Key Terms and the Music Industry

Convergence

New technology arising from different brands that all stem from the same idea, i.e. the iPod (Apple Inc.), the iRiver (ReignCom) etc, all MP3 players produced by different companies that do the same thing.

Personalisation

The MP3 experience, e.g. iPods and iTunes, allows consumers to personalise what they listen to. They now have the ability to access songs without having to buy an entire album, and can share tracks with one another accross the internet.

Democratisation

Not only can audiences now consume what they wish, but also produce their own songs. Anyone can be an artist, with technology such a Cubasis, and blogs such as Myspace, on which it is possible to have a Myspace Music account. The idea is that the consumers can now produce and share their own work, or simply give their opinions on other works. If Lily Allen can do it, why can't you?

Digitisation

Digital files consist of 1s and 0s, meaning they can be moved, shared and read by different hardware more easily. This makes the sharing of music easier, and transference from computer to MP3 to CD player.

New Media Technologies

For this case study, I will be specifically looking at the music industry. The aspects I will be focusing on and feel will be most interesting are:

1. Production, and the ways in which this has changed

2. Marketing and Distribution - where do we hear about the latest releases, and how do we access them?

3. Audience Experience - are we appreciating music in different ways thanks to new technology, and how does this differ from a few years ago?

4. Artists - a specific study of 'Gorillaz', the way technology has enabled two people to become four, and audience experience relating to this.

5. Technology - what are the changes being made in music technology, and how does this affect us? Do they seem successful, endeering ideas? Is music technology development's pace increasing?

6. The Myspace Phenomena

I will be interested also in studying whether the changes in music have affected the ways in which the audience view the elite persons create it, and how this has affected the number of artists out there.

Whilst doing this case study, involving other areas as well as music technology, certain terminology is vital:

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  Endism - concerning some new technologies, when new devices come in they respectively replace the old, making them meaningless and forgotten. Does not include all new technologies.


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  Media ecosystems are entirely dependant on whereabouts in the world you live and how developed your society is. They are made up of what we accept as the everyday media aspects of our lives, for example in Britain these are digital television, radio stations, the internet etc., whereas in other parts of the world this may be more restricted.


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  Narrowcasting, as opposed to broadcasting, applies generally more to digital televisions, where there are channels specifically designed for a more select audience with a similar interest, e.g. the history channel.


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  The internet, to put it simply, is the bigger picture. It is the entire complex system on which the web, consisting of websites, is large part of and runs on.


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  'Push and Pull' refers to the way in which television is existing more to slot into our lives. 'Push' refers to the television that is pushed onto us, which one would view when turning on the t.v. and has no choice over what is being broadcasted. 'Pull' refers to programmes "on demand", when audiences can view whatever they want, whenever they want to.


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  For the most part, blogging can be viewed as a very positive thing. It allows people from all over the world to add their own ideas and creativity into the mix to be appreciated, or not, by others. It is another example of interactivity, ideas and responses. Now all of us are capable of deciding what we want on the internet, not just website managers etc.

Feedback #1

There is evidence of some research here - although for your film post, you seem to have simply cut and pasted from another website without sourcing where it is from. Instead, include a link to the site and summarise your findings in your own words.

C/2

Digital Technology and the Film Industry

Production:

As of 2007 the most common acquisition medium for digitally projected features is 35 mm film scanned and processed at 2K or 4K via digital intermediate. Most digital features to date have been shot at 1920x1080 HD resolution using cameras such as the Sony CineAlta or Thomson Viper. New cameras such as the Arriflex D-20 and Silicon Imaging's SI-2K can capture 2K resolution images. Thus the future of digital cinema can be expected to have as a standard 4K capture and 4K projection. Currently in development are cameras capable of recording 4K RAW, such as the RED One and Dalsa Corporation's Origin.

Film is scanned from camera-original film negatives into a digital format on a scanner or high-resolution telecine. Data from digital motion picture cameras may be converted to a convenient image file format for work in a facility. All of the files are 'conformed' to match an edit list created by the film editor, and are then color corrected under the direction of the film's staff. The end result of post-production is a digital intermediate used to record the motion picture to film and/or for the digital cinema release.

Distribution

When all of the sound, picture, and data elements of a production have been completed, they may be assembled into a Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM) which contains all of the digital material needed for a show. The images and sound are then compressed, encrypted, and packaged to form the Digital Cinema Package (DCP).

Digital Cinema Distribution (DCD) is the process of transmitting the DCP to theater servers via different methods that may include: hard drives, LTO data tapes, DVD-ROMs, or satellite.
Each method of distribution faces its own unique challenges and there is currently much debate regarding preferred methods. The issue can become hotly debated by advocates for the various methods and media. Currently, there is no industry or de-facto standard for distribution. This issue will likely be decided by market forces and business models. There is some testing of the various methods going on that may provide empirical data and objective analysis in the future.

