4. Section B will pose a question about the media industry you have
studied. You might find the question hard or confusing, but you have to
answer it! Again you will have 45 minutes and what you use for the
content of your answer will depend upon the area you have studied,
your precise case studies and the question itself. But these are the things
you should know about in order to face any possible question...
Production Funding Distribution Marketing Exchange
Do you know what these mean? How do they apply to your industry?
Ownership- who owns your case study examples? what is the
significance of this?
cross-media convergence and synergy- what's the difference and how
do these apply?
technology- how important have recent changes in it been? hardware
and proliferation (just means spread)- what impact has new hardware
had on your industry?
technological convergence- in what ways does this apply to your
industry? targeting audiences- who is targeted and how?
5. 1. Break down the question
Circle key terms in the question. Spend
time making sure you understand what the
question is asking and what the focus
should be in your answer.
2. Plan your answer
Mind maps using the key terms from the
question and your case study examples
could help. You should get to a point where
you can list what each paragraph in your
answer will be about. A logical structure is
important.
6. Read the Question Carefully
You have no choice of questions, so you have to have a go
at what is there on the paper; sometimes students panic
and think that they don't understand the question-
maybe because of one particular word- but so long as you
have prepared on all the concepts there will be
something in the question that you recognise.
Words like 'technology', 'convergence', 'distribution',
'marketing', 'digital' come up and you should see them as
your 'hook' into the question.
Even if the overall wording seems to be baffling, look for
the terms that are there in the question and see them as
the springboard for your answer.
9. Don't spend ages on an
introduction
You only have 45 minutes to answer the question,
so there isn't time to waffle! A quick sentence
which sets out what you are going to do and which
media area or industry you are going to use will
suffice.
You can prepare a lot of this in your head in
advance, so something like: In this essay, I shall
write about (concept) in relation to the (music)
industry, drawing on (examples) as my case studies.
10. Know your examples
Whichever industry you are writing about, you
will need examples to support your points. I
would always advocate having some contrasting
examples so that you can look at all angles; for
example compare a major record label with a
little UK indie label. That way, you can talk about
the different ways in which the industry might
operate in different circumstances.
11. Try to be systematic
Don't jump about between points; spend a bit of
time at the start of the exam planning the structure
of your answer and working out the main points
and examples for each paragraph.
Know what key points you will make in each
paragraph, what examples you will refer to and how
you want to make a case from it all.
Use similarity and difference as starting points for
organising an argument; there will be differences
between mainstream and indie which you might
use as your way through, for example.
12. Make it all Legible
Some students do not have great handwriting,
so make it easier for the examiner to find the
strengths in what you have written. Keep your
paragraphs relatively short- half a page at most.
Leave a clear line between each paragraph.
There is nothing in the rules to say that you can't
use a highlighter pen to emphasise your key
examples or terms. Don't overdo this though!
13. Here is a go at the distribution
question last - it is a good example
of structuring an argument so can
be adapted for any question that
comes up and to your own case
study examples - as long as you
focus on the area that the
question is asking you about!
14. Distribution Response
Opening sentence
In this essay I will outline the key arguments around distribution - making the product available for consumption KEY TERMS DEFINED - using Ed Sheeran and Sony as a contrast.
Billy Bragg said the music industry is thrivingbut the record industry is dying - is he right? In the digitalage the product is not so much the recorded tracks but the artist themselves - if Lady Gaga can make millions in endorsements for Polaroid among others and Bragg himself gives music away but sells T-shirts for
£20 clearly the industry has changed. As ever distributionof tracks is the key to success but what is being distributed is possibly as importantas who distributes it and how it is distributed (ENOUGH REFERENCES TO QUESTION)
LINKING BIT...OWNERSHIP
The Record Industry is dominated by an oligopoly formed by Sony, Universal and warner Music Group. All are vertically and horizontallyintegrated meaning they control production and distributionof music and have many related businesses within each stage of the process of making materialavailable for
consumption, eg Sony are the parent company to Syco, Columbia, RCA and many more. WMG apart, the labels are part of globalised multi media conglomerates able to exploit economies of scale and synergy to sell their product to a mass audience.
LINKING BIT...MASS AUDIENCE
Universal and Sony are heavily involved with Saturday night prime time TV in the UK through The Voice and X Factor. Such talent shows: attract extremelyhigh ratings sustained over months; have largely replaced the A and R (talent scouting) function of the majors; offer a platform through which artists can be
shaped and placed in partnerships with producers, stylists, songwriters; provide the artists as winners/ runners up with both high profile promotion and market testing of product as audience vote across many media platforms - website of show and associated social media networks Youtube, Twitter and
Facebook. The key for major labels is their ownership of back catalogues of songs which are covered on such programmes - Alexandra Burke’s version of Hallelujah earned Sony revenue through publishing rights due to the song’s heavy rotation on national radio station earning PRS royalties for Leonard Cohen.
