Marketing In The Music Industry - Past & Present

In the past, local music acts could only normally reach a fanbase in their area, until - if they're good enough - are signed to a label, thus achieving wider audiences throughout their country or even worldwide. Before this, a music label representitive would attend one of their shows and possibly offer them a deal.

However now, these local bands can achieve a worldwide fanbase by using sevices such as Spotify, Bandcamp and Myspace. For labels, this means that they only need to search the internet very easily to find unsigned acts with 1000s of followers. Any band or project can release an album with virtual 0 money, and distribute it for free only as no packaging is involved.

• Digital Natives - People who have grown up in the modern digital age and the Internet. (1990s-????)
• Digital Immigrants - People who try to adapt and understand the use of digital technology and the Internet. (Pre-1990s)

P2P are sites where users can share files illegally (piracy) which majorly hit the music industry with the release of Napster.

We will have to consider the 5 stages of production:

• Production
• Distribution
• Marketing
• Exchange
• Consumption

Preliminary Task/Magazine Analysis

Here is the preliminary task that I completed for my AS Media coursework portfolio. From looking at this, there are a severe amount of lacking elements that would be universally found throughout publications. This is due to the fact that the text used is very unappealing because of appearing in the position that it is in. Another problem with this piece of work is that the title uses WordArt which is known for its unprofessional look and doesn't fit in with the rest of the newsletter.The background of this work uses the gradient tool which is too known for being unprofessional, as you can see it doesn't blend well at all with any other features on the page. The final part of this work that makes it unappealing is the photograph used, since it does not adhere to the rule of thirds, and is too large for the page thus making it look in all honest very abhorrent.

Despite the major flaws in the design and layout of this work, some aspects can be acknowledged such as the use of issue number and date, which are general features of all publications. The last good thing I could say about this newsletter is that the image is somewhat school related.

This is the finished music magazine front cover that I had completed. From looking at this in comparison with the previous task, there are many differences. Notably, the professional look of this magazine is very good because of the many features that this front cover utilizes. This can be seen from the puffs and pugs used, the barcode and different (but not random) styles of text I think the colours blend well in terms of both the photos and text colour as they are synonymous with the style of a Heavy Metal music magazine. It gives information to the reader such as what bands are featured in the magazine, as well as major articles that are included. Other details that are used are issue numbers/price, a distinctive header and a tagline.
What I didn't like about this magazine is the placing of the text, looking back on this project I would have placed the font somewhere else on the page. I would also like to change some of the fonts and font colours as I feel they are a little out of place on the magazine.

Other than those few small details, I believe I utilized in using many features that are present on Adobe Photoshop. These features include the lasso tool, magnetic lasso, layer transparency filter, shadow, bevel & emboss and gradient tools.

The History Of Online Streaming, and the Rise Of Online StreamingServices

During the late 80's and early 90's, Internet users saw a greater increased capacity of bandwidth, access to larger networks such as the Internet (and USENET), the standardisation of protocols and formats (such as HTML, TCP) and the general commercialization of the Internet.

In 1993, 'Severe Tire Damage' was the band to play live, streamed over the Internet while scientists in the building they were performing in were discussing about new technologies with streaming.

In 1995, the first baseball game was streamed over the Internet by RealNetworks, a pioneer in online media streaming.

Recently though, major advances in hardware and improvement of Internet speeds have seen the rise of a market worth billions - Online Streaming. Services such as Netflix, LoveFilm and Spotify have allowed users to stream content directly to their computer, or other devices.

The first main company that was flung into the mainstream was YouTube, were users could upload videos for other users to watch, comment and like. This service became instantly popular due the service being free. After being bought by Google in 2006, it was brought new features such as video editing, Adsense (we're users can make money off how many views/clicks they obtain) and live streaming.

Now, streaming companies such as Netflix offer a subscription-based service were it allows users to watch as many as over 40,000 titles while Spotify (which is currently the biggest music streaming service) offer songs for free, but have an option to buy the premium service which allows Spotify to be used on phone devices, and that there are no adverts.
There are various scenarios and threories based around what future holds for both the internet and online streaming. This fall under four studies:

• Common Pool Scenario
• Bootique Networks Scenario
• Moats and Drawbridge Scenario
• Porous Garden Scenario

To what extent has the internet changed the TV and film industry?

