Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment (Mit Press) - Softcover

Smith, Michael D.; Telang, Rahul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262534525 ISBN 13: 9780262534529

Publisher: The MIT Press, 2017

Synopsis

How big data is transforming the creative industries, and how those industries can use lessons from Netflix, Amazon, and Apple to fight back.

“[The authors explain] gently yet firmly exactly how the internet threatens established ways and what can and cannot be done about it. Their book should be required for anyone who wishes to believe that nothing much has changed.”
―The Wall Street Journal

“Packed with examples, from the nimble-footed who reacted quickly to adapt their businesses, to laggards who lost empires.”
―Financial Times

Traditional network television programming has always followed the same script: executives approve a pilot, order a trial number of episodes, and broadcast them, expecting viewers to watch a given show on their television sets at the same time every week. But then came Netflix's House of Cards. Netflix gauged the show's potential from data it had gathered about subscribers' preferences, ordered two seasons without seeing a pilot, and uploaded the first thirteen episodes all at once for viewers to watch whenever they wanted on the devices of their choice.

In this book, Michael Smith and Rahul Telang, experts on entertainment analytics, show how the success of House of Cards upended the film and TV industries―and how companies like Amazon and Apple are changing the rules in other entertainment industries, notably publishing and music. We're living through a period of unprecedented technological disruption in the entertainment industries. Just about everything is affected: pricing, production, distribution, piracy. Smith and Telang discuss niche products and the long tail, product differentiation, price discrimination, and incentives for users not to steal content. To survive and succeed, businesses have to adapt rapidly and creatively. Smith and Telang explain how.

How can companies discover who their customers are, what they want, and how much they are willing to pay for it? Data. The entertainment industries, must learn to play a little “moneyball.” The bottom line: follow the data.

About this title

About the Author

Michael D. Smith is Professor of Information Systems and Marketing at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College. He is Codirector (with Rahul Telang) of the Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics (IDEA) at Carnegie Mellon.

Rahul Telang is Professor of Information Systems and Management at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College. He is Codirector (with Michael D. Smith) of the Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics (IDEA) at Carnegie Mellon.

Review

Streaming, Sharing, Stealing is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand how technology is reshaping the entertainment industries.

―Chris Anderson, CEO, 3D Robotics, author of The Long Tail

Smith and Telang have long been recognized as leading experts on the economics of the entertainment industry. Now they have distilled their findings from a decade of research about how the Internet is disrupting entertainment into a readable, authoritative, and insightful book. Anyone who wants to understand the uneasy relationship between tech and entertainment should read this book.

―Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google

This book should spark a revolution of evidence-based decision making across the entertainment industries.

―David Boyle, EVP Insight at BBC Worldwide; formerly with HarperCollins and EMI Music

Smith and Telang are at the forefront of data analytics in the entertainment industry, and have produced a clear-eyed explanation of why big data are changing the industry, and how firms can use data analytics to profit from this change.

―Matt Geiser, CTO, Legendary Pictures

Streaming, Sharing, Stealing identifies the many ways technology is changing the entertainment business, and how these changes are shifting the foundations of our industry. If you work in publishing, music, or film, you need to read this book.

―Ruth Vitale, CEO, CreativeFuture

Streaming, Sharing, Stealing examines the rise of data-driven marketing and the ability of artists to control content creation and distribution, which is completely disrupting entertainment industry norms. A must-read for any content creator.

―David A. Bossert, producer and creative director at The Walt Disney Studios

Edition details

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0262534525
• ISBN 13: 9780262534529
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 232