Marks

Danny Answer

To what extent, does youtube and other online music sources, affect how music is viewed or heard and how it is promoted.

Online music sources such as Youtube, Myspace and iTunes have affected how music is promoted and viewed to a great extent.
Since Web 2.0 was introduced the music industry has had a incredibly large re-vamp especially the way music is Produced, marketed and exchanged, Music simply doesn't follow the conventions of those three things anymore.

Beck for example, releases the sheet music for his 'music' and his dedicated, niche fans take the music and interpret how they want, then post their versions online via Youtube, This not only gets their versions listened to all over the world to an audience of millions but also is free advertising and marketing for Beck, Some of his more capable fans have even released their versions on iTunes, where they are making money off people downloading them, since Beck hasn't copyrighted his work his fans can actually make profit from his work, if it wasn't for new digital distributions then Beck wouldn't be able to do what he does, because the PDE isn't conventional anymore the way Beck creates a relationship with his fans and how the revamped exchange stage happens is that Beck has his own website where he shares his favourite versions of his fans music. The fans do all the producing and distribution for him, and if it wasn't for digital distribution then this wouldn't be able to happen and wouldn't work. 

Participatory culture is where the fans take charge and become prosumers,they release their own versions of songs by singing covers or releasing mash-ups, Digital media has introduced this new culture as before Youtube, fans would simply buy the CD's and merchandise and attend concerts, that was all the involvement that was needed off them, now fans are actually taking samples of music from all era's and putting them together to create a 'new' song, the way the music is now consumed and marketed is heavily depended on to whether the artist is successful, for example 'Gangnam Style' the recent online world-wide phenomenon by the Korean artist Psy, wouldn't have been as popular if it wasn't for youtube, the fact an artist from the other side of the world can reach an audience over this side of the world is all down to youtube, and other digital media and distributions , his 'song' heavily relied on visualisation and the viral music video that went along with the song, if it wasn't for digital distribution then Gangnam style wouldn't have even reached the borders of Korea and if it wasn't for the participatory culture of his fans recreating the dance and song and posting them online  and digitally distributing and in a way marketing his song for him for free using Youtube then he wouldn't be successful today.

Even Major labels such as Sony have been taking full advantage of digital distributions, such as Youtube and iTunes. Because Syco is a conglomerate of Sony and Syco owns the rights to X-factor, when the contestants perform on the live shows, Sony has been taking advantage by releasing the contestants songs on to iTunes for their audience to download making money for Sony. The whole TV programme is a advertising campaign for the contestants after they have finished the competition to build a fan-base so in the future they are already known, they have a fan-base making it easier for them to break out into the market because they are already known. X-factor have their own youtube channel where during the competition, they would release videos of the contestants behind the scenes and weekly updates, this allows the fans to get an inside look and feel they have a personal connection with the artists, in exchange for these videos and songs the fans like and subscribe and buy and download the music, an example of this is ONE DIRECTION, who throughout their time in the competition, they uploaded videos of them singing and doing daily things building and creating a relationship with their fans.  Also Major record labels such as Sony have taken advantage of synergy by having conglomerate companies in different areas of media, for example when one of Sonys signed artists releases a song, in this day and age music heavily relises in visualisation so a music video is needed, well Sony already has a production company that can make music videos so it saves them money and then the music video will be posted online on Youtube for example creating free advertising and marketing saving Sony more money, so digital distribution is not only changing the way audiences view or listen to the music or even how the music is sold or marketed its actually saving the record companies money in near enough all areas, massively changing and to a large extent affecting how the music industry is run.

Its not only major record labels taking advantage of digital distributions, Indie labels are also using digital distributions to reach a wider audience and make more money, for example Domino Records, is a UK based indie record label who have signed artists such as The Arctic Monkeys, they have bases in the USA, Germany and France allowing them to reach a wider audience creating a larger fan-base generating more record sales, the only reason why Domino records is able to reach a worldwide audience and still be a indie label is because of digital distributions and online media such as youtube, and their online website, so even though Domino is a indie label they use many of the same techniques as major labels even taking advantage of synergy by having a publishing company and film and TV, and it all derives from the fact they use digital distributions to market and allow their worldwide fans to consume their music.

As you can see digital distributions and online music sources has massively to large extent affected the way the music industry works and not just for the small insignificant bands but for the major large record labels.

Benn- Mock

To a large extent digital distribution benefits independent and DIY artists as it allows them to promote and share there music to a larger world wide audience for free, on the other hand it would affect the major labels as they would loose out on profits due to illegal downloads. It has now lead to Major record labels focusing less on the main meaning of songs and relying on the visuals to make them sell.

