Distribution

Distribution is the way a media product is shared, spread out or released so that an audience can actually get to it. A finished product that nobody receives has not really been distributed, so the route you choose affects who can access it and how quickly they receive it.

Online distribution

Online distribution sends the product over the internet. It covers the World Wide Web, meaning pages viewed in a browser, and other internet services such as streaming, which delivers audio and video as it plays. Nothing physical changes hands: the audience streams or downloads the file onto a device they already own, so the product can be with them in seconds.

Online distribution is used for:

• video, music and podcasts, such as a youth theatre group making a filmed version of its pantomime available to download from its website
• image sharing and social media, such as a school art department hosting a gallery of students' ceramic work on the school website
• digital publishing, such as news and reviews: a school science department puts its revision newsletter on the school website as a PDF

Physical distribution

Physical distribution puts the product onto a tangible item the audience can hold, such as paper, a disc or a memory stick. That item is printed or copied, packaged and then handed over, posted or sold, so the audience must have the item in front of them before they can use the product.

For example, a model railway club prints a track-plan booklet to sell at its open day, while a downloadable copy sits on the members' webpage for people who have moved away. One product, two routes: the club reaches visitors who want a printed keepsake at the event and former members who want it straight away.