Exhibition

The way in which we are experiencing films is ever-changing, for example, the new digital mastering has meant that the viewing is much more effective in making the audience less aware they are watching a film.

Characteristics of New Media

Digitality:
New way of encoding info. 0's and 1's - binary code. How computer works, electricl pulse on or off. All progamming or entering information into a computer is based on this code. Byte is piece of 8 bits of information, a series of on or off pulses. Huge amounts of information easy to deal with in a tiny code.
Interactivity:
New ways of streaming information, compressed to travel through the air (satellite system), ISDN cable (broadband) and telephone cables, cable cable with satellite systems. Given more width so that multiple strands of information can be sent via one feed. Limited amounts of bandwidth, the more people using it the more bandwidth used. Interactive, so you can interactive with it and each other, say yes and no to it, can get it to respond and respond with it, and reply to it: feed that goes both ways. This changes the way it is used, rather than information going one way, it is now shared and responded to. compressing of digital information means you can upload as well as download.
Hypertextuality:
Organisation in texts. No longer linear, so rather than going from A to B, you can go A to Z or X to Y, like shuffling your songs. Can jump whichever way you'd like, wherever you'd like, like a dvd and the difference from a video. Can read a text whichever way you want, making a difference to the producers who have to make this possible, and need to realise you may jump out of their text and into somebody else's. Think about websites.
Dispersal:
How information can be and is shared and communicated. To do with market share, size and take-up (who's using it.). how much access users have and how producers target users and maximise their markets. couple with digitality creates huge market for producers.
Virtuality:
Already-discussed ideas linking with reality and representation. Verisimilitude, like iconography, is how real something is. cartoons are representational. some virtual worlds also representational. what is real? mimicking and representation of the world. who, why and how?
Convergence:
New technologies merging into one, like companies. MP3's showing photos. where will it go next and will people use it? Think about size: both of data and hardware, new possibilities.
Audience:
How does the audience use the technology? Do they actually use it? has it changed the way they use it? did they use it before and has it changed the way they use it if it has been updated? has the technology been led by consumer demand or by the industry? have the people who've made it made us think that we want it? who actually has access to these things? who is disenfrancised?
Regulation and Control:
Is there any control over the technology's use? who's doing the controlling and should it be there in the first place? what's done about copyright issues? What are the implications of control and people subverting it? is it realistically possible to have this control? what impact of this on the producers? what potential impact is there for the government?
Ownership:
who owns the technology and does it make a difference? how much money they have, use the market, compete with one another and how they use their money and their brand to sell various things: games console manufacturing is a good example of this.

Second Life

Second Life is an internet-based programme that was launched in 2003 by Linden Research, Inc, that came to the world's attention in late 2006/early 2007. The participants, "Residents", basically build another life, but online. They can interact with other "Residents" through motional avatars, which forms an advanced form of social networking. The clients can socialized, take part in group activities, trade virtual items: everything you do in life, just on the internet, and therefore more fun.

However, Second Life does not stay in its virtual reality. The currency, named the Linden Dollar, is tradable for real world currency through a marketplace consisting of clients and the "Linden Lab". It makes me wonder what these clients are being sucked into, personally, both mentally and financially.

The whole idea behind Second Life is based on a novel by Neal Stephenson called Snow Crash. The Linden Lab even stated that the goal behind their corporation is to create a world just like the metaverse described by Stephenson. However, this is not to be taken lightly, as this is not a game scenario, there are no characters to play and goals to reach before the finish; this is an ongoing development of a new world, and the name "Second Life" is a very appropriate one.

This is, however, not the only virtual world scenario to have been created, or to have been successful. Others include There, Active Worlds, IMVU and, for the more adult amongst us, the Red Light Center. Second Life itself has over 20 million registered accounts.

I myself was invited to join the site entitled IMVU earlier on today. I explored the options, interested to see what in fact is the attraction of these sites, and found something that, as much as I hate to admit it, actually proved quite endearing. The first step to joining up was to create your 3D avatar. This itself would seem a big attraction, as there were no overweight or greasy-haired choices here. You could create a whole new you. It went on to show choices of residence, you could choose your friends etc. However, I did not take it further than that, not wanting to commit myself to something that, quite frankly, I found a very dodgey idea.

Web 2.0

Unlike the name suggests, the term "web 2.0" does not refer to an updated version of the world wide web; instead, it facilitates the ways in which the use of the w.w.w. has changed. According to Tim O'Reilly,

""Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

Personally, I did not quite understand the terminology Mr O'Reilly was using here, so my own interpretation is that web 2.0 refers to the way in which the users have now become the creaters, and that the internet has in fact become a free space. It is now somewhere to be creative as well as consuming the products of others, to share one's own opinion as well as access others. Obviously there has been changes in technology, but the basic ideas of the web remain the same, it is the way one uses them that has changed.

"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."