NDM News Story 67: SoundCloud to introduce advertising and subscriptions in UK

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/03/soundcloud-to-introduce-advertising-and-subscriptions-in-uk


SoudCloud will begin to use advertising and start a premium tier for $9.99 a month in order to create more revenue. The subscription tier was released earlier this year for the US but has yet to be released in the UK, with SoundCloud stating that it is necessary for the artists for sound cloud to do this so they can pay the artists.

• SoundCloud,  with 175 million users
• SoundCloud, which introduced advertising to US users in 2014
• SoundCloud in competition with the paid-for services offered by Spotify, which has 30 million paying subscribers, and Apple Music’s 11 million-plus.

By starting a subscription fee similar to Spotify and Apple Music, SoundCloud want the opportunity to compete with the big name streaming sites. Although their number of users are definitely below that of Spotify or Apple Music, SoundCloud seems to believe that they can soon become a competitor as well.

News Stories Index

1. 18/09/15: Reviews, tweets, Instagram posts: why customers are the new marketers
2. 18/09/15: Channel 4 chief warns broadcasters over American influence
3. 25/09/15: Government may privatise Channel 4, document reveals
4. 25/09/15: How young viewers are abandoning television
5. 02/10/15: Twitter 'to unveil founder Jack Dorsey as new chief executive' ack-dorsey.html
6. 02/10/15:No, vinyl sales have not overtaken music streaming revenues
7. 08/10/15: Peeple review people: the user-review app you didn't dare ask for
8. 08/10/15: UK digital ad spend soars despite fears over ad blocking
9. 16/10/15: Twitter slashes global workforce as it struggles for growth
10. 16/10/15: Ofcom to take on regulation of video-on-demand services
11. 23/10/15: Disney to launch UK film and TV streaming service for £9.99 a month
12. 23/10/15: Apple News arrives in the UK with 14 newspaper and magazine partners
13. 02/11/15: Sun website to scrap paywall
14. 02/11/15: New wave of podcasts aimed at younger, wider audience
15. 02/11/15: ITV could snatch The Voice from BBC with offer to air kids' version
16. 02/11/15: Candy Crush(ed): Zuckerberg pledges to halt Facebook game invitations
17. 13/11/15: Thinking machines: the skilled jobs that could be taken over by robots
18. 13/11/15:Sun website traffic recovers as Mirror slips back
19. 20/11/15: Sky launches new set-top box to take on Netflix and Apple
20. 03/12/15: A dating site for Disney fans? It's a whole new world …
21. 03/12/15: Google accused of spying on students in FTC privacy complaint
22. 03/12/15: The&Partnership launches talent agency for YouTube stars
23. 03/12/15: YouTube tipped to strike licensing deals for TV shows and films
24. 04/12/15: Mail Online US almost doubles advertising growth
25. 15/12/15: Tim Cook defends Apple iPhone Smart Battery Case, says it's not a 'hump'
26. 15/12/15: Taylor Swift reappears on Spotify, but her music is credited toLostprophets
27. 15/12/15: BuzzFeed editor-in-chief: fair to call Donald Trump a 'mendacious racist'
28. 15/12/15: The Independent’s blog site hit by ransomware attack
29. 04/01/16: Sun website traffic rises by a quarter – but it is eclipsed by the Mirror
30. 04/01/16: Telegraph criticised by watchdog for 'misleading' Michelin advertorial
31. 04/01/16: Facebook ditches Flash video in latest blow to maligned plugin
32. 04/01/16: Sky broadband to bring in 'default on' setting to block adult content
33. 04/01/16 :Make or break for the Sun and more consolidation
34. 04/01/16: Can upstarts like Vice and Buzzfeed keep their cool?
35. 12/01/16: Apple promises a good night's sleep with new iPhone feature
36. 14/01/16: Netflix, Spotify and Apple power UK entertainment revenue to record £6.1bn
37. 22/01/16: Following North Korea on Twitter is not a crime, court rules
38. 22/01/16: Times and Sunday Times to launch weekly digital edition
39. 29/01/16:  Apple – losing out on talent and in need of a killer new device
40. 29/01/16: Mirror looks to target female readers with secret national newspaper project
41. 12/02/16: Google pulls adblocking app for Samsung phones
42. 12/02/16: Fine Brothers spark fury with YouTube trademark attempt
43. 22/02/16: Twitter's US users fall by a third in two years - report
44. 22/02/16: Independent owner considering closing national print titles
45. 23/02/16: Mobile operator Three to introduce adblocking
46. 23/02/16: Facebook sets up 'social VR' team to explore virtual reality beyond games
47. 23/02/16:  Facebook wants you to film birthday messages for friends
48. 24/02/16: More than 9 million Britons now use adblockers
49. 25/02/16: Online harassment of women at risk of becoming 'established norm', study finds
50. 08/03/16: Rupert Murdoch's (maybe) farewell to Twitter is the end of an era
51. 08/03/16:  Google hires founder of 4chan, the ‘Zuckerberg of online underground’
52. 11/03/16: Facebook to pay millions more in UK tax
53. 31/03/16: Video-on-demand survey finds 65% of viewers would block ads 
54. 11/04/16: North Korea announces blocks on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
55. 11/04/16: SoundCloud presses Go on its subscription streaming service
56. 11/04/16: The Times drops online rolling news for four editions a day
57. 21/04/16: The best TV apps for children from BBC iPlayer Kids to YouTube and Sky Kids
58. 21/04/16: Criminals hide child abuse images behind legal porn sites
59. 21/04/16: Google claims YouTube ads are more effective than TV
60. 21/04/16:  New York Times to invest $50m on global digital expansion
61. 25/04/16: Facebook is going to start showing you pieces people actually read
62. 28/04/16: Facebook, Google campuses at risk of being flooded due to sea level rise
63. 28/04/16: UK ad market booms but newspapers lose £155m in print advertising
64. 02/05/16: Twitter misses expectation on revenue but adds millions more users
65. 02/05/16: New York Times to close editing and prepress facilities in Paris
66. 02/05/16: Almost half of those planning to use an adblocker say they just don't like ads

