Some useful music stuff

Death of the Longtail
https://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/the-death-of-the-long-tail/

Streaming Music Revenue Passes Downloads At Warner Music Group For 1st Time;
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2015/05/streaming-music-revenue-passes-downloads-at-warner-music-group-for-1st-time.html

"All models are better than piracy" > WMG boss warns rivals not to do away with freemium streaming
http://musically.com/2015/05/12/wmg-boss-freemium-at-the-stake/

"It won’t make people magically pay $9.99 a month" > Killing Freemium is the Worst Thing for Artists
https://medium.com/cuepoint/killing-freemium-is-the-worst-thing-for-artists-5c1b022bad78

The vinyl chart: album sales saviour or celebration of a small success?
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/apr/13/the-vinyl-chart-album-sales-saviour-or-celebration-of-a-small-success?CMP=share_btn_tw

Record Store Day.. Who really wins?
https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-toxicity-of-perception-8d4f151246e6

Streaming and Beyond: Apple Will Lead the Way to the Next Music Experience
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellevate/streaming-and-beyond-appl_b_6996898.html?


How much do musicians really make from Spotify, iTunes and YouTube?
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/03/how-much-musicians-make-spotify-itunes-youtube?CMP=twt_gu

Streaming, a "goldmine for acquiring huge fan bases"
http://blog.midem.com/2015/03/interview-nick-parry-streaming-services-goldmine-acquiring-huge-fanbases/#.VVM-x159RBV

94% of Radio 1’s most-played songs in 2014 were major label releases
http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/94-of-radio-1s-most-played-songs-in-2014-were-major-label-releases/

Streaming Report Card 2014
https://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/19/streaming-report-card-2014/

G322 INSTITUTIONS AND AUDIENCES past questions from Hélène Galdin-O'Shea

The areas you need to have notes, arguments, examples, case studies facts and figures on are:

Take one or two of these areas per day and collate all your info.

Difference between cross media and transmedia:

http://transmediajournalism.org/2014/04/21/multimedia-crossmedia-transmedia-whats-in-a-name/
http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-crossmedia-and-transmedia

Production - making the music product: writing, recording, mixing, etc. (If discussing this in an exam, issues relating to funding for production and the technologies that now enable artists to have home studios, etc. are all relevant).

Distribution - Getting the product/music to the audience, physically or digitally (release strategies are part of this).

Marketing - Often seen as part of the distribution process, this is about reaching an audience and promoting a product. (Consider the traditional forms of promotion, the more innovative approaches using online media, and also, cross media promotion and synergy as part of marketing).

Exchange - point at which the audience consumes or interacts with the music/product. Consider the wide range of ways in which this can happen now.

Independent – artist or label that is not managed by/owned by a Big 4 music group or large media conglomerate.  For example, Adele with XL or Dr Rubberfunk with Jalepeno Records

Major label – One of the Big 4 (soon to be Big 3?): Sony, Universal, Warner, EMI

Mass Audience – Large audience, covering a wide range of demographics, for example Leona Lewis (with Syco records – a Sony label) targeting an international audience.

Niche Audience – Smaller, more specialised audience, for example Dr Rubberfunk appeals to a niche audience and particularly those who are into funk or nu jazz genres of music.

Media Ownership – Who owns the music/media involved? What is the institutional structure? Who has creative control? Who dominates/has power in the music industry?

Conglomerate – Usually refers to huge organisations that own many smaller companies, often across different industries.  For example, Sony corporation who own a range of media and technology companies and are one of the 6 biggest media conglomerates (globally) – Sony Music group is one section of the Sony conglomerate.

Oligopoly – Domination by a few companies, for example the Big 4 dominate the music recording industry making it harder for independents to compete. (monopoly = domination by one, duopoly = domination by two).

Horizontal Integration - Where direct competitors within the same industry merge.  This reduces competition and costs.  Consider the number of record labels that come under the Sony Music Group now.  All the Big 4 are horizontally integrated within the music industry.

Horizontal integration can also be across a range of media industries within a media conglomerate. So, as described above, Sony music group is horizontally integrated as it has many record labels dealing with the production of music (between them they cover a large part of the market).

Lateral Integration - own companies across a range of media and other industries. Sony Corporation is a large media conglomerate who is laterally integrated across a range of media indusries, for example film, music and video games as well as producing media hardware, etc. If you put all of Sony's media companies together then they can be seen to be a dominant institution in global media (one of the 6 biggest media conglomerates).

Vertical integration - Where a company has a stake in production, distribution and exhibition.  Reduces costs and gives complete access to audiences without need to go elsewhere.  I.e. Sony is vertically integrated as has the capability to carryout the whole process from finding/developing talent all the way through to providing live music streaming services to audiences. Jalepeno records are not vertically integrated (they do deals with separate company Kudos for distribution, etc.).

Synergy - Where spin off products and services are created on the back of a successful music track, e.g. music videos.  Often involves companies, products or services coming together for mutual benefit and cross-promotion. 

Cross Media Convergence - This is always a tricky term and it is useful to consider it in relation to both technological convergence and synergy rather than in isolation. Cross media convergence can be understood as different media industries or media companies coming together, often this is to create more opportunities for promotion (including cross promotion and synergy) or to create new revenue streams.  The Beatles Rock Band and BBC's The Voice to demonstrate cross media convergence.  Music videos are also examples of this.  Cross media convergence can also be understood in terms of many forms of media all being accessible from one platform - you can see the overlap with technological convergence here.  There are an increasing number of websites that converge different media. For example, Facebook enables you to watch music videos, listen to Soundcloud clips, read music reviews, interact with the artist/band, play games/widgets relating to an artist, etc.