 Someone who this would affect in a positive way is Beck who is an example of a DIY artist. He created many different songs but just in the form of sheet music, Beck then relied on a niche audience of prosumers to make the music using there own personal interpretation and if they wanted to create a music video. Beck then allowed them to share there music on YouTube and his website for anyone to listen to and take inspiration. This hasn't devalued music in any way, if anything it us adding more purpose and creating better relationships with audiences getting them more engaged with it. A similar thing goes on with the Independent Labels with places like YouTube, Soundcloud, ITunes, Spotify and MySpace it becomes very easy for absolutely any to create and share music to a world wide audience in some cases for free. People can listen to there music on there phones, laptop, computers and tablets whenever and wherever they want you can download or stream music to absolutely anything. This makes it very easy for the audience to listen to it and also find new music which they might be interested in with suggestion box's on music sites.

 On to a company which this would effect in both positive and negative ways. Major labels like Sony would loose out on a lot of profits through digital distribution as it means that people can easily download there music illegally, sometimes for there own personal use but also for something that could benefit the huge conglomerates in the long run. With many people using the web there are many 'prosumers' with is an audience that create there own music. If done well mash-ups, created by prosumers, can benefit the a major label such as Sony as it will include music that they have released and when people listen to the mash-up they could hear bits of many songs that they liked or use to like but forgot about and re-visit them and download them which can help boost sales and also promotes music for free. Although that helps it is not enough alone to Major labels, so they look at what music is popular; for example they may take into consideration what is being downloaded a lot on ITunes or what is most watched on YouTube and create more of the same type of music. It also means that they focus less on producing new acts and constantly re model and make new bands similar to another one, constantly relying on visuals to make people buy the songs. They take out the meaning of songs ad catchy lyrics and a good beat then make high budget music videos for people to watch, so in a way they are adapting to the idea of being able to listening music online, but adding something for them to watch too. This is usually viewed by a very mainstream audience. Sony (a major label) relies on many ways to promote their bands, for example One Direction have a online video game, TV programmes and are currently shooting there first film with Syco (connected to Sony) which is a type of Synergy.

 Overall I believe that digital distribution benefits the much smaller Independent and DIY as it makes it easier to distribute and market there music to a world wide audience, although it is forcing these larger Major labels to constantly produce mainstream non original acts, these independent and DIY names are becoming recognised and shared adding new value to the industry and creating better relationships with a niche audience of dedicated fans, a community of people that would follow them from start to finish and feel a part of the band.

Question 1

It is significant because as the music is accessible online via hundreds of digital media including YouTube and spotify etc. for example Beck uses song reader for his fans to create their own versions of his song and put them on YouTube and even make money off his song by putting their versions on iTunes, whereas the prosumers and the mashups use the Internet to cover a song and create their own songs by using samples of other music.

Benn- Beck v X Factor

Beck is classed as a DIY artist, this is when they go out and do everything themselves how they want when they want to please and smaller Niche audience, this would make them want to stay and follow the artist more as they don't release one album which people like then re image themselves for profits and change there style completely. The reason why Beck doesn't change is because he is a DIY artist he doesn't have a major record label behind forcing him to change his style to what everyone likes. Compared to X Factor which is made by Simon Cowell who own a company called Syco which is part of the Major Record Label Sony who constantly produce mainstream Artists who are made to change to what is popular and do what people want to see to keep a large income for the company.

Beck doesn't devalue music as he is adding something new that has not been done before, he does this by creating the music (sheet music) but all the audience and dedicate fans produce the songs and videos. As the songs have never been preformed by him it is down to them to give there own personal interpretation of the song and each person gives it something new and original. This means that the audience feel more apart of the music and will want to listen to and interact with more bands. I find that X Factor devalues music as it is just focusing on the visuals not so much the music they are not creating new stuff just re using the old to get more sales, Beck doesn't rely on Visuals at all he relays on prosumers.

As previously stated X Factor relies heavily on visuals as if they look good some people are blinded and don't care about the music itself, every year the new contestants come out all dressed up in nice clothes with there hair done all fancy giving 'sob stories' to make people feel sorry for them and vote. It makes you wonder if its just a huge 'beauty pageant' instead of a singing contest. When they preform the songs they very rarely bring anything new to the song they just 'imitate' the original, although this helps them receive a larger fan base as you have current fans and then people that where fans of the original song thinking I remember this song which makes them watch it more in case they do other old songs they like. This really isn't moving the music industry forward but instead moving backwards.

