Technology is driving the digital revolution while consumers increasingly embrace innovative solutions for their media consumption. Global smartphone ownership crossed the 2 billion mark in 2014 and it’s expected to reach an incredible 4.6 billion by 2019. Our world is now connected through the internet and social media in ways that exceed even the wildest imaginations of technology innovators from the past.

The growing access to a myriad of devices, such as smartphones, smart speakers, connected cars and connected homes, enables people to be online virtually anywhere and anytime, consuming music and television shows on-the-go. And it is this fundamental shift in consumer behavior and technological advancement that’s driving the rapid growth of music and video streaming, along with the rising importance of data and its ability to alter the creation and delivery of all media types.

The coming year will bring a multitude of new utilizations of technologies to the forefront. It’s expected that voice-controlled technology will take on a much larger role in the near future, following the success of Amazon’s Echo smart home device and the company’s Alexa personal assistant. Forthcoming innovations in voice tech hold the potential to radically alter the manner in which consumers search for and listen to music, resulting in an even bigger impact on revenue moving forward. Machine learning and artificial intelligence will increasingly penetrate the media industry, as the analytical sector develops innovative solutions to make data input actionable.

Perhaps most importantly, technology will continue to greatly improve the consumer experience. From enhancing discovery abilities to providing increasingly personalized and curated content delivery, the digital world holds the potential to entertain people in incredible ways that were once relegated to dreams.