Mainstream and Niche Differences

Firstly, mainstream is the ideas, attitudes, or activities that are shared by most people and regarded as normal or conventional. In some context to music, all the top 40 songs will be classed as mainstream as they are being streamed and downloaded the most out of all the other millions of songs out in the world to be listened to. This is also the same in the media, the movies and tv programs that are advertised the most will undoubtedly get the most views out of the other possible choices of programs and movies watched, this is because people have chosen that they are/have been interested in these programs/films, now the production companies know this and they want even more people to watch the show, which would cost a lot in advertising, however, the benefits to this would be bringing in a larger audience.

Niche, however, is when a program or film has been made specifically targeting a small portion of people, for example, the show "extreme fishing", this show is targeted towards fishermen specifically (mainly men), it is played in the early evening as this is when the people get back from work. This type of show would have a smaller budget than a mainstream show and would have less advertising because the return from the show would be less, so you would not bring in any new watchers because not everyone is interested in fishing, this is because there is only a certain amount of people that enjoy fishing and find watching these fishing programs entertaining and factual, the same goes for niche music and any other niche products in the world.

Alternative media would be an original not thought of before idea it could be something that could shape the future of the media as we know it, however if executed unprofessionally, it does not make any sense at all then the show/movie series may be axed and replaced with another type of program like the series "battle creek" shot by Vince Gilligan in 2014 which just did not take off, however, the series could have been massive, it was just a bit too different

In conclusion, an alternative media production could eventually turn into a niche piece which could then turn into a mainstream program/film, it just depends how much the producers are willing to change the piece to fit in with society. (in my opinion anyway).