NDM/Identity Index

11/01/16 Reading the riots
15/01/16  Post-colonialism: Destiny Ekaragwa film analysis
25/01/16  Post-colonialism: Edward Said
29/01/16  Feminism: Post-feminism article and No More Page 3 research
01/02/16 Feminism: post-feminism article and No More Page 3 research
05/02/16 Feminism: Waves, Feminism and online activism
12/02/16  Identity and Film - Media Factsheet task
12/02/16 Collective identity and the media

Notes on Impact of NDM on the News Industry Lecture

• The speed of everything is due to smartphones
• Email, Twitter, Facebook - ways for news journalists to get news
• Trending hashtags are important for news journalists to get news
• Increase of platforms to broadcast news on 
• The opportunities of audience interactions with UGC can have positives and negatives
• Twitter is a source of breaking news
• Whitney Houston's death was not reported by news agencies at first. The News agencies reported it after looking into a claim from a Twitter user about the death
• "False information spreads just like accurate information" Farida Vis of the Wold Economic Forum
• Verification of pictures are needed and then they are often manipulated
• As newspapers and televisions news are in decline, social media offers a platform to share news
• In the past, there was appointment news where you viewed news at a certain time e.g. 10 o'clock news, 6 o'clock news. However, now, news can be accessed at any time
• News reporters value public interaction
• Sensationalistic
• symbiosis between mainstream media and social media
• taste and decency is a western concept - Al Jazeera shows very graphic content
• Western news looks at neutrality and balanced arguments while Non western platforms look at the betterment of society
• USA cannot show the point of death on the news
• Al Jazeera was the first outlet to broadcast the Bin Laden videos which led to them being banned in the USA - Al Jazeera's values are the truth and showing everything
• Al Jazeera in the UK, does not need to follow OFCOM
• BBC is funded by the licensing fee, SKY is funded by Murdoch, Al Jazeera is funded by the royal family
• Journalism is losing specialism
• Social media creates a social sphere
• government uses social media for surveillance - impedes democracy
• bad news sells
• techno optimists believe social media is a tool for democracy
• citizen journalism changes the way media outlets release news
• In the past, it was the journalists who bought the news however, now, their is a symbiotic relationship between the public and journalists
• ethical considerations - graphic? intrusion or invasion of privacy? 
• airing graphic content is tasteless as well as dehumanizing and disrespectful to the family
• Positive of UGC - acts as a witness to the truth
• Negatives of UGC - quality isnt always great, difficulty of identifying source, cannot be published without verification of time, place and people, accuracy?, agenda?
• mainstream media relied on social media
• integration between social media and news

Spotify Ignite Presentation Feedback

WWW: Good overview

              Good, well designed slides

              Fluent presentation

              good Ending

EBI: Less Reading

         Include more theory

         Included Competitors stats

         Google Music?

NDM News Story 66: Almost half of those planning to use an adblocker say they just don't like ads

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/27/adblocking-ads-kpmg-report-uk-block-ads



Company, KPMG, held a survey on society's usage of adblocking software and the results showed how prevalent ad blocking is and how this is a great threat to the advertising industry.

• more than 2,000 people, found that 44% of UK adults said they were planning to use an adblocker within the next six months.
• Of those people, 46% said they would block ads because they “do not like adverts at all”
• 47% of people who said that a key reason was that ads take up too much space on screen.
• More than 40% also cited a lack of advertising relevance
• Almost 60% of 16- to 24-year-olds plan to block ads in the next six months, as do 55% of people earning more than £55,000.
• adblocking currently remained more popular on laptops and desktops, with 91% of those planning to use an adblocker on those devices

The method of monetising media through adverts is gradually losing its great effect of  making money through this method as more and more people are choosing to download adblocking software to avoid the irritating adverts. Eventually, if there isnt a new way of making consumers view the adverts, companies would need to think of a new way in order to make money.

NDM News Story 65: New York Times to close editing and prepress facilities in Paris

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/26/new-york-times-editing-prepress-facilities-paris-london


The New York Times plan to expand digitally and in order to do this, they have decided to cut jobs and and close the editing and prepress facilites in France and move more of their international operations to London. Although France is a vital market, the company want to save more money whilst also sustaining their Print presence internationally.

• The move will see up to 70 roles eliminated or relocated
• The New York Times is investing $50m in global digital expansion. 
• NYT announced a $50m global digital expansionwith a new unit called NYT Global
•  reports that the company was looking to cut hundreds of jobs later this year.

Since more people are using technology to access the news, great numbers of printing facilities are no longer needed. However, keeping the print format is still necessary in order to provide news to the people who are part of the digital divide. 

NDM News Story 64: Twitter misses expectation on revenue but adds millions more users

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/26/twitter-earnings-wall-street-revenue-active-monthly-users


Despite Twitter recently seeing a great rise in users, Twitter's stock fell and did not meet the expectations that many people had for it. Since Twitters launch, they have yet to prove that they are a profitable company, however, there are still are still many plans that are arranged for Twitter and the company is hoping that these plans will help Twitter meet expectations in their next quarter.

• Twitter stock fell more than 12% in after-hours trading when the company reported revenue of $595m on Tuesday, missing expectations
•  Twitter was expected to report $607.8m in revenue.
• The first quarter saw Twitter’s number of active users rise to 310 million, 2 million more than expected by Wall Street.
• According to Twitter, the number of its active monthly users is up 3% year on year.
• The first-quarter revenue totaled $595m, an increase of 36% year on year. 
• Advertising revenue was $531m, an increase of 37% year on year
• Twitter’s guidance for its second quarter revenue stands between $590m to $610m.

Twitter was once a social network site that had a promising future however, with new social networking sites such as instagram and snapchat, Twitter is finding it very difficult to compete with these new sites and it is possible that they will no longer be in use. Unlike Facebook,Twitter do not have a solid base and does not have enough money to expand their horizons by finding new services to entertain the users, therefore, soon, people may choose to abandon Twitter for other platforms.

Section B practice

New and digital media offers media institutions different ways of reaching audiences. Consider how and why media institutions are using these techniques (48 marks)

New and digital media media is rapidly gaining great prominence in society and has made it easier for audiences to consume the media in a quick and convenient way. However, it is also largely benefitting the institutions by helping reach wider audiences.

