We Need Better Streaming Platform Options, But Who Will Slow Down Long Enough to Innovate?

Digital content streaming is moving fast toward completely revolutionizing how we consume media and who those content creators are.

Alongside the explosion of social networking, smartphones, and a global pandemic that forced the entire world to relate to one another through a screen, today over half of all households aged 18-44 years old use a streaming service daily to consume video-based content, and the global live streaming market is on pace to reach $4.26 million by 2028.

But if you’ve ever tried to go somewhere fast in a dense and heavy fog, you know that no matter how much fun you’re having on the inside of the car, you won’t reach any reasonable destination until you slow down long enough to see the road ahead.

It’s an issue of platform.

Since we know that digital content like livestreams, podcasts, and VOD is here to stay, it’s time to start asking ourselves what should the consumer’s experience look and feel like? What content belongs on what type of platform and even then, what type of functionalities should that platform have?

Do we need the ability to chat in real-time or leave comments in every space? Or are there other ways we can engage viewers that feel more authentic to each type of content? Put simply, every piece of content doesn’t fit on every platform – but consumers don’t want to need access to 17 different platforms just to meet all their content needs.

Media companies and content creators are putting out digital materials at a breakneck pace, hoping that each piece of content is strong enough to draw viewers from the other digital platforms where they spend the most time.

While the content itself is important, it’s time that media companies and platforms realize that there needs to be as much effort put into creating a platform that provides a sensible experience for consumers and honors creators with appropriate recognition and compensation.

Creators must be valued.

The lack of a modernized platform hurts content creators of all sizes – and Black creators stand to lose the most.

When REVOLT.TV’s Drink Champs podcast uploaded its interview with Kanye West to YouTube, ten million people tuned in, and the video was shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media sites.

However, in return for their explosive content that drew nearly 15 million to YouTube (see here and here), Revolt TV CEO Detavio Samuels tells us that the Black-owned media company received nothing in terms of ad revenue. For a company like REVOLT, the slight was one that it could bear with bruised emotions, but for content creators who aren’t a media company, what kind of message does this situation send? And what does it tell us about the responsibilities that platforms like YouTube have to compensate and respect the content that keeps its doors open?

So, what will the future look like?

Today, consumers and creators alike have a wide choice of platforms to choose from when it comes to creating or viewing content. However, every platform has its own, different, and distinct set of ideas about what content is worth compensating or not, censoring or not, and has its own roster of content. In the midst of all this ever-increasing choice, it’s time to slow down to create a reasonable and rational solution to the fog of unorganized content we know today.

The hard truth is that the solution to these issues lies within a technology or platform that does not yet exist. However, we can have confidence that the first step on the road to that new tech is aggregation. Today, Pick A Live is working to help both consumers of content and content creators of all levels meet their goals by providing a sane, clear aggregation of all the best live stream content. Once consumers and content creators have a platform they can rely upon, today’s fog of confusion will lift, and we’ll all be able to see the beauty of what the future has in store for us.