Digital content

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Binary code represents text or computer processor instructions that create digital content. Digital evidence.jpg
Binary code represents text or computer processor instructions that create digital content.

Digital content is any content that exists in the form of digital data. Digital content is stored on digital media or analog storage in specific formats. Forms of digital content include information that is digitally broadcast, streamed, or contained in computer files. Viewed narrowly, digital content includes popular media types, while a broader approach considers any type of digital information (e. g. digitally updated weather forecasts, GPS maps, and so on) as digital content.

Contents

Digital content has increased as more households have accessed the Internet. Expanded access has made it easier for people to receive their news and watch TV online, challenging the popularity of traditional platforms. Increased access to the Internet has also led to the mass publication of digital content through individuals in the form of eBooks, blog posts, and even Facebook posts. [1] [2]

History

At the beginning of the Digital Revolution, computers facilitated the discovery, retrieval, and creation of new information in every field of human knowledge. As information became increasingly more accessible, the Digital Revolution also facilitated the creation of digital content. [3] Despite an evolution to digital technology, which occurred somewhere between the late 1970s, distribution of digital content did not begin until the late 1990s with the rise in popularity of the Internet. [4] [5]

In the past, digital content was primarily distributed through computers and the Internet. Methods of distribution are rapidly changing as the Digital Revolution brings new channels, such as mobile apps and eBooks. These new technologies will create challenges for content creators, as they determine the best channel to bring content to their consumers.

Despite the benefits, new technologies have created new intellectual property issues. Users can easily share, modify, and redistribute content outside of the creator's control. While new technologies have made digital content available to large audiences, managing copyright and limiting content movement will continue to be an issue that digital content creators face in the future.

Types of digital content

Examples include: [1] [3] [6]

In order to have access to more premium digital goods, consumers usually have to pay an upfront charge for digital content, or a subscription based fee.

According to a report done by IHS Inc. in 2013, the global consumer spending on digital content grew to over $57 billion in 2013, which was up almost 30% from $44 billion in 2012. In past years, the US has always been a leader in consumer expenditure on digital content, but as of 2013, many countries have emerged with great consumer expenditure. South Korea's overall digital spend per capita is now greater than the US. [8]

Non-purchasable digital content

Not all digital content is purchasable, and is simply anything published digitally. This would include: [9]

Business implications

Digital companies

Digital content businesses can include news, information, and entertainment distributed over the Internet and consumed digitally by both consumers and businesses. Based on revenue, the leading digital businesses are ranked Google, China Mobile, Bloomberg, Reed Elsevier, and Apple. The 50 companies with the highest revenue are split between those offering free and paid digital content, but these top 50 companies combined generate revenue of $150 billion. [12]

Educational Opportunities Programs such as CUNY's Macaulay Honors College in their New Media Lab run by industry professional Robert Small is set up to train and introduce students to the various disciplines within the digital content industry. The goal is to offer information and access to professional work opportunities. They also explore within an incubator how to create businesses and start ups within the world of digital content. There are many educational events in support of choosing digital content as a career.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Mass media includes the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streaming media</span> Multimedia delivery method

Streaming media is multimedia for playback using an offline or online media player. Technically, the stream is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner by a client, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. Streaming refers to the delivery method of content rather than the content itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital media</span> Any media that are encoded in machine-readable formats

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Technological convergence is the tendency for technologies that were originally unrelated to become more closely integrated and even unified as they develop and advance. For example, watches, telephones, television, computers, and social media platforms began as separate and mostly unrelated technologies, but have converged in many ways into an interrelated telecommunication, media, and technology industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Playlist</span> Curated list of video or audio files

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Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. Online advertising includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, many types of display advertising, and mobile advertising. Advertisements are increasingly being delivered via automated software systems operating across multiple websites, media services and platforms, known as programmatic advertising.

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Mobile content is any type of web hypertext and information content and electronic media which is viewed or used on mobile phones, like text, sound, ringtones, graphics, flash, discount offers, mobile games, movies, and GPS navigation. As mobile phone use has grown since the mid-1990s, the usage and significance of the mobile devices in everyday technological life has grown accordingly. Owners of mobile phones can now use their devices to make photo snapshots for upload, twits, mobile calendar appointments, and mostly send and receive text messages, listen to music, watch videos, take mobile pictures and make videos, use websites to redeem coupons for purchases, view and edit office documents, get driving instructions on mobile maps and so on. The use of mobile content in various areas has grown accordingly.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile social network</span> Social networking on mobile devices

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital marketing</span> Marketing of products or services using digital technologies or digital tools

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Streaming data is data that is continuously generated by different sources. Such data should be processed incrementally using stream processing techniques without having access to all of the data. In addition, it should be considered that concept drift may happen in the data which means that the properties of the stream may change over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Content marketing</span> Form of marketing focused on creating content for a targeted audience online

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social media marketing</span> Promotion of products or services on social media

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers.

A music streaming service is a type of streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to stream digital copyright restricted songs on-demand from a centralized library provided by the service. Some services may offer free tiers with limitations, such as advertising and limits on use. They typically incorporate a recommender system to help users discover other songs they may enjoy based on their listening history and other factors, as well as the ability to create and share public playlists with other users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music piracy</span> Copying and distribution of music without the consent of creators or copyright holders

Music piracy is the copying and distributing of recordings of a piece of music for which the rights owners did not give consent. In the contemporary legal environment, it is a form of copyright infringement, which may be either a civil wrong or a crime depending on jurisdiction. The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw much controversy over the ethics of redistributing media content, how much production and distribution companies in the media were losing, and the very scope of what ought to be considered piracy – and cases involving the piracy of music were among the most frequently discussed in the debate.

An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content via the hosting service's website, mobile or desktop application, or other interfaces (API), and typically provides embed codes or links that allow others to view the video content.

MyMusic.com.ng is a commercial music download service that aims to provide a legitimate means of digital distribution of Nigerian music. It was founded by three Babcock University alumni; Damola Taiwo, Tola Ogunsola and Dolapo Taiwo.

References

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  2. "Digital Content Demand Rising as More Americans Use Mobile Media Devices". Brafton. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Manning, Patrick. "Digital World History: An Agenda". University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  4. digitaldownloader. "The History of Digital Distribution" . Retrieved February 24, 2014.
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  6. Villasenor, John (1 May 2013). "Six 'Megatrends' That Will Shape The Future Of Digital Media". Forbes Magazine.
  7. Result Driven SEO Link Building - Agency for SaaS & E-commerce
  8. Russo, Amanda. "Global Digital Content Spend Rockets to $57 Billion in 2013, App Annie & IHS 2013 Digital Content Report". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 14 March 2014.[ permanent dead link ]
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  11. "The growth of digital advertising and branded content is gaining pace". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
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