With the decline of newspapers, news institutions take full advantage of the ability to create on line sites to publish their news stories. As audiences greatly value the convenience of accessing anything, convergence in phone technology helps the news institutions gain more audience through their online news. Furthermore, news institutions also release apps for audiences to personalise the news that they receive. Although news going online is a very beneficial advancement for news institutions which is also supported by Rupert Murdoch who stated "the world is changing and news has to adapt", this is considered to be very harmful to those who are part of the digital divide as they would not have any access to a necessity of knowing current affairs.

The Sun has also been reaching out to audiences through their website which has recently removed his paywall from the website and allowed people to view the sun’s stories for free. As the audiences greatly believe in the ideology of things being free, this move for the Sun was very useful as more people decided to access the news through their website. The decline in print industry is another reason why he moved the sun online without a paywall. The reason behind why the institution was doing this was simply because less people read papers, the decline of newspaper circulation and newspaper revenue has rose because there is just so much more available online.

Another way institutions have been reaching audiences is through social media such as Twitter. Twitter was launched in and ever since it has changed the way people get access to the news. Twitter has made institutions much more accessible and have allowed them to be connected to their audience. Audiences are able to get information from news institutions much quicker. News breaks on twitter much immediately than it once used to. Audiences re able to see this information much quicker. 60% of people said that Twitter gave them the opportunity to engage with newspaper brands that they would normally not read in print format. It brings them closer to audiences, the immediacy and the accessibility (Galtung & Ruge’s News values) makes it much easier for them than it once was. Twitter makes them feel much more connected. Institutions are able to reach their audience by interacting with their audience, audiences are able to favourite, get notifications and share straight from their mobile phone. It allows audiences to get instant news compared to before and makes them want to go to their website to find out more and get more information.

NDM News Story 63: UK ad market booms but newspapers lose £155m in print advertising

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/26/uk-ad-market-booms-but-newspapers-lose-155m-in-print-advertising


The newspaper industry is proving to increasingly becoming closer to extinction. Advertising in newspapers are decreasing rather rapidly across all newspapers, whether it be the local news paper or a tabloid newspaper. However, in contrast to the decrease in revenue for the print industry, TV advertising has done relatively well as the revenues have increased  a lot. 

• more than £150m in print ads disappeared 
• total UK ad market grew at 7.5% to £20.1bn last year
• National newspaper brands reported an 11% fall in ad spend to £1.2bn in 2015
• print advertising fell by 9.6% to £435m last year.
• tabloid titles, which endured a 16.2% decline in print advertising to £565.4m.
• £155.4m in print advertising disappear between 2014 and 2015.
• 6.2% fall in total ad spend to £1.17bn,
• solid year for TV advertising, which rose by 7.3% to £5.2bn, with the nascent video-on-demand ad market rising 21% to £175m.

This trend does not seem like a shock to many people as new and digital media has offered audiences with quicker, more convenient and even more personalised news for the readers. Due to this, audience members, especially the younger generation is becoming less prone to accessing the news in paper form, which may ultimately make newspapers become a displaced media.

NDM News Story 62: Facebook, Google campuses at risk of being flooded due to sea level rise

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/22/silicon-valley-sea-level-rise-google-facebook-flood-risk


Facebook and Google faces issues of their Silicon Valley campuses being flooded by the risks of the sea level rising. Facebook is disadvataged even more as they are located closer to the sea where roads are already becoming flooded. Google, located in Mountain view is a slightly better position. With these risks, the companies are planning a retreat, however, the havent given musch further details into this matter or what their next steps would be.

• Facebook’s new 430,000 sq ft campus appears most at risk
•  the offices are designed to house 2,800 staff.
• Even with a small increase, the sea comes into the 101 highway by the Googleplex
• Nearly $100bn in commercial and residential property around the Bay Area is at risk from sea level rises and severe storms
• an estimated $21bn in new developments 

This issue will cause great disruption to the upkeep of the companies and may result in many bad consequences. However with the advancements in technology and the several other campuses that facebook and google own, there shouldnt be that much of an issue for the users.

NDM News Story 61: Facebook is going to start showing you pieces people actually read

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/22/facebook-algorithm-change-pieces-people-actually-read


Facebook is planning to use new methods of showing the users content that they are genuinely interested in. Normally, they deal with a lot of data that helps them understand what content that they normally broadcast to each individual user however, they will now start to think about the time that is spent on each type of article which will signal what sort of stories that users find interesting and appealing. They ignore click bait articles from their research as users tend to only spend a mere few seconds on such articles.

•  News Feed filled with 30,000 word New Yorker epics.
• In January this year, Upworthy laid off 14 of its 97 employees and pivoted towards video content.
• The company’s video traffic had grown 33 times in the previous 11 months

This is a very effective method for choosing news articles that the public would be interested in and can be considered to empower the audience as they are subjected to information that they believe will benefit their interests. However, this can also be considered to be disempowering as it may divert the users from the truly important news that is happening in society, therefore, dumbing us down.

NDM News Story 60: New York Times to invest $50m on global digital expansion

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/14/new-york-times-to-invest-50m-on-global-digital-expansion



The New York Times have discovered that in order to become an indispensable source of news, they need to open up the audiences internationally and expand digitally. They already believe that they have become a great national news source but the next step towards their growth is becoming an international source of news. There would be a team that is focused on international digital growth and they hope they would be able to attract more readers and advertisers alike.

• The UK  is estimated to be the publisher’s third biggest market accounting for 2.5% of all traffic.
• NYT Global, which will be responsible for spearheading a three-year $50m digital growth strategy.
• aim was to double total digital revenues to about $800m by 2020 and that it was setting even more ambitious targets for international growth.
• Last year, the NYT broke through the 1 million digital subscriber mark. The publisher launched its digital paywall in 2011.

More and more newspapers are realising the importance that digital advancements have on the success of their companies and notice that in order to avoid bankruptcy like kodak and Blockbusters, institutions who did not develop to keep up with the changing societies, institutions must find new ways of increasing the popularity of their institution as well as follow the popular trends to help them reach this goal.  

