Streaming across industries
Streaming logics and streaming lore across the music, fi lm, television, and book industries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v37i70.122425Keywords:
Cross-industries; elite interviews; media industries; media management; platform studies; streaming; working notions., Cross-industries, cultural industries, elite interviews, industry logics, media industries, streaming, streaming loreAbstract
This article explores streaming across the cultural industries, drawing on 39 interviews with CEO/top-level industry executives working in the Norwegian music, film, television, and book industries. We examine two broad questions: What do
key industry players see as the main opportunities and challenges of streaming?
To what extent do industry players compare with and learn from other industries when making sense of, and seeking solutions to, the main challenges? Drawing on theories of media industry logics and industry lore, the article identifi es a collective understanding of turmoil and uncertainty. While informants across industries form
similar notions about the impact of streaming and emphasise the need to learn from other industries, solutions to challenges are typically sought within industryspecific frames. Our findings suggest that even if streaming is a cross-industrial trend, strategies are based on industry-specific logics and notions.
References
Ang, I. (1991). Desperately Seeking the Audience. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203321454
Beckert, J. (2016). Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674545878
Bruun, H. (2016). Th e Qualitative Interview in Media Production Studies. Paterson, C., Lee, D., Saha, A. & Zoellner, A. (Eds.), Advancing Media Production Research. Shifting Sites, Methods, and Politics (pp. 131-146). London: Palgrave MacMillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137541949_9
Bruun, H. (2020). Re-Scheduling Television in the Digital Era. London: Routledge.
Burroughs, B. (2019). House of Netfl ix: Streaming media and digital lore. Popular Communication, 17(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2017.1343948
Caldwell, J.T. (2008). Production Culture. Industrial Refl exivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11sn72d
Caves, R.E. (2002). Creative Industries. Contracts Between Art and Commerce. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Colbjørnsen, T. (2015). The accidental avant-garde: Audiobook technologies and publishing strategies from cassette tapes to online streaming services. Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook, 13(1), 83-103. https://doi.org/10.1386/nl.13.1.83_1
Colbjørnsen, T. (2020). Th e streaming network conceptualising distribution economy, technology and power in streaming media services. Convergence, Online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856520966911
Colbjørnsen, T., Hui, A. & Solstad, B. (2021). What do you pay for all you can eat? Pricing practices and strategies in streaming media services. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Colbjørnsen, T., Tallerås, K & Øfsti, M. (2020). Contingent availability: A case-based approach to understanding availability in streaming services and cultural policy implications. International Journal of Cultural Policy, Online fi rst. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2020.1860030
Cunningham, S. & Silver, J. (2013). Screen Distribution and the New King Kongs of the Online World. London: Palgrave Pivot. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137326454
D’Arma, A., Raats, T. & Steemers, J. (2021). Public service media in the age of SVoDs: A comparative study of PSM strategic responses in Flanders, Italy and the UK. Media Culture & Society, Online first.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720972909
Davidson, P., Bulger, M. & Madden, M. (2020). Navigating Youth Media Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities for Public Media. New York: Joan Ganz Cooney Centre at Sesame Workshop.
Enli, G. & Syvertsen, T. (2016). Th e end of television—again! How TV is still infl uenced by cultural factors in the age of digital intermediaries. Media and Communication, 4(3), 142-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/mac.v4i3.54t
Evens, T. & Donders, K. (2018). Platform Power and Policy in Transforming Television Markets. London: Palgrave MacMillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74246-5
Fagerjord, A. & Kueng, L. (2019). Mapping the core actors and fl ows in streaming video services: what Netflix can tell us about these new media networks. Journal of Media Business Studies, 16(3), 166-181. https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2019.1684717
Grainge, P. & Johnson, C. (2015). Promotional Screen Industries. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315718682
Hagen, A.N. (2015). Using music streaming services: Practices, experiences and the lifeworld of musicking. Ph.D. thesis, University of Oslo.
Have, I. & Pedersen, B.S. (2020). Th e audiobook circuit in digital publishing: Voicing the silent revolution.
New Media & Society, 22(3), 409-428. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819863407
Havens, T. (2008). Th e Evolution of Industry Lore in African American Television Trade. Montreal, QC: International Communication Association.
Havens, T. & Lotz, A.D. (2012). Understanding Media Industries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Havens, T., Lotz, A.D. & Tinic, S. (2009). Critical media industry studies: A research approach. Communication, Culture & Critique, 2, 234-253. doi:10.1111/j.1753-9137.2009.01037.x
Herbert, D., Lotz, A.D. & Punathambekar, A. (2020). Media Industry Studies. Cambridge: Polity.
