known as platforms for game-related discussions.
Moreover, gameplay videos and live streams have become another huge development in gaming trends, such that today, many people are full-time gaming YouTubers. Additionally, a large chunk of the population that uses the streaming platform Twitch are gamers, who have millions of viewers across the world.
Moreover, social media has also helped augment and create gaming virtual universes where people can socialize and play, such as the Metaverse. These games are immersive and can be considered new-age forms of social media.