The extent that the TV and film industry has changed because of the effect that the internet has had on it is unprecedented, much like every technological sector. Before the days of broadband internet and fibre optics, the TV and film industry was very different. The main change to this was the way DVD’s and films were distributed. Shop’s such as Blockbusters would physically store these in their stores so that people could visit the store and purchase them. But now in the broadband era, services such as Netflix offer streaming whereby 1000’s of TV and film titles can be watched through paying subscriptions.

This new surge has brought the demise of many famous high-street retails such as HMV and Blockbusters, both going into administration and announces store closures across the UK. This leads to an uncertain outlook on what may lie for high-street retailers as the internet is becoming a more viable option to stream services and sell goods. From this, organizations such as Amazon have benefited greatly from this due to the fact that they house massive warehouses of niche products, making them available to be purchased online. This is also because people would rather buy a collection of things at the click of a button and wait a few days for it to ship, than travel out to a store to purchase the same products.

Storing thousands of niche products is a key aspect of what is called The Long Tail Theory. Published by Chris Anderson in 2006, this theory states that the amount of sales of more varied, niche products equals the amount of popular sales that are made by a company. For example, if a music distributor were selling items of thousands of obscure, niche bands it would equate to the money made by just selling the same amount of items by more popular groups. This can also be shown in the graph below.

 

This theory is what the streaming service Netflix employed, making niche titles available to the masses making them to eventually buy more popular titles as they continue to grow. Netflix was again in the spotlight a few weeks ago, due to the release of its highly-anticipated remake 'House of Cards', which stars Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey and acclaimed director David Fincher who worked on films such as 'Seven and 'Fight Club'. The show is a major production, with reports saying that Netflix will pay $100 million for two 13-episode seasons.
The debut will be available to watch for non-members for the first month, as Netflix not only aims to increase its customer base, but single-handedly change the TV industry as a whole in their favour. The problem the company has had is getting permission from the biggest distribution companies to showcase their TV shows and movies on their site.

This is an expensive and risky strategy because Netflix is competing with the likes of Google Amazon and Apple.

This has been met with both positive and negative views, people say that it has revolutionized the way we watch TV by making every episode available to watch straight away. Negative views stem from the fact that it doesn’t feel like a TV-experience anymore, and that the rise of different social networks make it almost impossible to avoid spoilers in this sort of way.

To conclude, I believe that the extent of which the internet has changed these industries is very pronounced and almost inevitable. To me now, watching TV programmes and films online has lost some of the experience it used to have, such as travelling to the store and looking through all the films they had to offer whereas now you can simply click what you want albeit somewhat easier. I feel though that despite this, brick and mortar stores will face even more tougher times until they too meet their demise, which seems quite disappointing but exited to see what the future holds – in terms of more advancements –for the TV and film industry.

How Netflix is changing the TV industry

Netflix is in the spotlight this week, due to the release of its highly-anticipated remake 'House of Cards', which stars oscar-winner Kevin Spacey and acclaimed director David Fincher who worked on films sich as 'Seven and 'Fight Club'. The show is a major production, with reports saying that Netflix will pay $100 million for two 13-episode seasons.

The debut will be available to watch for non-members for the first month, as Netflix not only aims to increase its customer base, but single-handedly change the TV industry as a whole in their favor. The problem the company has had is getting permission from the biggest distribution companies to showcase their TV shows and movies on their site.

This is an expensive and risky strategy because Netflix is competing with the likes of Google Amazon  and Apple.

Netflix won the rights nearly two years ago, outbidding the likes of HBO and AMC with a massive upfront commitment of $100 million for 26 episodes (or two seasons). The company has an exclusive two-year window on the series.