NDM News Story 59: Google claims YouTube ads are more effective than TV

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/20/google-youtube-ads-tv


Matt Brittin, Google’s top-ranking European executive, is set to unveil a report analysing ad campaigns across eight countries which proves the effectiveness of You Tube's advertising strategies. Google has, on several occasions, openly discussed that TV adverts are not as useful as You Tubes adverts and have been encouraging advertisers to invest more in You Tube. There are comments against You Tube, claiming that the majority of You Tube's videos are low value, user generated content, meaning that their demographics are not useful enough for the advertisers to attract the customers that they want.

• they should be spending a quarter of their TV ad budget on YouTube instead if they wanted to reach 16- to 24-year-olds.
• YouTube only really accounts for 10.3% of time spent by 16- to 24-year-olds consuming video.
• YouTube accounts for just 1.4% of the time that demographic spends actually viewing video advertising.

The advertising industry is gaining a lot of focus from society as with people having the "things should be free" ideology, advertising seems to be the most prominent method of gaining revenue. You Tube as a form of new and digital media, is posing a threat to the traditional television as big brand, Google, is voicing out their opinions of how You Tube is a much more effective platform for advertisers.

NDM News Story 58: Criminals hide child abuse images behind legal porn sites

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/21/criminals-hide-child-abuse-images-behind-legal-porn-sites



Adult pornography is content that many people access all over the world, which can be found on legal, easily accessible porn sites. However, Paedophiles are increasingly hiding child abuse images on legal porn sites, which means that a normal citizen may accidentally stumble across such images and accused wrongfully. Also, by hiding child abuse images online, it makes it more difficult for the police to prove the innocence or guilt of the accused.

• The IWF uncovered 743 such websites in 2015, compared with 353 in 2013. Langford said they were using a new technique where only legal content was displayed if the site was accessed directly through a browser but illegal child abuse images were shown if a specific pathway of links was used.
• Last year, the IWF found that 21% of the webpages containing illegal images
• The IWF said 68,092 reports of suspect online content were positively identified as containing illegal child sexual abuse imagery in 2015 and taken down.
• This was a 417% increase in confirmed reports since 2013 and a 118% increase over the previous year
• 69% of victims were assessed to be aged 10 or younger, with 1,788 of those believed to be two or under.

This article explores the negative affects of the advancements of new technology. This new technology has been proven to be very harmful as everyone who uses porn sites are under the risk of coming across child abuse images unintentionally. The technology is so advanced and peoples knowledge on how to use the internet for the wrong reasons is rapidly increasing and can be very damaging for today's society.

NDM News Story 57: The best TV apps for children from BBC iPlayer Kids to YouTube Kids and Sky Kids

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/15/best-tv-apps-for-kids-bbc-iplayer-youtube-sky


It can be considered that educational and entertaining apps for children can be calmer and more convenient way for parents to provide their children with some clean and calm fun. The article explores the benefits of the various child-friendly apps that allow a form of enjoyment for the children,ranging from the free applications to the subscription based applications. 

• Amazon Prime Video - Android / iOS (part of £79-a-year Prime membership)
• Netflix - Android / iOS (£5.99 - £8.99 a month)
• DisneyLife - Android / iOS (£9.99 a month)
• Hopster - Android / iOS (£3.99 a month)
• PlayKids - Android / iOS (£2.99 a month)

New and digital media is having a massive impact on the world and has reached very young children as well. The power that new and digital media have on the world is seen as these young children no longer turn to toys as their first choice of entertainment. Other enjoyments that young children have such as music and books are also being easily replaced by the content that websites and apps offer. It is understandable as parents would no longer need to buy an extensive range of toys and books to entertain their children and a single tablet can keep children interested for hours.

ignite presentation

MEST3 mock exam - Learner Response

1) WWW: Good focus on the question. Effective use of research/quotation
EBI: Missed opportunities to include examples- write a short paragraph wherever they're missing.

Citizen journalism can be considered to have a massively positive impact on society as the Guardian's Paul Lewis stated that it gives information "a new layer of accountability." Citizen journalism and user generated content proved to be greatly necessary for one of the biggest news story in 2011, the Arab Spring. As countries such as Lybia, Egypt and Syria were revolting against a heavy dictatorship, foreign reporters were not granted permission to report on the situation. The UGC  were what audiences relied on in order to get information on the countries. This example showed how important it was to 'witness, record and share' (Paul Lewis) to get insight on certain news. Furthermore, citizen journalism allows for unmediated content meaning that there is no particular agenda included and audiences can gain access to raw information.For example, the UGC of the death of Eric Garner being killed by a police officer, although disturbing, is completely unaltered and revealed to the public of how the police was guilty of the death of an unarmed man.

Overall: 61/80  B

Citizen journalism can be considered to have a massively positive impact on society as the Guardian's Paul Lewis stated that it gives information "a new layer of accountability." Citizen journalism and user generated content proved to be greatly necessary for one of the biggest news story in 2011, the Arab Spring. As countries such as Lybia, Egypt and Syria were revolting against a heavy dictatorship, foreign reporters were not granted permission to report on the situation. The UGC  were what audiences relied on in order to get information on the countries. This example showed how important it was to 'witness, record and share' (Paul Lewis) to get insight on certain news. Furthermore, citizen journalism allows for unmediated content meaning that there is no particular agenda included and audiences can gain access to raw information.For example, the UGC of the death of Eric Garner being killed by a police officer, although disturbing, is completely unaltered and revealed to the public of how the police was guilty of the death of an unarmed man.

2) Question 1:  7/8
Identification developed via montage celebrating universality of marriage
Fast editing
Appeal to a range of audiences through use of different nationalities / ages etc.
Direct address of the “Who are you?” questioning
Use of text on screen to provide a very contemporary scene

Question 2: 9/12
Didn't use any of the suggested points

Question 3: 5/12
Key to advertising/marketing revenue

3) Question 7: 40/48
Global nature of e-Media
Information and democracy


4) Question 1:
My answer was one of the stronger answers
Next time I would include:
the notion that one text creates a desire to own a product, while the other encourages self-realisation.

