Streaming media
[10] In the early 1920s, George Owen Squier was granted patents for a system for the transmission and distribution of signals over electrical lines,[11] which was the technical basis for what later became Muzak, a technology for streaming continuous music to commercial customers without the use of radio.
However, little progress was made for several decades, primarily due to the high cost and limited capabilities of computer hardware.
In 1990, the first commercial Ethernet switch was introduced by Kalpana, which enabled the more powerful computer networks that led to the first streaming video solutions used by schools and corporations.
On 24 June 1993, the band was playing a gig at Xerox PARC, while elsewhere in the building, scientists were discussing new technology (the Mbone) for broadcasting on the Internet using multicasting.
[22] Other early companies that created streaming media technology include Progressive Networks and Protocomm prior to widespread World Wide Web usage.
After the Netscape IPO in 1995 (and the release of Windows 95 with built-in TCP/IP support), usage of the Internet expanded, and many companies "went public", including Progressive Networks (which was renamed "RealNetworks", and listed on Nasdaq as "RNWK").
Disney+ took advantage of owning popular movies and shows like Frozen and Moana drawing in more subscribers and making it a big competitor for Netflix.
[33] Research suggests that this approach to streaming competition can be disadvantageous for consumers by increasing spending across platforms, and for the industry as a whole by dilution of subscriber base.
[9] In August 2022, a CNN headline declared that "The streaming wars are over" as pandemic-era restrictions had largely ended and audience growth had stalled.
Former U.S. representative Fred Upton and former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acting chair Mignon Clyburn serve as senior advisors.
In July 2024, NBC News reported that RedBox, a DVD rental service that had operated for 22 years, would shut down due to the rapid incline of streaming platforms.
In the age of digitization, the private consumption of music has transformed into a public good, largely due to one player in the market: Napster.
Napster, a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network where users could upload and download MP3 files freely, broke all music industry conventions when it launched in early 1999 in Hull, Massachusetts.
[47] In an interview from 2009, Shawn Fanning explained that Napster "was something that came to me as a result of seeing a sort of unmet need and the passion people had for being able to find all this music, particularly a lot of the obscure stuff, which wouldn't be something you go to a record store and purchase, so it felt like a problem worth solving.
"[48] Not only did this development disrupt the music industry by making songs that previously required payment to be freely accessible to any Napster user, but it also demonstrated the power of P2P networks in turning any digital file into a public, shareable good.
The site gained so much traffic that many college campuses had to block access to Napster because it created network congestion from so many students sharing music files.
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a P2P file-sharing service could be held liable for contributory and vicarious infringement of copyright, serving as a landmark decision for Intellectual property law.
[52] The first issue that the Court addressed was fair use, which says that otherwise infringing activities are permissible so long as they are for purposes "such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching [...] scholarship, or research.
"[53] Judge Beezer, the judge for this case, noted that Napster claimed that its services fit "three specific alleged fair uses: sampling, where users make temporary copies of a work before purchasing; space-shifting, where users access a sound recording through the Napster system that they already own in audio CD format; and permissive distribution of recordings by both new and established artists.
"[53] Judge Beezer found that Napster did not fit these criteria, instead enabling their users to repeatedly copy music, which would affect the market value of the copyrighted good.
The second claim by the plaintiffs was that Napster was actively contributing to copyright infringement since it had knowledge of widespread file sharing on its platform.
The ruling set the precedent that copyrighted digital content cannot be freely replicated and shared unless given consent by the owner, thereby strengthening the property rights of artists and record labels alike.
While some platforms, most notably Spotify, give customers access to a freemium service that enables the use of limited features for exposure to advertisements, most companies operate under a premium subscription model.
Napster, owned by Rhapsody since 2011, has resurfaced as a music streaming platform offering subscription-based services to over 4.5 million users as of January 2017[update].
[59] In the evolving music streaming landscape, competition among platforms is shaped by various factors, including royalty rates, exclusive content, and market expansion strategies.
[68][69] Such capabilities are heightened using network-attached storage (NAS) devices at home, or using specialized software like Plex Media Server, Jellyfin or TwonkyMedia.
Live-streaming platforms such as Twitch may also incorporate a video on demand system that allows automatic recording of live broadcasts so that they can be watched later.
Many celebrities started live streaming during COVID-19 through platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok offering an alternate form of entertainment when concerts were postponed.
A case study commissioned by the WIPO[90] indicates that streaming services attract advertising budgets with the opportunities provided by interactivity and the use of data from users, resulting in personalization on a mass scale with content marketing.
[95] The WIPO has indicated several basic copyright issues arising for those pursuing work in the film[96][97] and music industries[98] in the era of streaming.
