Comparative Essay: Live Music vs. Netflix Shows

This essay compares live music and television shows or films in Netflix as there is a difference in how their content is accessed and consumed and the engagement of the viewer. The essay further considers the benefits and challenges of both sectors.

Running head: Comparative essay 1
Comparative essay
Student’s (Name)
Institution

Comparative essay 2
Introduction
There has been tremendous change in the entertainment sector because of further
inventions and creativity from the relevant stakeholders. This similar change has occurred in the
music sector as well as in the television content regarding films. Confucius a Chinese ruler
expresses the power of music as a kind of pleasure that no human can do without (Mauch, et al.
2015), his claim is supported by Alphonse de Lamartine who labels music as “the literature of
the heart” (Stein,& Evans, 2009), while this powerful men provide their views on music, it is
quite clear that the music industry has changed with the introduction of new technology and new
genre, The same has happened to the production and accessibility of films and television shows.
As an entertainment professional who specializes in audience engagement strategies I have been
tasked by a project entertainment team to compare live and mediated content.
I am going to compare live music in the case of attending a music festival to a television
show or watching of a film using Netflix. Netflix is a digital online streaming service and an
application that provides access television shows, documentaries and multiple films that can
either be series or movies, it also contains some television shows. This essay will compare live
music and television shows or film in Netflix as there is a difference in how their content is
accessed and consumed and the engagement of the viewer. The essay further considers the
benefits and challenges of both sectors.

Comparative essay 3
Comparison between live and mediated content
Access
While access to television shows and films in Netflix and in the music festivals is almost
similar in terms of payment there are several difference in regards to location and their impact
on the audience engagement .Netflix is on an online platform that is accessed through the
internet or it can be downloaded as an application to those who have smart phones but still for it
to function there must be the availability of internet to other people in order to access Netflix
they have done monthly or periodical subscriptions, which means that one has to have internet
bundles in order to view the content of this site, in a similar manner in order to be a part of live
music in the case of attending a music festival a payment method maybe required which is larger
as compared to when using Netflix, in addition the location of live music is always physical in
that one has to be present physically unlike the location of television shows in Netflix where the
films are stored in cloud storage (Yus, 2018).
It is important to note that although in both of them there is a mode of payment in Netflix
the main payment method which is use of internet bundles is cheap if the viewer intends to use
the site for a limited time such as an hour or they decide to download the video in order to listen
to it while offline, in the case where they intend to use this site for a long period example 12
hours or a month they may end up spending more than the person in the festival who pays ones
at an entry point and is eligible to watch music up to the time the festival will end. The benefit of
accessing Netflix through the internet or as an application is that with network coverage one can
access television shows and films from anywhere, the setback is that it is limited to phones,
computers or other gadgets that can access internet and incase of the absence internet the content

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cannot be accessed. In festival the access to music is a onetime event (Neuendorf, 2016) hence if
one needs more music they will keep on searching for an event travelling from place to place to
access this event and each time they access a new event they must pay again unlike in Netflix
where one can decide to subscribe an enjoy streaming for a long period of time as per the
payment.
Consumption
One of the largest changes that has occurred in the music industry is consumption of the
content especially regarding the mode in which the accessed content is ingested (Moss, &
Walmsley, 2014). The same has applied to the case television shows and films which have been
incorporated into the interne and the world wide web. There is therefore a huge difference in the
consumption of television shows to attending a live music festival, in the recent past YouTube
was dominant in its power to stream shows and films as other internet applications were only
limited to provision of MP3 resources .This however did not happen for long with the
introduction of Netflix which provides its user with the ability to listen and view television
shows without the inclusion of advertisements on the screen like some applications and sites,
Netflix provides high quality video capture and films but the consumption still lacks reality since
the interaction is over a the internet by the use of a television or a gadget, contrary to this
attending an event ensures that the attendee sees the performs live thereby not only listening to
the performance but also watching it concurrently as a reality being interact with the singer or
artist in lively without imaginations or illusions.
In watching using Netflix it could be argued that one can easily grasp the message
behind the film better as compared to watching since most of their concentration is on the
gadget (Jampole, 2016) this is because if one is viewing a television show or a film in their

