There were a few points that particularly stuck out to me in this reading, so in risk of making another thesis-post, I’ll just discuss them.

Amazon.com was brought up again. Blood Amazon and it’s revolutionary mass communication practices. “Recommendations” according to what you’ve previously bought – sounds so simple but is relatively new; and completely changed the way that consumers shop online. Suddenly, it wasn’t about mainstream tastes, best sellers lists or general marketing practices, it was about the interest and profile of the individual consumer based on algorithm-fuelled technology.

By having an unlimited selection of music, books, movies and TV shows, we’re no longer classed as a mass market obsessed with blockbusters and cringe-worthy summer pop hits; we’re no longer seen as a giant wave of humans who want and need the same things. This was a result of poor supply-and-demand matching – a market response to inefficient distributions of media in a hit-driven culture. We’re now being broken down into groups of consumers with niche tastes who have unlimited access to all the media we could possibly be interested in.

” For consumers, the improved signal-to-noise ratio that comes from following a good recommendation encourages exploration and can reawaken a passion for music and film, potentially creating a far larger entertainment market overall.”

Entertainment is now widely available to us over the internet, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon etc. This has changed the market.

That’s essentially my reading of the article.