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Friday, July 13, 2007

Streaming content vs Downloaded content

I had an interesting conversation this week with someone about the two formats. In our conversation, his technology clearly differentiated between content that is sent for live viewing or listening but not retained by the user and content that is sent as a batch file for use whenever. As a technology, they are two very distinct ways to send content, but for the user experience, the layman may not know or even care how they receive it only that they are capable of watching or listening to the content. It certainly matters if you are trying to retain ownership for that content and don't want to let loose a version that can be copied and shared. And while technology is trying to blur the line so that streaming content can be retained and held offline, for now, the differences bring different opportunities and challenges. Does the non-techie know or care, they don't. I doubt they could tell you how they receive it. But they will tell you if the content is worthwhile or not. At the end of the day, it is still content that is king.