Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Music Industry Case Study: Making Money

We've focused on how the music industry is a money-making business so far, and this would be a good time for you to do some of your own further research into how artists and record labels make money in an ever-changing media landscape. You're going to prove you've done some research by commenting.

You need to have some awareness of the many institutions involved in the production and sale of music, so familiarise yourself with the diagram:

More info here: http://www.planetoftunes.com/industry/industry_structure.htm

We found out about some technical stuff like the difference between mechanical, performance and artist royalties and the agencies who collect the money (in the UK the PRS). We also found out that the UK industry is dominated by the 'big four' record labels - Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI. However, with Universal and Sony having been given permission to buy up many of the assets of EMI, we now have a 'big three'. This concentration of ownership is seen by many as stifling creativity and making it harder for new acts to break out.

Then we looked at the platforms used by the business. The first thing we noticed was that the broadcast and E-media platforms are merging - increasingly we want our computers to also be TVs and radios, but at the same time we are expecting our TVs to function like computers and new 'Smart' TVs make this possible. As we learned at the o2, our mobile phones are also expected to function in multiple ways. The posh media term for this way in which devices are expected to do more and more is convergence. Eventually, will individual gadgets become extinct? Will we just use one piece of equipment for every media need? Convergence affects the music industry because it changes the way we access music, so it needs to be considered in any money-making plan for any artist.

Secondly, we decided that the E-media platform offers the greatest range of ways to listen to, watch or read about musical artists. This is something else which throws up money-making challenges for the industry. On a positive note, it makes it easy and free to promote your music, and cuts down the need for a huge team of people needed to help an artist succeed. However it could potentially make it harder to make money once you achieve success. We said that the main ways music would be accessed online would be:

  • iTunes downloads - but as an artist, you will only receive 9-10p per 99p download, and initially this will go into paying off the money the label invested in you.
  • Illegal downloads - as an artist you won't make any money from this, unless the downloader likes your single and decides to pay to download the album or pay for a concert ticket.
  • Streaming - via sites like Spotify. However, your royalties will only be minimal and only payable if the song is listened to all the way through. The infographic below estimates how many streams you would need to make the US monthly minimum wage. You might have to zoom in or view its original source.

Image from:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/

We looked at the good and bad side of music piracy, summed up here.

However you look at it, it's clear that any artists who relies on iTunes downloads to make money is going to struggle.  We came up with some other money-making ideas, from merchandise sales (remember how Darren told us that Glee made more money from merchandise sales at the o2 than ticket sales?) to use of sites like Kickstarter to raise sponsorship. Add to that fragrances, clothing lines and gig ticket sales, and you could still make millions. The article from Rolling Stone is here if you're interested. It points out that the best money-making method will depend upon your target audience and genre. One Direction fans come to gigs with parents, parents have credit cards and an inability to say no, therefore having lots of 1D-emblazoned pencil cases/mugs/calendars/hot water bottle covers  on sale after the gig = winner.

So, to survive, artists need to be innovative and keep up with technology - this will bring us on neatly to our next topic, music and technology. For now, to conclude this topic, I want you to find out about a creative way an artist has made money or promoted their products, and post what you've found out in the comment box. Everyone needs something different.

Monday, 4 February 2013

MEST 1 Case Study: Documentaries and Hybrid Forms

You will be sitting your MEST1 exam on 13th May and need to start preparing! Here's what you need to know:

Investigating Media

•     Two hour exam – marked out of 80. If you have something to watch then there will be an added 15 minutes.
 
Read this earlier blog post for the exam breakdown. Click me!

You will be doing two case studies for Section B.
  • Music with Miss Campbell
  • Documentaries with Miss Hederer

So what is a documentary?

A movie or a television or radio programme that provides a factual record or report.

What does hybrid mean?

A thing made by combining two different elements; a mixture.

How else can documentaries be explained?
  • They aim to document reality, attempting truthfulness in their depiction of people, places and events.
  •  However, the process of mediationmeans that it is impossible to re-present reality without constructing a narrative that may be fictional in places.
  • Any images that are edited cannot claim to be wholly factual, they are the result of choices made by the photographer on the other end of the lens.
  • Despite this, it is widely accepted that categories of media texts can be classed as non-fiction, that their aim is to reveal a version of reality that is less filtered and reconstructed than in a fiction text.
  • Fiction texts = completely made up and scripted e.g. Eastenders.
  • Documentaries are often constructed from a particular moral or political perspective, and cannot therefore claim to be objective.
  • Other documentaries claim simply to record an event, although decisions made in post-production mean that actuality is edited, re-sequenced and artificially framed.
  • The documentary genre has a range of purposes, from the simple selection and recording of events (a snapshot or unedited holiday video) to a polemic text that attempts to persuade the audience into a specific set of opinions (Bowling For Columbine). Audiences must identify that purpose early on and will therefore decode documentary texts differently to fictional narratives.
Codes and conventions of documentary

Voiceover
Interviews
Real footage of events
Technicality of realism (natural sound and lighting)
Archive footage/stills
Use of text/titles/date to anchor meanings
Non-diegetic sound
Set ups or reconstructions of events
Visual coding (mise en scene and props)
"Chill footage" - Following the subject around
Process footage - Filming the making of the documentary


In his 2001 book, Introduction to Documentary(Indiana University Press), Bill Nichols defines the following six modes of documentary:
 


The Poetic Mode

'reassembling fragments of the world', a transformation of historical material into a more abstract, lyrical form, usually associated with 1920s and modernist ideas 

The Expository Mode

'direct address', social issues assembled into an argumentative frame, mediated by a voice-of-God narration, associated with 1920s-1930s, and some of the rhetoric and polemic surrounding World War Two

The Observational Mode

as technology advanced by the 1960s and cameras became smaller and lighter, able to document life in a less intrusive manner, there is less control required over lighting etc, leaving the social actors free to act and the documentarists free to record without interacting with each other

The Participatory Mode

the encounter between film-maker and subject is recorded, as the film-maker actively engages with the situation they are documenting, asking questions of their subjects, sharing experiences with them. Heavily reliant on the honesty of witnesses

The Reflexive Mode

demonstrates consciousness of the process of reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the modality judgements they arrive at. Corresponds to critical theory of the 1980s

The Performative Mode

acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary, and presents ideas as part of a context, having different meanings for different people, often autobiographical in nature
See if you recognise any of these modes in documentaries you have seen! More on these modes later...
 
The best case studies will include:
 
1. A range of different media products from a range of media platforms
2. Detailed examples from particular media products.
3. Evidence of research into media debates and issues and relevant wider contexts.
4. Theory used to explain and support answers
 
Now to the fun bit... homework!
 
Choose a TV documentary to watch and answer/make notes on the following things:
 
Type of programme:
 
Channel it is broadcast on:
 
Topic of documentary:
 
Voiceover: Male or female? Regional accent or standard English? Famous person or celebrity/actor?
 
Talking to camera: Who talks directly to camera and why?
 
Talking off camera: Are questions asked by someone off camera? Does the person being questioned answer to the person off camera?
 
Vox pop: Does the programme include street interviews to get 'ordinary people's views'?
 
Interview: Is the person interviewed in a special setting? Are they filmed with dramatic lighting? Are their identities kept secret?
 
Literisation: Are words used on screen to give further information e.g. sub-titles, translations, dates, times, place names.
 
Music: Is music used to dramatise segments of the programme? To create suspense? A sense of tragedy? Humour? To fit a particular image?
 
Camera techniques: Fly on the wall? Hand-held? Following people around?


Copy and paste above, add your notes and post on the blog as a comment please! Due on Wednesday 6th.