Technological Convergence - The process by which a range of media platforms are integrated within a single piece of media technology, e.g. a smartphone (used to need a number of different devices to access/use all the different types of media that you can now access/use with a Smartphone).

Proliferation of hardware & content - increasing numbers of new media devices are created which create opportunities for new media content (music, music videos, music apps, music TV, music films, music podcasts, viodcasts, social networking, etc.)

360 degree deal - Artist treated as a whole brand and all possible revenue streams (not just music) are exploited. See sheet on Moodle.

Meda platform - The technology (hardware or software - so includes websites/applications) that gives you access to media. 

Digital Aggregation - Digital aggregators (such as The Orchard or PIAS Digital) act as distributors in the online world, supplying downloads from labels and artists to online retailers (such as iTunes, Napster etc).

Some presentational software

Prezi... be sparing with it as endless Prezis make you lose the will to live. An alternative is to record yourself overdubbing the Prezi with something like Screencastify and then upload to Youtube

Emaze for presenting

Screencastify for screen recording

Quicktime for the same

Animation software: PowToon, Goanimate, Wideo

Glogster for interactive storytelling

Evaluation Guide and Mark Scheme

0. Candidates will evaluate their work digitally. Where candidates have worked in a group, the evaluation may be presented individually or collectively but the teacher must allocate a mark according to the contribution/level of understanding demonstrated by the individual candidate. Each candidate should give a clear indication of their role in any group evaluation. 
   
   The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are: 
• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
• How does your media product represent particular social groups? 
• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 
• Who would be the audience for your media product? 
• How did you attract/address your audience? 
• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 
• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? 
  
  
  
  
  0. Level 3 12–15 marks 
  • Proficient skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation. 
  • Proficient understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms 
    and conventions in relation to production. 
  • Proficient ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes. 
  • Proficient understanding of their development from preliminary to full task. 
  • Proficient ability to communicate. 
    
    Level 4 16–20 marks 
  • Excellent skill in the use of appropriate digital technology or ICT in the evaluation. 
  • Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production. 
  • Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes. 
  • Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task. 
  • Excellent ability to communicate. 

Easter Revision.

Like some kind of hideous Easter Bunny, I bring you gifts, not the type of gifts you want, but gifts nonetheless....

Could you please make notes and research for the following questions which will be turned into essays once we come back:

1. What impact does media ownership have upon the range of products available to audiences in the the music industry?

 
2.“Cross-media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to the music industry?

3.“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices.” To what extent would you agree with this statement?

 

 

Marketing and consumption

Consider and evaluate the role of digital technologies in the marketing and consumption of products in the music industry.

You need to construct an argument outlining your ideas, with references to the way consumer behaviour and music industry marketing has been transformed by digital technology. Use the articles from the handbook I gave you, and there are some additional articles both on my Twitter (twitter.com/rathmoremedia) and the Readlist embedded below. You need to use many of the terms in the list below. 20 marks for argument, 20 marks for examples, 10 marks for use of media terminology.

Spend at least one hour per day for the next 3 days researching and getting your ideas together to hand essay in on Friday.





Gamification
Push/Pull marketing
Convergence
Remix culture
Social Media
Apps-inreactive albums (Bjork)
Streaming
Youtube
Bandcamp
Shazam
BitTorrent
Changes in consumer behaviour (how your patterns of consumption have changed, along with other facts, figures, trends)
Paying for music/piracy/concerts
Apple/Amazon/Physical stores
SoLoMo Marketing

Main Task

It's very useful to have a look at http://ocrmediastudies.weebly.com/coursework-with-levels.html to get a sense of expectations and mark bands before you begin.

The brief:

Video 
Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. 
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. 
All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group. 

Full Specifciation: http://www.ocr.org.uk/images/81037-specification.pdf

There are 20 marks available for research and planning your project. The tasks detailed below will help you maximise your marks for this area:

1.You will give a detailed analysis of the codes and conventions of the chosen genre you have picked (this MUST NOT be a copy and paste exercise).
2. I would suggest that you would then choose a minimum of FIVE films to analyse in terms of titles, music, shot types, mise en scene and whether this film follows or challenges the codes and conventions for this genre.
3. Look at the target audience for the film and how each film attracted their target audience.
3. What type of company distributes your chosen films?
4. How have social groups been represented in these films and how does this relate to the target audience?
5. What are audience expectations for these films?
6. Try and present your findings in an interesting digital format (video-log, Glogster, Prezi, Wordle, Soundcloud, Slideshare, Blogger, Charts, Graphs, Questionnaires etc).

Marking Criteria

Marking Criteria for the Presentation of the Research and Planning

Research and Planning should be presented in digital format on blogs, using a wide variety of digital media for the presentation. Where candidates have worked as a group, this may be presented collectively, but teachers are asked to differentiate the contributions of individuals within the group in arriving at a mark and justifying individual marks on the assessment sheet. Each candidate should give a clear indication of their role in any group research and planning. As part of the moderation sample, the moderator will expect to see full evidence of the research and planning informing the construction process in order to support assessment. 

RESEARCH MS

Level 4 16–20 marks

•   Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed; 
•   There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience; 
•   There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props; 
•   There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding; 
•   There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning; 
•   Time management is excellent. 

VIDEO MSMARK SCHEME:
Level 4 48–60 marks

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills: 

•   material appropriate for the target audience and task; 
•   using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions; 
•   using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set; 
•   shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene; 
•   using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.