Page 69 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

Cultural consumption has been at the center of a perfect storm in which content digitalization, improvement of consumer technological media and the introduction of broadband converged. This is the breeding ground that gave rise to the profound change in our habits. It was their faith in the possibilities of offering digital content
not confined to the “hits” that moved players such as Netflix, Amazon or Spotify. As a result, users are no longer restricted in their choices by the presumed added value of new releases and premieres. This is simply because everything in the catalogue gets the same level of exposure with these services. Digital subscriptions have freed the business operation from the standards of popularity that constrained it. Nowadays, with the drastic reduction of production costs, prod- uct life can be stretched, leaving room for new releases without major marketing investments. Technically, on to infinity. The more than 34,000 hours of content7 that can be viewed on Netflix, the 30 million songs8 that can be heard on Spotify, or the million references9 that Amazon
is said to have on its Kindle Unlimited services gives us an idea of the magnitude.
The impact of big data as a lever of change on cultural consumption on the screen is undeniable.
How does the user deal with content reposito- ries of this size? This brings us to the third lever.
Big data and the quest for efficiency
The consumption of content via connected devices creates a rich digital trail. This is what is known as “big data,” a term that refers to the massive data that cannot be processed by traditional computer systems (Fernández-Man- zano; Neira; Clarés-Gavilán, 2016). The impact of big data as a lever of change on cultural con- sumption on the screen is undeniable. Indeed, it has become the focal point of the strategy of the so-called “digital unicorns” (Lee, 2013). Big data puts them in a privileged position in terms of
knowledge of their target audience. It also contributes to the question of efficiency in managing the service. Content production continues to expand. And the content of the catalog is stretching the useful life of the cultural property to the limits (the so-called “long tail”). Moreover, the storage, management and supply of contents happen in the blink of an eye. The user runs the risk of feeling overwhelmed by the volume of the offer and by the speed with which the content can be searched on these platforms, endlessly scrolling and swiping. Big data has come to the rescue.
Users have always been guided by familiar standards of recommendation. They read about it in the news, consult the reviews of a critic they like, take the recommendations of friends, see an appealing ad, etc. These methods of actively searching an ecosystem of a more or less controlled supply were optimal. Especially considering that the cultural consumption of physical products in a scarcity model was not done with such sustained intensity. The market regulated the pace of consumption in terms of
Image: NETFLIX IN PUBLIC. Graph showing the habits of mobile Netflix users. Source: Netflix.com
AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2018
69
Digital Trends in Culture