What Is Streaming Media?

It's a little like watching a movie, except instead of waiting for your favorite scene to come on, you click "next" until you get there. Streaming media is an increasingly popular way to watch videos and listen to online music. It's like watching a movie over your phone or computer because you can download it from a website instead of DVDs or Blu-rays. You can also stream music instead of buying CDs or records. Nowadays, most devices have built-in streaming capabilities, so you might need to learn that you're doing it. For example, if you have a phone and watch an online video, that's streaming. Listening to music on your phone and pressing 'shuffle' instead of selecting a specific song is also streaming. On a computer, you can tell if you're streaming something if you see buffering bars next to the video's title or your music. You can also know if you're streaming something if you don't see any download or save options on the screen. Streaming is a great option if you're on a data plan with limited data or want to avoid clogging your device with large files. It's also an excellent way to watch something if you're on the go and need more time to sit and download it. Streaming media is like a river that has many tributaries. It's a flow of information, not just a one-way street. It's more like a conversation between you and your client program. The client program is the one that initiates the conversation by asking for some media to be delivered to it from the server. The server then offers that media via an A/V codec (which we'll explain in seconds), and the client program displays it on your screen or speakers. Streaming media is the new way to watch your favorite shows. No more waiting for Netflix to buffer. Streaming will always be different.