 

Sadly, there

Distribution and The Web

Broadband connection has opened up to a new wave of commercial streaming and downloading services for users to use. These can range from torrent sites, to online streaming services. The pre-broadband era made it impractical for these services to be avaible as downloading films could take up to as much as 48 hours whereas now it can take 15 minutes to download a feature-length film.

Crowdsourcing & Crowdfunding

What is Jeff Howe's Definition of Crowd Sourcing?

The basic idea of crowdsourcing is to tap into the collective intelligence of the public to complete larger business-orientated tasks that the company would either do itself or to a third-party provider.

What does the video believe is the key to successful crowd-sourcing?

The video suggested that the key to successful crowd-sourcing are the communities in which it is being done. He talked about how these communities are the 'building-blocks' of crowd-sourcing and shows how they can manage and create more content.

Why do "crowds" form on the internet? Are you part of an online crowd- if so which?

Crowds form on the internet due to a common shared interest with other people, which form small communities and websites to gather on. These communities then talk about these interest through forums, chatrooms and instant messaging.

What are the crucial terms in Jeff Howes idea of crowd-sourcing? why is this crucial?

• Open-call
• Undefined

These terms mean that the most qualified person to help may not be the best or most suitable to do it.

Name two reasons why this type of crowd-sourcing is now possible?

Crowd-sourcing is now available due to many reasons, the main one being the internet which has opened new communities. This leads to more people able to be connected in various communities, share ideas and create shared content.

Another reason is the availibility of new software such as Photoshop, which is a medium to create various content on that people have shared interests in.

How effective do you believe it to be?

I believe that this is really effective because the internet has been able to make crowds communicate almost instantaneously, with content being created by different users all the time.

What do you think is the motivation behind it?

I think the motivation behind for the purpose of people collaborating together to create the best pieces of content - of which they are interested in - of which they can be happy about.

Name three advantages and disadvantages of a crowd-sourcing?

• Information can be gathered quickly and easily for a very cheaper price.
• This can be used to get amateurs (or recreational) into the market that would be dominated by one company.
• It can bring communities together to create a piece of collaborative content.

• Crowd-sourcing could potentially not provide best quality content.
• The company would be putting a large amount of trust into a community to create this content, which may not entirely work out.
• Crowd-sourcing has to be suitable for what wants to be created, so therefore can't be used for everything.

A recent example of successful crowdourcing was run by Ford to create the first ever spectator-filmed commercial and was filmed using various cameras and mobile phones. Ford even chose 8 active members of their Facebook page and flew them down to Key West so that they could help film.

Does Web 2.0 even exist?

Over many years, there has been some debate to whether even Web 2.0 actually exists. This is mainly due to the fact that there is no coherent answer for the definiton of Web 2.0. Other ideas include that the Web was always meant to be not just connecting computers, but connecting people - and that the improvement of technology together with a marketing ploy used by social networking sites concieved the term as a marketing term.

"Skeptics argue that the term is essentially meaningless, or that it means whatever its proponents decide that they want it to mean in order to convince the media and investors that they are creating something fundamentally new, rather than continuing to develop and use well-established technologies."

There has also been a debate that many sites can't be catergorized as 'Web 2.0' due to the fact that they are wholey different and share little similarities with one another.

Here is a link to an article were Web Creator Tim Berners-Lee talks about his views on the existance of Web 2.0:

http://arstechnica.com/business/2006/09/7650/


Other useful links:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/ip-telephony/web-2-0-it-doesnt-exist/805
http://www.syntagmamedia.com/2005/10/23/does-web-20-exist/

Development Of The Internet

When the World Wide Web was first conceived by Tim Berners-Lee?

The ideas were proposed in 1989-1990, before being impletemented in a program called 'WorldWideWeb' in 1991.

When the first website was launched and what it featured?

The first web page went live on August 6, 1991.  It was dedicated to information on the World Wide Web project and was made by Tim Berners-Lee. It ran on a NeXT computer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN.

When was first ever banner ad?

The first clickable web ad (which later came to be known by the term "banner ad") was sold by Global Network Navigator (GNN) in 1993 to Heller, Ehrman, White and McAuliffe, a now defunct law firm with a Silicon Valley office.