Both X Factor and Beck have strong relationships with the audience. With X Factor they do this by finding acts people find visually appealing they can then follow the progress of the band/artist and feel more apart of them, they audience also interact by voting for acts they like, this is a good indication to X Factor as they act on them by seeing what styles work with what band and what would sell. Beck forms relationships with his audience by making his stuff more focused around them and relying on his dedicated fan base and prosumers to make his music, he then got the to share them online for everyone to see and comment on.

Production, Distribution and Exchange is very different with Beck and X Factor, Beck just does part of the production (the writing of the music) it is then down to the audience to produce the song make the video, distribute it online it is then down to the community to vote on which they find the best and enjoy which is exchange. With X Factor it is all mixed together and they mainly rely on exchange to help produce the acts and distribute them to make the more popular.

DANNY- Beck v Xfactor

Comparison between Beck and X-factor.

Both of these subjects can be placed into the music industry but whether both of them can be called real music is debatable. Firstly the type of audience for both categories is completely different, Beck has a small dedicated ‘niche’ of fans, they are there solely for the music, the point this makes and that I think Beck is trying to make is that he doesn’t want to reach the majority, his small niche of fans is perfect for him because they do not want nor need the visualisation that many other music productions have, the fans get the written material and they can interpret this music however they feel it should be, making his fans into Prosumers, they are the ones who are involves in the production of the music by making their own interpretations and then putting their videos online and even on iTunes so make money of Becks written work , whereas X-factor on the other hand has a TV audience that reaches the millions so as it is on TV people of all ages can view the music, the music is more mainstream and conventional and so are x-factors audience.

The relationships these create with their different audiences are again completely different, Becks fans create the actual music and then he chooses what styles he likes and puts them on his website and plays them at his concerts, this makes the fans feel closer to the musician and feel they played a part in the creation of his music, whereas x-factors audience phone in each week to keep the contestant they want to win, this is similar as they also feel they have not played a part in the creation of the music but feel involved in the creation of the musicians success, the audience vote in exchange for money this gives a level of interaction.

The real question is whether it is devaluing the music, I argue that Beck doesn’t devalue the music as it is completely original there is no-one out there who does what he does on that scale, his way of making music gets rid if the superficial-ness of the visual marketing and distributions which sometimes especially recently prioritise over the actual music production itself, X-factor on the other hand I think does devalue the music because the contestants rarely write their own material and if they do, ironically they are usually voted off the competition in the first few weeks, the music is usually recycled form Sony’s back catalogue of music, the music follows the current convention music tastes and nothing new is produced.

Visualisation plays a huge role in the music industry these days, and x-factor contributes to this massively, firstly as x-factor is first and foremost a TV programme it has to be visual to keep the millions of different viewers entertained, recently they have dropped ion ratings so the latest series they made the productions bigger and for extravagant to keep the public watching, and sometimes the bigger visuals are usually to distract from the fact the majority of the contestants have not got great music capability to say the least. This is completely different to Beck as his music is just that, music, he doesn’t create any visuals, its his fans that make the music videos to go with their interpretations of his music, he doesn’t actually do any visualisation until his concerts, which after research only seem to be the normal flashing stage lights and a screen showing some of his fans versions.

The PDE (Production, Distribution and Marketing is completely different in each case, in X-factors case, the ‘fans’ pay for the production by paying to vote for their favourite contestant to stay in the competition, the votes provide weekly audience feedback for exchange so the record companies involved can see what is popular and what’s not, giving them a great opportunity to see what is trending , the distribution on the show is marketed through scandals, adverts and news paper headlines, each week the show will put the contestants songs on iTunes for people to pay and download, giving the show more money, Beck is completely different as he skips the production stage altogether as he just writes the music and distributes the music as a book and not a CD or iTunes download, so his music is sold through Waterstone’s or Amazon, Beck exchanges the music for the different interpretations.

Q3- Benn

I agree with the statement as many songs that have been poor have got into the charts and top 10 on YouTube because people take the song and do their interpretations of it. For example 'Harlem Shake' by Baauer isn't particularly a good song which you would think a song writer has sat down for days creating, improving and putting real meaning into, it is just a bunch if sounds put together which people could do a funny dance to as it is irrational and spontaneous. Another example of this would be Lady Gaga who's eccentric clothing draws attention to her, because of this people remember her and look her up to see what she does. Although the music itself is poor people remember and are attracted by the visuals. Places like X Factor do not help this as they make band and promote bands they know will sell purely on visuals for example One Direction many girls fantasise over but only for there looks as they re use music they know will sell as it has a past audience, so they get money from the old audience who liked it when it was first released and the new audience who support the band, this is called a back catalogue.