Why Steemit is even cooler than Spotify and Netflix

One of 70 million plus users

Today I finally opened my own, personal, free of commercials Spotify account. I'm now one of the 70 million plus paying users of this digital music service. And as I was enjoying downloading my first albums (for offline use), I remembered how not so very long ago - hope I'm not creating any enemies by saying this - I used to go to these torrents websites to find and download any music or videos I wanted to listen to or watch. It's not something I am very proud of, but it was just something we did. It was easy and very cheap access to tons of creative content. But, of course - giving nothing in return to the creative content makers who's hard work I was benefitting from.

Phase 1: accessible, but unrewarded

You know where I got my films before I downloaded them? I rented them from a video store. Saying that makes me feel really, really old. Just in my defence - I was a teenager when that happened. It meant I only had access to the movies the store had available, which weren't rented out by other people. As for music, the access I had was the albums for sale at the music store.

Then at some point, I think around the time I started university, I discovered movies and music could be downloaded. First, even if you could find the title you wanted, downloading a film took time. I remember deciding what I wanted to watch in the evening and starting the download in the afternoon. Data travelled way more slowly back then. But the networks got upgraded, and got upgraded again. And at some point a 1 GB movie would require only maybe 15 to 20 minutes of my patience.

Compared to the video store situation, the amount of film and music we had access to had... I can hardly say increased... it had literally exploded. The downside was content creators not being rewarded for their work. And at the time, I thought that was sad but I also didn't see any other solution.

Phase 2: accessible AND rewarded

Now we have Netflix. And Spotify. Access has again improved - especially the immediate availability of any content we wish to enjoy. Content creators now have a return from the people watching their films and series or listening to their music. I'm also very happy to contribute, especially considering that I get a full month of film and music content access for around the same price I'd pay for an album at the music store a few years back. Hurray for internet and innovation, right?

Phase 3: even the customer gets rewarded

What could possibly be better than having next to unlimited access, and paying only very little for it? What about: being on the receiving end, and getting paid too!? Would you (before knowing about Steemit) ever have believed such a situation would actually exist? You get to read blogs, stories, poetry, get to listen to music, get to watch art and photography and video's - and you get paid!?

I know we've all been telling the world: come join us on Steemit, a social media platform where you get payed for giving your votes. But it's so much more than that. Here we have content, provided by people from all over the globe. Giving us their traveling reports and trips, their cryptocurrency updates, sharing their home-steading experiences, their photographs, their make-up tutorials, their art. Telling us about their life and how they are experiencing it, sharing the stories they've written or their poetry or music. Etcetera etcetera. I remember how, before a trip, I'd purchase a Lonely Planet to know where to go, what places to visit. But now, people from all over the world are actually here on this platform, giving us their firsthand experiences of whatever town they live and whatever area of the world I'd like to visit. Finding their content, and giving it my votes isn't just for free. And the money the content creators receive isn't just from running adds on their blogs. No, there is a direct system of pay-out to all of us, and that is really amazing.

Phase 4: accessibility AND the customer gets rewarded

The current state of affairs: even the customer gets rewarded. But - we are nowhere close to that 70 million users figure yet. I'm sure that for Netflix and Spotify, getting started was the toughest. Their content availability would have been less, making it less appealing for the customer to get an account. As content availability grows, so does the appeal to join, so does the income stream allowing for further increase in content availability.

The future I see for Steemit, is a massive increase in accounts. Meaning a massive increase in content released. Well, AND better search options. If there are 70 million people on Steemit, sharing their content - than at any time I can go to the food tag, find amazing recently posted recipes that are just what I was looking for, give it my upvote and make my food. At any time I can look up info about Mallorca, find a post by a local about what to do and where to go, give him my upvote and then make my trip. IF the search options improve, maybe with sub-tags and sub-sub-tags, a vast amount of authors and content creators on the platform should be enough to cover all topics of life and all areas around the globe, to give that much needed increase in content availability. Because of the after-7-day pay-out system, Steemit encourages creating new content and also encourages users to find recent posts, over finding older posts, because recent posts allow them to collect curation rewards. No need for Lonely Planets which get outdated within a year - Steemit content will not continuously refreshed and never outdated.

The Future

Imagine Steemit having as many account holders as Spotify (more than 70 million) or Netflix (more than 125 million). Once people realise they can create content and have a massive audience, without any third parties being involved who need to make money too - then don't you think they'll want to make that jump? The exact same goes for customers: once they realise that they can have access to creative or informative content as they desire, and get rewarded for enjoying it - then do you really think they'll hesitate?

Just like with Spotify and Netflix - getting started is the hardest. Getting more people involved, more content covering more topics and areas and disciplines. Then once all that starts rolling, we'll have our snowball effect. And then, once we're more established - we'll be far cooler than either Netflix or Spotify. I don't mind paying my monthly fees to reward awesome content creators. But GETTING paid?

Let Netflix and Spotify have their moment of glory.

Steemit will have the next.

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All content is created by me, and Steemit original.
Camera used: Canon G7X