When was the launch of YouTube?

Youtube was launched in Febraury 2005, then later being acquired by Google.  When was google.com first registered?

The domain for google.com was registered in September 4, 1997.

When did broadband internet become available and how did it changed our habits online?

When was amazon.com was first launched?

When did the term “Web2.0” became frequently used?

 

Obama Twitter Campaign

In 2008 Obama took to twitter in the hopes of helping to secure money for his fundraising campaign, and accoring to many sources including Time Magazine this was one of the main reasons he was able to win the campaign as he did. The reason for this was simple, even though Obama's rivals had more big money backers than he did, Obama's twitter campaign brought in more small money backing though the use of email, mobile, website and of course Social Media sites such as twitte and facebook. It has been shown that in 2008 Obama raised $500Mil for his campaign, $403Mil of which was funded by digital means.

Blockbusters Goes Into Administration

Over 500 stores are now set to close as Blockbusters announces administration, but the surpirse is theat the administrators believe the core of the business is still profitable. 3 reasons for this is digital technology, competition from discounted online sales and the continuing sqeeze from economic downturn.

Now, it's up against agressively-priced offers of streaming video content from Netflix and Lovefilm. This is particularly dificult for Blockbuster's business model to compete with multiple episodes and box sets.

Christmas trading reports so far show it's online that's le[t successful retailers' numbers rising while those without an adequate strategy for online sales are struggling.

HMV Goes Into Administration

HMV has been in the news this week after announcing it going into administrations, meaning that the last major music retailer on the high street may disappear forever. The demise of HMV is a sad reminder for those who began buying music in the 80's/90's that life will never be the same again.

High street shops such as Virgin Megastore, Tower, Zavvi and Our Price have already disappeared in conjunction with the rise of illegal downloads and sites such as Amazon, Play.com and iTunes.

You could say that HMV has gone into administration after not adapting to Chris Anderson's Long Tail Theory, were despite the store stocking certain obscure artists/DVDs their was nothing there to guarentee its availability. Thus HMV lost out to other online retailers digging them even more into a £176 million debt.

Ofcom

Ofcom is a independant regulation body which handles complaints for broadcasting. It regulates on the content of advertisements, television shows and radio broadcasts that are broadcast to the general public, as well as this it covers postal regulation and telecommications.

Regarding the BBC, Ofcom regulates their television and radio broadcasts to see that the program(s) are abiding the certain codes of practice. Issues covered by Ofcom include phone line rates, content featured on these broadcasts and the accuracy of information shown on various programs.

Sponsorhip is where companies pay broadcasters to have their products/services

Amazon/Play.com In The News

Amazon offers free MP3's to CD buyers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/amazon/9793647/Amazon-offers-free-MP3s-to-CD-buyers.html

Amazon are offering free MP3's of the CD's they have bought going back to 1998. This includes more than 50,000 CD's from Sony, Warner and many other independant labels. This service is only available in the US at the moment but is hoping to be available in the UK at the end of 2013.

Play.com closes direct retail service.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-20953357

Play are moving out of the direct retail business intending to become a marketplace on from march 2013. In a statement Play.com said: "Moving forward we are intending to focus exclusively on our successful marketplace, which is our main business area, and to phase out the direct-retail part of our business."

Chris Anderson's 'The Long Tail' Theory (2006)

In 2006, Chris Anderson published a paper on how media in the online age has affected retailers to stock more variety of niche products, called 'The Long Tail' Theory. As shown in the graph above, there may be more volume of popular products, but businesses are stocking more lesser-known or 'niche' products since there being a lot more of them, thus called 'The Long Tail'.

'All those niches add up. Although none sell in huge numbers, there are so many niche products that collectively they can comprise a market rivalling the hits.'

(Anderson 2006: 53)

This theory can be applied to many industries, but the one I will be applying it to is the music industry. For example, A music store pre-internet era would stock only the most popular 'top-hitting' forms of music in their stores, while other 'underground' forms had to be sought after through various means. But now in the internet era,  these niche forms of music can be easily found and bought alongside the most popular forms of music.