Question 2:
My answer was one of the stronger answers
Next time I would include:
identification with celebrity
response to lifestyle activities and celebration of choices
modification of audience behaviour
online identity and manipulation
pros and cons of social networks

Question 3:
My answer was one of the weaker answers
Next time I would include:
advertising/marketing revenue for producers
the growth of the e-Media economy and the impact of this upon traditional media producers
the illusion of empowerment offered by new media technologies and platforms
direct audience feedback and how producers used these to their own ends
demographic targeting
cross media promotion.

Question 7:
My answer was one of the stronger answers
Next time I would include:
government control of web based technologies
repressive regimes and emergent democracies
folk devils such as terrorism and paedophilia.


5) Question 3:

It is vital for media producers to adopt a positive attitude to new and digits media as it allows for developments and growth for the products. In the first product, Google's Nexus, new and digital media has allowed for a widely effective method for advertising the product. The advert allows for cross media promotion by making the famous brand that most consumers are familiar with, Google, to be very prominent. Furthermore, the visual aspects of the advert allows for consumers to relate with the brand through weddings which is where great gatherings occur and makes the consumers see the illusion of empowerment that the new phone gives you. 

With the second product, it focuses on promoting religion which is often thought to be traditional. This new way of promoting religion can be greatly effective as it would be easier to target the appropriate demographic which can be done by specifically broadcasting the advert on certain channels. Also, it allows for the scale of the audience they reach to greatly increase as adverts that are broadcasted on tv can reach wider audiences in contrast to by word of mouth. 

As well as the effectiveness of advertisement, new and digital media allows for the audience to give direct feedback on the product which allows the producers to use this information to develop their products in relation to the consumers wishes. 

NDM News Story 56: The Times drops online rolling news for four editions a day

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/30/times-rolling-editions-website-sunday-times-apps
The Times have decided to stop publishing rolling news stories and have decided to bring back the edition based publishing model. This model has proven to be a very traditional method of releasing news however The Times aims to update and modernize this, once popular model. However, they will still follow breaking news stories at the audience's discretion. This edition is an attempt to make digital growth.

• The power of an edition has endured at the Times for more than 230 years
•  online weekday deadlines of 9am, midday and 5pm. 
• The Times and Sunday Times have digital subscriptions of 172,000 across seven days
• In 2013, it was reported that they had 150,000 subscribers.

This new fusion of traditional and new digital media may be a great plan in order to target the older audience who still prefer the print over digital news. Ny having an edition, customers shown the times' traditional values but would want to modernize news in order to make it easily accessible.

NDM News Story 55: SoundCloud presses Go on its subscription streaming service

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/29/soundcloud-go-subscription-streaming-spotify-apple-music



Popular music streaming website, Soundcloud, plans to take their free service a step further and include a special subscription service, which allows customers to store tracks on their devices for offline listening. Labels will be able to decide whether to make their music available on SoundCloud’s free service, its subscription tier or both. Spotify’s past unwillingness to allow such a choice led to its infamous dispute with Taylor Swift, who removed all her music from Spotify as a result. Although this subscription will only be available in the US, it was revealed that it will soon reach several other countries globally once striking the right deal.

• long-planned subscription service, but for now the $9.99-a-month service will only be available in the US.
• company hopes a mammoth catalogue of more than 125m tracks
•  175 million subscribers
• SoundCloud Go, which will be more expensive on iOS devices at $12.99 a month to factor in Apple’s 30% share of in-app purchases
• SoundCloud’s revenues grew by 54% to €17.4m, but its losses increased by 69% to €39.1m.
• SoundCloud has raised £111m in funding since 2009, including a £24.5m round of debt financing in early 2016.

With people  willing to pay a certain amount of money to gain exclusive content, this subscription service seems to be a likely success. With streaming services and illegal downloading being easily available and accessible,  it gives a new way for artists to earn revenue for their music.

NDM News Story 54: North Korea announces blocks on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/north-korea-announces-blocks-on-facebook-twitter-and-youtube



North Korea has recently stated that they will be blocking several sites such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube in order to lessen the amount of outside information that can be found out though such sites. Although it was revealed that the block would only be for a certain period of time, the time in which these websites would stopped being banned has not been revealed. A very limited number of North Koreans have access to the internet but this block will stop the limited number of foreigners residing in North Korea to convey the conditions and situation that this closed off country is in.

• The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications announcement was published this week at the country’s main mobile service provider, Koryolink, and other places serving internet users in Pyongyang.
• gambling and “sex and adult websites” have been blocked
• more than 2 million North Koreans now use mobile phones, 
• North Korea decided in 2013 to allow foreigners in the country to use 3G on their mobile phones

This ban on many popular sites shows how much freedom that those who have access to the internet, have. however, as the main purpose of blocking the sites was to stop foreigners reporting to the outside world of North Korea's developments, it shows how much an impact the internet has on politics and country's affairs.

NDM News Story 53: Video-on-demand survey finds 65% of viewers would block ads

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/17/video-on-demand-survey-65-per-cent-viewers-would-block-ads



Ad blocking is continuously being used all over the world with about two thirds openly admitting to using ad blocking software when they use video on demand services. Although there are many people who use ad blocker to make using services much easier and convenient,  a large proportion of people also agreed that they would be willing to watch adverts in order to access free content. 

• 62% of respondents found ads on those services annoying or distracting and a further 65% said they would like to block them.
•  targeted advertising might make the 65% of people saying they want to block ads “intentionally tune in for them”.
• One in five have signed up to video-on-demand, below the global average of nearly a quarter and only slightly more than half of the 37% of those who pay for satellite TV

Although the advertisement industry seemed to find an easy way to generate income, it is possible that this industry may come across issues as many users have found ways to avoid viewing the annoying adverts. However as people prioritize free content over ad blocking, if sites made their content exclusive to those without ad blocking software, the advertisement industry stands a chance to persevere.

MEST3 Independent case study: New and Digital Media

Case study research tasks

The basics

Your chosen industry: Music

Your chosen case study (i.e. text/institution etc.): Spotify

Have you received approval for this case study from your teacher? Yes


Research and answer the following tasks on your MEST3 exam blog:

Audience

1) How has new and digital media changed the audience experience in your chosen industry?