Comparative essay 5
apartment or home there are fewer distractions as compared to when in a live event , however the
benefits of being present cannot be ignored even in trying to explain why a lot of people attend
shows by famous artist rather than just streaming them over the internet, being live in music
festival has several benefits that could outweigh just streaming television shows that is limited,
in the case of live event the audience or the watcher is able to identify other key elements in the
event and item performances at a personal level such as slight movements, the facial expressions
and changes in the mood or atmosphere during the performance thus making the performance
more personal. In the live event the audience is not exposed to illusions or imagination that
leaves the audience questioning the authenticity of the content and the audience is at a suitable
position to examine and analyses the content in a better manner and perspective due to their live
presence, however streaming a television show is sometimes interesting than live performances
due to the creativity and illusions that challenge at the same time exciting the viewer, as
mentioned earlier the viewer might also be able to identify issues due to less destruction but not
as comprehensively as the person who is actually present .It can therefore be concluded that in
terms of consumption live content is better than meditated content as seen in this case of Netflix
and live music festival performance.
Engagement
Engagement during live music festival is higher than in using Netflix to stream a
television shows. Daniel Libeskind describes life as experience characterized by participation
and not just about listening to the obvious (Dromey, & Haferkorn, 2018), live attendance of
music festival provides a closer interaction with the performer so that you are able to freely
express your views on a face to face basis and are also able to actively participate in the ongoing
events during the presentation, the artist or performer may instruct the audience at a personal

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level on what to do and in the event that there are several people the group participation in
activities such as dancing or singing together with the artist the engagement is made to be more
real, inclusive and personal on the other hand while using Netflix the interaction of the listener
and the artist is limited to listening to the voice of the performer or presenter and in the case
where the viewer has a comment once in a while they may comment over the internet through
internet only in television shows where it is allowed but mostly there are content that were
recorded prior to their streaming hence one cannot interact with the presenter other than watch,
for films such as Daredevil or Luke Cage in Netflix the engagement is even limited further since
the interaction with the film is limited to seeing them in the television shows and films acting
therefore one can only participate indirectly by dancing when the song a song starts to sing or
when there is a location in the movie where they have to express their emotions by reacting
differently.
The benefit of using Netflix in regards to engagement is that there is a wide range of
movies, television shows, artists and casts globally that you interact with through their films
though limited as mentioned above unlike in the live festivals where the number of performers
are limited and there are several resources that can be accessed on a daily basis so that one can
move from this show to another unlike live events that are mostly occasional hence the
interaction with the artist or performer is limited to when they have an event that you will attend,
however this is not enough to give credit to Netflix in terms of engagement since engagement are
better when they are occurring at personal basis.

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Conclusion
In comparison of attending a live even as the case of attending a music festival to using
the Netflix as an application or Netflix internet web site, it is evident that live attendance in live
event is better than streaming or watching of television shows using Netflix due to more
engagements and better consumption resulting from greater interaction and participation unlike
in the case of using Netflix that only allows for better access as seen that can their services can
be accessed from anywhere in the globe provided that there is internet access and a gadget that is
able to connect to internet in obtaining this services . It can be noted that all the methods have
different benefits and challenges but the benefits of live content or unmediated performs are
more than its weaknesses when looking at the people affected by the performance and the extent
in which they are affected while using both this method. It can therefore be concluded that
unmediated content is better than mediated content after considering access, consumption and
engagement as seen in the comparison of using Netflix an online streaming website and
application of television shows and films to live events such as attending a live music festival.

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Reference
Dromey, C., & Haferkorn, J. (2018). The Classical Music Industry. Routledge.
Jampole, M. (2016). Unmediated Every day. American Book Review, 38(1), 25-26.
Mauch, M., MacCallum, R. M., Levy, M., & Leroi, A. M. (2015). The evolution of popular
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Neuendorf, K. A. (2016). The content analysis guidebook. Sage.
Rains, S. A., Peterson, E. B., & Wright, K. B. (2015). Communicating social support in
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Stein, A., & Evans, B. B. (2009). An introduction to the entertainment industry. Peter Lang.
Yus, F. (2018). Cyberpragmatics: Internet-mediated communication in context. John Benjamins
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