Entertainment companies finally embrace the net

By and large, companies understand the importance of IT and the role of the internet. Every large retailer has a strong online presence and in some cases their web divisions form the backbone of their growth. Computing regularly speaks to enterprises across an array of industries and they have a huge focus in using the internet and online services as a way to beef up their bottom line.

However, the entertainment industry – which boasts some of the most well-known household names – has not embraced the internet in the way other industries have. That’s strange, when you consider that the likes of Disney, Warner Bros and EMI ought to be filled with creative, imaginative people.

Maybe they were hoping the internet would simply disappear, because rather than explore the potential of the web and create business models that yield revenue in an online world, the industry has instead spent its time whining about the revenue it has lost lost due to file sharing. Its only reaction has been to put pressure on the government to speed through legislation such as the Digital Economy Act.

There was a time when file sharing also posed a very real threat to software vendors. Did they complain incessantly about it? No. Instead, they developed software-as-a-service models and used the internet to develop a competitive advantage by creating cloud services.

In my opinion, the best thing that has happened to the music industry in the past decade has been the advent of Spotify. The service offers a win-win scenario for record companies, artists, advertisers and the consumer, by offering a huge database of free music to the masses from the cloud, funded by advertising revenue.

However, while Spotify has set a great example, it is not the answer to all the entertainment industry’s woes. Until now, the most novel way of viewing movies has been by post, or snail mail as it is now known, outlined by the success of services such as LoveFilm.

That is why it has come as such a relief that the movie industry is gearing up to launch UltraViolet, a cloud-based service developed to provide consumers with a simpler way to buy and watch digital entertainment across multiple platforms.

UltraViolet, along with Spotify and online hosted gaming service OnLive, could signal the beginning of a new wave of services that sees the entertainment industry finally utilise all the internet has to offer. And it couldn’t have come a moment too soon.