Where Do We Go From Here?

Hi Gang,

Chris French here at Modern Midwest Entertainment! A question was posed to me recently and I've been giving a bit of thought to it. I was asked, "Where do you see the entertainment industry going?" That is an  interesting question and one that I'm going to answer, in my own opinion, right now.

As you all know, for the last seven or eight years, we've had an explosion of video sites and social media on the Internet. Traditional entertainment is still big business. Movies, live entertainment, music and the like are still popular sources of entertainment, but, for people who live in outlying areas, live entertainment isn't always a viable option. With the cost of gas, and the economy being what it is, people just can't afford to drive long distances to see good quality live entertainment more than maybe once or twice a year. Even music on the radio is getting harder and harder to come by, with the advent of the HD stations, and subscription satellite radio services. If you don't have the money to put these in your car, you don't have the selection of music that people who can afford it do.

I see the entertainment industry heading toward more people staying at home and paying for videos and music through the computer. It's already starting to happen. Sites like Hulu are charging people to watch the programming from TV that they could have seen for free even as recently as six months ago. Even now, as I have a satellite dish on my house, I have to pay for my local network affiliate channels. Yes, live entertainment can now be beamed out across the globe in an instant to people who can't afford to travel to be there, but at what cost. Entertainment is meant to bring people together. It is meant to be a shared experience with other people. I have a feeling that, as technology progresses and we seclude ourselves more and more, entertainment will eventually be encapsulated and the humanity of it will be squeezed out.

I hope that I am wrong. I hope that the entertainment industry will take the new technology and make itself bigger and better. I hope it will fling open the doors wide and the shared experience of entertainment will be something we can share with our children, and their children, not just something we reminisce about.

Have a great Memorial Day, gang. To all of the men and women who've ever served in uniform, I say THANK YOU!

SEE YA!