Entertainment is a broad category of human activity which either holds the attention of an audience or provides enjoyment and joy to those who perform it. To most people’s entertainment is something they do for enjoyment or recreation, not for profit. For example, someone may sit in a movie theater checking out the latest Hollywood movie and not consider the possibility that they may be sitting in the house of a family that relies on the entertainment provided to keep them going during rough economic times. Entertaining is not always an activity for purely intellectual or spiritually inclined people. It can also be a social activity, such as a performance by a group or an event, but tends to be one of those activities or events which have developed over time for the express purpose of retaining an audience’s interest.
Entertainers have become almost as important as the artists that create the entertainment. The structure of modern entertainment venues reflects this development. For example, a large number of theatres are owned by corporations instead of by independent actors and actresses. Corporate ownership and investment in theatre performance art are the new wave of live entertainment business models replacing the once highly creative but highly regulated hours of live entertainment artistry within the backstage confines of corporate owned live performance theatres.
Other forms of entertainment are not as easily subjected to change as are live entertainment events. Video games, for example, have been one of the fastest growing areas of live entertainment investment in recent years. As video game creation and development have become increasingly sophisticated, amusement machine companies have capitalized on this by creating multiple interactive versions of popular video games with varying degrees of interactivity. The result has been a marked increase in the growth of this unique form of entertainment and sales of this type of equipment and accessories.
Museums are another example of a venue that has long since been a staple of the live entertainment scene. Museums have long been venues for research and education about the human condition and artistic expression. Museums like the Smithsonian, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Saarinen Art Museum in Copenhagen are all examples of long standing live entertainment venues that have made important contributions to society through the creation and presentation of art and other forms of entertainment. Even today, museums and other public educational venues rely heavily on technology to help them produce their productions and to keep audiences entertained. This includes the use of video screens, digital sound systems, and lighting to create a highly visual experience for museum goers.
The entertainment industry has grown and developed, because the mass media has also expanded and developed into a highly diversified entity that reaches and touches a wide variety of demographics. The development of the internet has been a key player in the growth and diversification of the entertainment industry as well. The internet has allowed for the easy distribution of videos, photographic images, and other forms of entertainment into the general population on a global scale. It is because of this that the internet has also drastically affected the way in which the entertainment industry presents itself to the public. This is why the music business has been in such a turbulent state of late, unable to develop any form of consistency or longevity due to the drastic changes the internet has brought upon them.
The rapid expansion of the internet has also created and accelerated the development of a new medium which has become known as the “concert promoters” or the “entertainment consultants”. These consultants have become vital members of the mass media entertainment industry, forming an essential part of the ever growing world of live performances, video games, musical theatre, and other forms of entertainment. They assist performers and other entertainers with booking or negotiating the sale of tickets, negotiate and get fees from performance theatres and video game operators, and otherwise assist in the smooth running of most live performances. Without these consultants no live show could ever survive.