Streaming Media

流媒體（Streaming Media）是指采用流式傳輸的方式在Internet播放的媒體格式。流媒體又叫流式媒體，是邊傳邊播的媒體，是多媒體的一種。它是指商家用一個視頻傳送服務器把節目當成數據包發出，傳送到網絡上。用戶通過解壓設備對這些數據進行解壓后，節目就會像發送前那樣顯示出來。流媒體的出現極大地方便了人們的工作和生活。比如在地球的另一端，某大學的課堂上，某個教授正在興致盎然地傳授一門你喜歡的課程。你只要在網絡上找到該在線課程，課程一邊播放一邊下載，雖然遠在天涯，卻如親臨現場！除了遠程教育，流媒體在視頻點播、網絡電臺、網絡視頻等方面也有著廣泛的應用。

Do you like to tune in to your smartphone radio station when you are waiting for the bus？ Do you find it more convenient to watch your favorite TV drama on demand？ Now streaming music is a trendy topic in America.

Just as its name suggests， media is delivered to you—the ultimate user—like a nonstop stream. If you click on any media player on the internet， such as a radio station website or a news agency homepage， you can hear or see a live broadcast.

In America， music streaming is popular these days. The launch of Apple Music， a 24/7 global radio， speaks for itself. Users download the application onto their iPhones and they can pick up any genre of music anytime， anywhere. However， after a three-month free trial， users need to pay a fee for the use of Apple Music. Of course， there are plenty of other free music streaming services available.

Looking back， from vinyl[黑膠唱片] to cassettes， from CD to the MP3 and to today’s streaming， music consumption habits are changing significantly. Statistics show that in 2014， Americans streamed 164 billion songs. That is almost half a billion per day， or about 514 songs per person in America over the course of the year.

I am still a CD fan when it comes to listening to music. But I must confess that I am now hooked on TV drama streaming. If I have the time， I will watch several episodes online in one sitting. In the old days， people would tape their favorite TV shows and watch them later at their leisure. Now， with video streaming， viewers can watch their favorite shows on the internet on demand. And as far as I know， there are many video streaming services in China， too.

In my own experience， I find video streaming helpful， especially when I want to attend a lecture or a book launch given by prestigious[享有聲望的] figures， but I simply don’t have the time or the venue[地點] is too far away. Some event organizers will post video streams on their websites， so people like me can watch the event as it happens or watch the recorded video afterwards.

Streaming media is very profitable. No wonder Alibaba will launch an online video streaming service soon in China， hoping to get the lion’s share of the market.