Universal’s involvementwith BBC’s The Voice will probably result in a hit track of a song to which Universal own the rights
LINKING BIT - SONY/ US SUCCESS
One Direction have achieved success in the USA largely by being signed to Sony which has enabled them to appear on partner TV shows, affiliatedradio stations and be promoted across all media platforms - an example of a 360 degree deal. For all the bands huge followingon twitter and facebook the
appearances on ITV have served to make the potentialaudience aware of their existence a fate most artists never manage. John Harris talks about the “noise” of the web- with all this music shouting at the same time how does an artist make their voice stand out?
LINKING BIT - WEB
The record industry has migrated toward the web - from distributing physical products - CDs - to digitaldownloads via iTunes. Clearly there is potentialfor huge savings as distribution costs in the physical era were huge, requiring investment in manufacturing of CDs and transportation to retail outlets (eg HMV) -
high street chains typicallytook 33 % of profits too; digitaldistribution is virtuallyfree. In addition if a major label pressed physical copies of a CD and the resultant CD flopped this money was wasted; digital distributionis on demand.
LINKING BIT - iTUNES
Such a move has enabled artists like Ed Sheeran to self release tracks and through the use of aggregators access an audience via iTunes - No 5 Collaborations Project EP sold 7,000 copies within the first week reaching No 2 on the chart. This release was promoted by intensive gigging. Such distribution would not
have been possible before the digitalage. This EP served as a callingcard and Sheeran signed to Asylum/ Atlantic part of Warners Music Group - a classic example of indie success leading to a major deal followingin the footsteps of Coldplay and Radiohead. As these self -funded recordings are a relatively cheap
investment due to the availabilityof excellentquality/ lower cost bedroom studio recording equipment such successes may mean artists wish to remain outside of the majors (possibly retaining completeartistic control) and distribute their music via web services such as Bandcamp or ReverbNation which allow
them to interactdirectly with their audience.
LINKING BIT - INDEPENDENT TO MAJOR
However, it is rare for artists to achieve truly global success and attendant revenues without such a major deal so it came as no surprise that Ed Sheeran’s move to Asylum led to a massive increase in his mainstream media profile - a huge factor in his track The A Team selling 800,000 copies - a massive difference
in scale. His appearance on the Brits as a nominee increased sales of all his product (as it did all of the nominated/featured artists) with such increased exposure helping to create a virtuous circle of more TV airtime - more sales- more TV airtimeetc. You need to build a fanbase before you can interactwith them
and major labels have the resources to enable this particularlyin marketingand distribution
LINKING BIT - iTUNES
The technology that enables such savings also has a down side for the majors as mp3 files can be pirated through youtube converter and other online services. The BPI estimate that 95% of music owned by youth is illegallydownloaded and a quick class survey revealed this to be approximatelyright. Digital
distributionis virtuallyinstant, simple to use and requires a relativelylow entry cost - smartphone, laptop, PC/Mac. The move towards the web has been disastrous for the major labels as they have largely failed to keep pace with innovation. Historically, new technologicaldevelopments have come from within
the record industry (Phillips/ Sony invented CD) but the main mp3 distribution iTunes came from Apple, Youtube is now owned by Google (there is constant conflictover copyright issues with the majors which the labels tried to force on the video sharing site but failed, SOPA is the latest attemptby media
conglomerates to prevent piracy). Due to this failure to innovate it would appear the record industry is shrinking fast.
CONCLUSION- KEY POINTS
So if copyright of performanceon record cannot be protected meaning some revenue streams are diminished artists need to look elsewhere for earnings. Live events, festivals, merchandise, endorsements, licensing of music for films, TV dramas, videogames can all be exploited by copyrightowners and the easy
availability of digitallydistributed tracks allow potential for cross promotion - constant urging to share/ retweet which can lead to big profits for ubiquitous acts like One Directionand potentiallyEd Sheeran. In such instances the audience become the distributors by liking tracks on spotify etc The major labels
problem is that the increased revenue from above will probably never compensate for their loss of control over distributionof their expensive investments (production/marketing)in recorded music brought about by the digital age.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1k
pwF6HRT56zFCsgvUx6nadk1rwlYLbwbD2dEZfu
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15. 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.
16. 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.
Compare
how Soul
Jazz and
Sony do
this
17. 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. Music videos are also examples of this, consider the recent Beyoncé
and iTunes only release .
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. Therefore Soul Jazz
and Sony will take advantage of such sites.
21. How important is
technological convergence
for institutions and
audiences?
Prezi presentation…
http://prezi.com/kd5ayg4z3rn7/how-important-
is-technological-convergence-for-institutions-
and-audiences-in-the-music-industry/#
