5 Software Tools That Professional Media Companies Use

[This article was written by Tara Thompson.]

Finding the right software for your business in 2019 with the abundance of options available isn’t easy. There are a number of quality tools out there, but which ones do the professionals use? Will they work for your business?

Hopefully, this list will help answer some of your questions.

Here are 5 software tools that professional media companies actually use:

Video and Audio Production Tools

The most obvious tools used by professional media companies are video and audio production software.

Like in many areas within media Adobe has cornered the market when it comes to video production on PC. Their Adobe Premiere Pro video editing software is top of the line and relatively affordable at $239.88.

Adobe Premiere offers a number of important features including, but not limited to:

• Simultaneous Projects.
• Motion Graphics Templates.
• Shared Projects.
• VR Editing.
• VR Rotate Sphere.
• VR Audio Editing.
• Effects.
• Video Titling & Graphics.

For Mac users, the ever-popular iMovie comes free with every Mac operating system, but the professionals use Final Cut Pro X.

Final Cut Pro X is Apple’s answer to Adobe Premiere Pro, it offers similar features with improved audio and ease of use, however, it also offers only 64 camera angles vs. nearly unlimited angles in Premiere Pro. Also, of course, Final Cut Pro X is only for Mac users and won’t work on PC.

On the audio side of things, FL Studio and Ableton are the most popular professional music production software programs in use. 

Also called Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) the software provided by FL studio and Ableton have created some of your favorite tracks and the two companies’ on-going rivalry for audio dominance has led to ever-improving offerings.

Data Management and Storage Software

With thousands of hours of audio and video produced on high-quality editing platforms, media and entertainment companies have some pretty serious data storage requirements.

Luckily, there are many data management software companies out there to help. The best software providers offer an all-in-one solution for data security and storage that is easy to use, compatible with industry software and hardware and offers in house support.

Due to media the huge amounts of capacity required to store media data, it is important to find companies that can store data both on the cloud and on LTO central disk storage. That way you are protected and have access even if the internet or cloud is down. 

When looking for data management and cloud storage software it’s important to find solutions that offer the appropriate speed and capacity.  If your software can’t provide 360MB/s uncompressed speed and 12TB uncompressed capacity, then it may be time to make a switch if you want to compete in the media and entertainment industry.

Social Media 

Every company in the modern era needs to be social media savvy, but especially media companies. That means going beyond the insights page on Instagram or Facebook and using software to help manage and improve your social media presence. 

You may be able to access viewer data and your average impression vs. reach with simple analytics, but there is so much more you can do with software tools. 

First, you can use apps like Gain for social media post scheduling. Scheduling apps help make sure you never miss a post while making things more organized and easy to use.

Another software tool you can use for social media is Hootsuite. Hootsuite is one of the most popular pieces of software for social media. It can help you manage, execute and track the progress of social media posts. If you like statistics and want more than the usual facebook insights than try looking into some of these social media tools, they can make a world of difference.

Design Tools

Design tools can be invaluable resources for media companies seeking to make graphics, edit photos, design logos, draw vector graphs, enhance website design, etc. Once again, Adobe dominates the market here with Adobe Illustrator CC and Adobe Photoshop CC.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud is the industry standard for design professionals, still, there are a number of other tools out there to help professionals that are design-related, but don’t actually design anything.

Take, Filestage, an online approval and review tool that allows design professionals to work together more efficiently as an example. Or there is ProofHub’s Proofing Tool which helps make design changes and task management within design campaigns easier. 

Design tools can be some of the most difficult pieces of software to operate for the uninitiated, but these tools are also some of the most valuable for real professionals. 

Video Collaboration Tools

In 2019, not only do you need separate tools for video and audio production, but also for video collaboration, at least if you want to be a pro.

Video collaboration software tools like Remark and Wipster are becoming increasingly common due to their ability to increase overall productivity in media operations.

The ability to upload video content from Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia and Amazon, then easily start discussions around specific timestamps within a video can really save media professionals time.

Video collaboration software is a tool of the future for the layman, but for professionals, it is quickly becoming a necessity. 

In the 20th century, a blacksmith’s hammer may have been their most valuable possession. In 2019, software tools have become the modern equivalent for media companies. Without these invaluable resources, many businesses, movies, and songs simply wouldn’t exist. 

Hopefully, this list of software tools the professionals use can help your business find it’s 21st-century hammer.

Author Bio:

Tara is a contributing writer for Markitors, a Digital Marketing Company. In her free time, she enjoys reading as well as crocheting.