Herbert, D., Lotz, A.D. & Marshall, L. (2019). Approaching media industries comparatively: A case study of streaming. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(3), 349-366. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877918813245
Hesmondhalgh, D. (2019). The Cultural Industries. London: Sage Publication.
Johnson, C. (2019). Online TV. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315396828
Kiberg, H. (2020). Personaliserte anbefalinger og musikalsk mangfold – en umulig kombinasjon? Norsk medietidsskrift, 107(3), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN.0805-9535-2020-03-03
Kjus, Y. (2018). Live and Recorded: Music Experience in the Digital Millennium. London: Palgrave MacMillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70368-8
Kjus, Y. (2019). Th e use of copyright in digital times. A study of how artists exercise their rights in Norway. Popular Music and Society, Online fi rst. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2019.1698206
Kompare, D. (2006). Publishing Flow. DVD Box Sets and the Reconception of Television. Television & New Media, 7(4), 335-360. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476404270609
Lobato, R. (2019). Netfl ix Nations. Th e Geography of Digital Distribution. New York: New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz050
Lotz, A.D. (2017). Portals: A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television. Michigan: Maize Books. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9699689
Lüders, M. (2019). Pushing music: People’s continued will to archive versus Spotify’s will to make them explore. European Journal of Cultural Studies, Online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549419862943
Lüders, M., Sundet, V.S. & Colbjørnsen, T. (2021). Towards streaming as a dominant mode of media use? A user typology approach to music and television streaming. Nordicom Review, 42(1), 35-57.
https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0011
Maasø, A. & Hagen, A. (2019). Metrics and decision-making in music streaming. Popular Communication, 18(1), 18-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2019.1701675
Miège, B. (1989). Th e Capitalization of Cultural Production. New York: International General.
Moseng, J.S. (2017). Th e Film and Television Industries in Norway. Bakøy, E., Puijk P. & Spicer, A. (Eds.) Building Successful and Sustainable Film and Television Businesses (pp. 21-45). Bristol: Intellect.
Nordgård, D. (2016). Lessons from the world’s most advanced market for music streaming services. Wikström, P. & DeFillippi, R. (Eds.) Business Innovation and Disruption in the Music Industry (pp. 175-190). London: Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781783478156.00017
Plantin, J-C. & Punathambekar, A. (2019). Digital media infrastructures: Pipes, platforms, and politics. Media, Culture & Society, 41(2), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818376
Read, D. & Grushka-Cockayne, Y. (2010). Th e similarity heuristic. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 24(1), 23-46. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.679
Spilker, H.S. (2018). Digital Music Distribution: Th e Sociology of Online Music Streams. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315561639
Spilker, H.S. & Colbjørnsen, T. (2020). Th e dimensions of streaming: Towards a typology of an evolving concept. Media, Culture & Society, 42(7-8), 1210-1225. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720904587
Sundet, V.S. (2021). Television Drama in the Age of Streaming. Transnational Strategies and Digital Production Cultures at the NRK. London: Palgrave Pivot. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66418-3
Sundet, V.S. & Ytreberg, E. (2009). Working notions of active audiences: Further research on the active participant in convergent media industries. Convergence, 15(4), 383-90. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856509342339
Tattersall Wallin, E. & Nolin, J. (2020). Time to read: Exploring the timespaces of subscription-based audiobooks. New Media & Society, 22(3), 470-88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819864691
Thompson, J.B. (2010). Merchants of Culture: Th e Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Polity Press
Tryon, C. (2015). TV got better: Netfl ix’s original programming strategies and binge viewing. Media Industries Journal, 2(2), 104-116. https://doi.org/10.3998/mij.15031809.0002.206
Van Dijck, J., Poell, T. & de Waal, M. (2018). Th e Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190889760.001.0001
Vonderau, P. (2017). Th e Spotify eff ect: Digital distribution and fi nancial growth. Television & New Media, 20(1), 3-19. https:// doi.org/10.1177/1527476417741200
Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in Organizations. London: Sage.
Wikström, P. (2013). Th e Music Industry. Digital Media and Society Series. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright Author and Journal.
Articles published after January 1 2024 are licensed under CCBY 4.0.
Articles published until December 31 2023 are licensed under CCBYNCND.
Articles submitted to MedieKultur should not be submitted to or published in other journals.