Spotify is a music streaming application which allows the audience to access a wide range of songs when connected to wi-fi or data. New and digital media has greatly affected audience experience in the music industry as streaming sites such as Spotify has allowed for audiences to have an easier accessibility to a variety of music converged into one single app on a phone. The services that are now offered through streaming apps such as spotify has become so advanced and developed that it is no longer a site that is purely for listening to music.

https://news.spotify.com/us/2015/05/20/say-hello-to-the-most-entertaining-spotify-ever/

• The Now start page - Offers recommendations which will adapt to suit users tastes and moods
• Spotify Running - Offers recommendations of songs that match the speed, beat and tempo that you are running at to you a harder, better, faster, stronger runner.
• More Than Music- Video Clips and podcasts will be added and will recommend based videos based on audio and video history.
• Spotify Originals - Variety of original, spotify exclusive playlists for running, dancing and radio shows
• Spotify now comes packed with entertainment, news and clips from the likes of ABC, BBC, Comedy Central, Condé Nast Entertainment, ESPN, Fusion, Maker Studios, NBC, TED and Vice News, with much more to come 

2) Has new and digital media changed the way the audience consume your chosen product?

In order to listen to music, audience initially had to buy physical copies of records or CDs and be in an area where there was a CD/record player. However recently, people can download the songs online, whether it be through an illegal downloading site or from a legitimate seller such as iTunes. The music industry has further developed to allow audiences to access music free of charge through streaming sites such as Spotify,however, the content is limited and to gain full access, audiences only have to pay a small sum of money a month, which is still lets audience access music for a reasonable price in comparison to buying physical copies.

http://www.spotifyartists.com/spotify-explained/

•  People would hear a tune they liked on the radio, then go to a shop and buy the physical recording of it.
• (due to piracy)  the majority of music consumption today generates little to no money for artists.
• (we are) proud to offer music fans a legal and paid service capable of generating for artists the royalties that they deserve.
• proud to offer music fans a legal and paid service capable of generating for artists the royalties that they deserve.

3) Has the size of the audience changed as a result of new and digital media?

As a result of new and digital media, the audiences size has drastically changed as more people realise the convenience of acquiring quality music at a cheap price (or sometimes without a price). 

https://news.spotify.com/us/2015/05/20/say-hello-to-the-most-entertaining-spotify-ever/

• 25 billion listening hours under the hood since the launch seven years ago

https://artists.spotify.com/faninsights/home

• 1,693,755 monthly listeners

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/11699117/Apple-Music-vs-Spotify-How-do-the-two-streaming-services-compare.html

• Spotify released its updated active user figures, totalling more than 75 million accounts in 58 countries across the world. Of these, over 20 million are paid subscribers.
•  some 30 million (tracks) at their disposal.

4) What are the positive changes new and digital media have brought to the audience of your case study? (E.g. greater choice, easier access etc.)

New and digital media has allowed for audiences to gain a greater choice of music by having apps such as spotify offering over 30 million tracks for the audience. Moreover the access to music has been made much easier with new and digital media such as Spotify as it allows you to access music wherever you are though your smartphone. As most smartphones have an allowance of data, this means that even without wifi access, users can still stream their music and personalize their playlists to fit their style and tastes as well as sharing with others. Also, by streaming music through Spotify, it makes accessing music much quicker in comparison to downloading music through Pirate websites and users do not have to worry about downloading viruses which will ruin their devices.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/11699117/Apple-Music-vs-Spotify-How-do-the-two-streaming-services-compare.html

•  some 30 million at their disposal.

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9686-up-next-how-playlists-are-curating-the-future-of-music/

"I can see a time coming when the playlist creator becomes just as important an element in the process as the artists being featured," - Spotify user and Playlist maker Jonathon Good

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/revenue-streams
Spotify to better program the “moments” of a user’s day.The idea is to use song analytics and user data to help both human and A.I. curators select the right songs for certain activities or moods, and build playlists for those moments.Playlists can be customized according to an individual user’s “taste profile.” You just broke up with your boyfriend, you’re in a bad mood, and Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River,” from the “Better Off Without You” playlist, starts. Are you playing the music, or is the music playing you?  Piracy was kind of hard. It took a few minutes to download a song, it was kind of cumbersome, you had to worry about viruses. 

5) What are the negative changes new and digital media have had on your chosen audience? (E.g. quality of product etc.)

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-consumers-give-boost-to-legal-downloading-and-streaming-for-tv-films-and-music

increase of more than 10% in take up of legal services since 2013 however, 1 in 5 still access content illegally

15.6 million UK internet users accessed music online. 26 per cent of users have accessed content illegally

YouTube, Amazon and Spotify were the top platforms used for downloading and streaming with 54 per cent of all music streaming and downloads were accessed via YouTube

Despite their being an increase in the number of people who legally download and stream music (A great percentage of the number belonging to Spotify), their is still a significant number of people who still downloads their music illegally, This may be due to the convenience and easiness of downloading things illegally of the internet.  

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/21/spotify-five-big-challenges-streaming-music

Spotify faces several key challenges to its business in the months and years ahead:

1. Winning over musician sceptics in the musician : Some prominent musicians don't like Spotify at all, suggesting that the company is just another (unwanted) middleman in the music industry. Some criticise the size of per-stream payouts compared to the money they receive for sales of CDs and downloads, or plays of their music on the radio.
2. Turning a profit from streaming music
3. Appealing to a more mainstream audience
4. Taking on bigger beasts: Apple and YouTube
5. Moving beyond music if necessary

6) What about audience pleasures - have these changed as a result of new and digital media? 

http://www.sidify.com/topic/what-you-like-and-dislike-about-spotify.html

• Spotify works on various of platforms
•  Spotify is really simple to use
•  offers free subscription
•  large music catalog. 
• Spotify does offer exclusive live sessions from artists
• Another benefit of Spotify is its family plan

7) What is the target audience for your chosen case study? Write a demographic/psychographic profile.

The Psychographic groups that Spotify users are most probably mainstreamers as the 30 million songs that Spotify consists of, would mainly contain the most popular artists and songs which mainstreamers would want to listen to.
Spotify's main demographic for their audience are probably C2DE where the the enjoyment of music would be a priority.


