Niche communities will finally get the content they desire. Do you want a film noir set in ancient Egypt starring your dog as the detective? AI might let you make that in five minutes. The long tail of popular media will become infinite.
This era had distinct advantages: quality control and a shared cultural experience. When M A S H* aired its finale, over 100 million people watched the same screen. When Michael Jackson released Thriller , everyone heard it simultaneously. The gatekeepers—studio executives, editors, and producers—acted as filters. They decided what was worthy of the public’s attention. www wwwxxx com
In the span of a single human lifetime, the way we consume stories, music, and news has undergone a revolution more radical than in the previous 10,000 years combined. The phrase entertainment content and popular media used to mean a trip to the cinema, the weekly arrival of a glossy magazine, or gathering around the radio. Today, it means an infinite, algorithmic firehose streaming directly into our pockets. Niche communities will finally get the content they desire
Tools like Sora (text-to-video) and Suno (text-to-music) mean that a single person can now produce what once required a crew of 100. This is terrifying and exhilarating. The long tail of popular media will become infinite
However, this model was also exclusionary. If you were a filmmaker in Ohio or a musician in a garage, your chances of breaking through were statistically negligible. You needed a middleman. You needed capital. The barrier to entry was a concrete wall. The arrival of Web 2.0—specifically social media and streaming platforms—demolished that wall. Suddenly, entertainment content and popular media became democratized. YouTube launched in 2005, proving that a teenager in a bedroom could garner more views than a prime-time talk show. Spotify and Netflix shifted the model from ownership to access. "Going viral" replaced "ratings."