“The Atlantic” recently offered an article titled “How Has the Internet Changed in the Last 5 Years?” and included an incredible presentation from Mary Meeker, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Meeker’s report covers global digital trends including social, mobile and internet. She reports that time spent on social networking sites has surpassed time spent on internet portals.
But the really surprising part of the report is the observation that “Sound is going to be bigger than video.”
I just wrote an article stating that half of all Americans were streaming video and that video should be part of anyone’s internet presence. Some wrote asking about the future of audio so Meeker’s report couldn’t be more timely.
Remember audio? Remember radio, that dying dinosaur from yesteryear? Audio was supposed to die a certain death because local radio stations stopped innovating.
Then came talk radio and NPR, and satellite and podcasting and suddenly audio was popular again. Add recorded books and the explosion of multiple sources of music and suddenly everyone has ear plugs.
For those of us who love the spoken word or music we find comfort in the resurgence of audio. Video continues to have transmission and quality problems even in this day and age of YouTube and additional video sites.
Audio is compact, transmits easy and doesn’t take a lot of space on your phone or portable music player.
But the real power of audio is in the conveyance of emotions; I’m sure that in the golden age of radio they understood this. Like books, your imagination comes alive as you create images in your mind when you hear someone tell a story or listen to music.
Audio has the potential to convey messages and emotions more powerfully than video.
The cost of quality audio is much less that the cost of quality video.
So if you’re going to communicate effectively, video and audio must be part of your strategy.
But in my opinion, sound really is going to be bigger than video.
Best, Len.