Institution

1) How has new and digital media had an impact on ownership or control in your chosen industry?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify

• Spotify was developed in 2006 by a team at Spotify AB, in Stockholm, Sweden.
• The company was founded by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of TradeDoubler and Maria Giovani Anggasta Santosa.

http://www.techhive.com/article/169811/Documents_Reveal_Major_Labels_Own_Part_of_Spotify.html

• When it launched in October 2008, Spotify publicized music rights deals with Sony BMG Music, Universal Music, Warner Music, EMI and Merlin.
•  Combined, the record companies paid just €8,800 for an 18 percent share of Spotify's stock, according to financial filings obtained by Computer Sweden from the Trade Register of Luxembourg
• Spotify is about to close a round of investments from Hong-Kong based business tycoon Li Ka-shing and British venture capitalists Wellington Partners. 
• Previous investors in Spotify include nordic venture capitalists Northzone Ventures and Creandum, which as of July 10 owns 11.9 percent and 5.9 percent of Spotify's shares respectively.
• The majority of the stock is controlled by Spotify founders Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek by proxy of companies registered in Cyprus.

3) How has new and digital media changed the way institutions produce texts?

4) How has new and digital media changed the way institutions distribute their product?

5) How might new and digital media threaten your chosen industry?

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/revenue-streams

• Napster, the pioneering file-sharing service, which unleashed piracy on the record business and began the cataclysm that caused worldwide revenues to decline from a peak of twenty-seven billion dollars, in 1999, to fifteen billion, in 2013. 
• by unbundling tracks from the album, so that buyers could cherry-pick their favorite songs, Apple arguably hastened the decline.
•  I like this song, but not enough to buy it, Spotify solves this ideology

6) How has new and digital media changed the way your chosen industry is regulated? 


UGC

1) What examples of user-generated content can you find in your case study?

2) How has UGC changed things for audiences or institutions in your chosen case study?


Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony

1) What would be a Marxist perspective of the impact of new and digital media on your chosen case study?

2) How would a pluralist view the impact of new and digital media in your chosen industry?

3) Are there any examples of hegemony in your chosen industry or case study?


Globalisation

1) How has globalisation impacted on your chosen industry or case study?

2) In your opinion, has globalisation had a positive or negative impact on your chosen industry and case study? Why?

3) Can you find examples of cultural imperialism in your case study or industry? (The 'Americanisation' of the world)


Social media

1) How has your industry or case study used social media to promote its products?

http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/03/facebook-messenger-spotify/

•  Facebook Messenger is launching “its very first music integration” with Spotify.Inside the Messenger “More” section in chat threads, all iOS and Android users will now find a Spotify option. Tap it and they’ll be shuttled into Spotify’s app where they can “Search for something to share.” 
•  Once they select a song, artist or playlist, they’ll be popped back to Messenger with the option to share the photo of the cover artwork. When a friend taps that photo, they’ll be bounced over to Spotify to listen.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/11978389/Facebook-lets-you-share-Spotify-and-Apple-Music-clips-in-your-News-Feed.html

• Facebook has introduced a new feature that allows users who are also subscribers to Spotify or Apple Music to share 30-second clips of their favourite songs, known as "music stories", in their news feeds.
• The clips are streamed from either Apple Music or Spotify The feature is currently only available through the Facebook app on iPhone.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/27/zuckerberg_reservation_and_the_future_of_content_platforms/

• alliance between Facebook and Spotify turns out to be a much better deal for Facebook than Spotify - New sign-ups to Spotify must be Facebook members - the non-Facebook world will have to go somewhere else.
• Spotify obviously needs the attention that Facebook's distribution channel can bring.
• Spotify's new users, who wander in from Facebook, will get six months of free streaming.

2) Provide examples of how your case study has used social media and explain the impact this would have on audiences.

3) Is social media an opportunity or a threat to your industry and case study?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/11728422/Facebook-Music-Social-network-may-rival-Spotify-and-Apple-with-its-own-streaming-service.html

• Facebook is reported to be considering an audio streaming service, potentially creating a rival to Apple and Spotify's music services.
•  launching a music video service similar to YouTube that will pay artists for video streams using advertising revenue.
• As well as Apple Music, which launched last week, and Spotify; Jay-Z's Tidal, Rdio, Deezer, Google and Microsoft are all competing for users. However, Facebook may believe it has a role to play.

Facebook has several differences with other technology companies that make a streaming service an interesting proposition.

• Firstly, it is a free service: Unlike Apple, for example, people are not used to handing over their credit card details to the company.

Statistics

1) What statistics can you find to illustrate the impact new and digital media has had on your industry or case study? For example, in news, the UK newspaper industry sold more than 12m copies a day in 2001 but in 2014 it was below 7m.

http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/10/spotify-now-has-20m-paying-subscribers-a-100-year-on-year-increase/

•  Spotify  now has 20 million paying subscribers, from a total active user base of 75 million people.
• This represents an increase of 5 million and 15 million respectively since Spotify last provided figures back in January
• Spotify also says that it has now paid more than $3 billion in royalties to artists and rightsholders
• Spotify’s paid-to-unpaid ratio has typically always been 1-to-4, or 25 percent. It now sits at closer to 27 percent, which means its ratio of paid users is edging upwards, though admittedly only slightly.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/12/spotify-listening-shifts-to-mobile/?ncid=rss_truncated

•  52 percent of listening now takes place on phones (42 percent) or tablets (10 percent)
• they stream an average of 150 minutes every day, or longer than two large albums.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1012476 

• nearly two-thirds of US Spotify users were between the ages of 13 and 29, with 18- to 24-year-olds accounting for the largest share.

https://brandsnews.spotify.com/us/2015/12/23/thank-you-2015/

• 2000+ advertisers picked up in 2015

https://brandsnews.spotify.com/us/2015/09/30/playstation/

• PlayStation 4 users are soundtracking their gaming sessions with their favorite music, from a library of over 30 million songs.
• Spotify users on PlayStation are in the zone, streaming over 1.5 billion tracks to date and listening an average of 88 minutes per day. 

http://www.statista.com/topics/2075/spotify/

• Spotify's revenue amounted to 1.08 billion euros, up from 747 million euros in the previous year. The company's net loss amounted to 162 million euros in 2014.
• Spotify's revenue amounted to 1.08 billion euros, up from 747 million euros in the previous year. The company's net loss amounted to 162 million euros in 2014.
• the music streaming platform generated 982.9 million euros in subscription revenues.
•  the total number of employees at the music streaming service was 1,354. 
•  In 2013, more than 4.5 billion hours of music were streamed via Spotify. 

2) Looking at these statistics, what impact has new/digital media had on institutions in your chosen industry? 

3) What has the impact been for audiences? These may be positive and negative.


Theories

1) What media theories can you apply to your chosen industry and case study? Select THREE media theories and explain how they are relevant to your case study. Note: these can be ANY of the theories we have learned over the whole of Year 12 and 13.


Issues/debates

1) What media issues and debates can you apply to your chosen industry and case study? Select THREE media issues/debates and explain how they are relevant to your case study.


Wider examples and secondary texts

1) What other texts or institutions are also relevant to your case study? What would be good secondary texts or examples to use to support the findings of your independent case study?


Media Magazine

MM 53 - Spot(ify) the Difference pg.54

the free tier that 75% of users are experiencing contains adverts, all of which advertisers have paid to place there.

pays 70% of the overall revenue they collect to rights holders – in other words, to the artists.

the amount of royalties that Spotify pays to artists doubled from 2013 to 2014, from half a billion to a cool billion US dollars.

Spotify has finally seized upon a working business model that does return some real money to artists and rights-holders.

As of December 2014, 75% of Spotify’s 60 million users worldwide (up 20 million in a month!) were using the free tier, with just 25% paying the subscription of £9.99 per month.

The article shows how Spotify has developed since its release and the breakdown of how artists are paid. Although it may seem that it is difficult to make profit due to there only being 25% of the users being subscription customers however it has been proven that the amount of royalties that Spotify pay to artists are receiving are massively increasing. With 70% of the revenue being given to the artists, this is a new way of musicians gaining profit for releasing their songs, differently to the traditional physical album sales.   

MM 34 - Changes in the Music Industry: From Labels to Laptops

• In the old days, working musicians would hope (ultimately) to be signed to a record label.
• The emergence of 
• new technologies and new ways for music
• lovers to listen to, and own, the music they 
• love.
• With the emergence of Napster and other file-sharing sites more than ten years ago, it became obvious that the internet offers a perfect way for artists to distribute music.
• In this new world, there would be no place for physical records; instead music would live as data on people’s computers.
• the artist would start to get a cut of the profits (usually about 15%).
• the publishing arm of the label (or an independent publisher) would collect royalties from all the airplay and other usage of the artist’s materials, taking a cut themselves.
• It’s only in recent years that a semi-professional ‘project studio’ setup powerful enough to produce commercially releasable results
•  CD and DVD revenues fell by £8.7 million in 2009, but digital revenues grew by £12.8 million.

The music industry was once widely reliant on the sales of concert and performance tickets but as time went on, physical albums played a heavier role in an artists revenue. Audiences would be able to listen to records from the comfort of their own home and collect the records, however, now the internet has allowed for file sharing sites and illegal downloading sites to take over the music industry. For example, Napster has been emerging and audience view that this is better way for artists to distribute their music as music now lives on people's computers, phones and other devices rather than in the form of physical copies.

MM 35 - From ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ to Arcade Fire: 25 Years of Change in the Music Business – the Culture of Today and Tomorrow

• The music industry has turned 180 degrees, 
• and gone back to how it was in the 70’s. Live 
• music is key to a band’s success, with the 
• records becoming less important.
• Apple has devoured the open space with its digital offering, iTunes.
• Most majors have rushed to own shares in the digital provisions, such as Spotify.

The music industry, like the 70's, think that the key to success is through live music as audiences world wide no longer need to buy physical albums as they can easily access music through downloading or streaming sites.  With Spotify gaining great popularity in the music industry, people believe that owning shares with Spotify will prove to be greatly useful. It is possible that eventually, with streaming sites gaining a lot of popularity, artists would solely rely on the live performance earnings. 

MM 55 - Music in Ads: How Does it Work? Mike Hobbs interviewed musicians and marketers to investigate how advertisers hit the magic combination of music and imagery that will generate the emotions that melt consumers’ hearts.

• To have your song on an ad can represent the peak 
• of success for many musicians
• Every time I hear a piece of music on the radio or in a film I think my brain subconsciously logs it and the 
• emotion attached.
• music works with visuals to enhance the viewers’ experience and emotion,

This article shows that how an artists status and success used to be measured on whether their music was popular enough to be featured on an advertisement. If the artists song was used for an advert, it could suggest that they would be widely successful as many people would hear the song and may be inclined to listen to it. Also, it suggests that music videos aren't purely used for audiences to listen to the song alone. It offers a variety of components to accentuate the audiences experience with the music. In terms of Spotify, initially, the sound component of the music was the only thing offered however Spotify have recently announced that they would be offering more videos to further enhance the viewers emotion.

Media Factsheet

24 Music Industry

• The music industry is a global business that generates profit by selling musical recordings in both physical and digital formats to media audiences.
• labels are continually devising new ways of attracting audiences to consume their products
• The term music industry refers to all the businesses that are responsible for the creation and the marketing of music
• The Internet has now provided artists and individuals the opportunity to launch independent record labels known as Net Labels.
• Synergy is another way in which record companies generate income via advertising and marketing their artists in association with other brands or products.
• Adorno built his theory of the culture industries on Marxist principles. He was a critic of the capitalist system and argued that popular culture or the culture industries maintained capitalism.
• Peterson and Berger examine the concept of authenticity and ideology within popular music. They identify that historically popular music had come from a place of resistance to dominant ideologies and values and provided a creative outlet for people that allowed expression of counter-cultural positions.

The music industry has massively developed with the continuous advancements in new and digital media such as the internet and spotify. It has provided for a new way for artists to gain profit and no longer needs to be from a reputable company to be successful. 

54 A2 Post Modernism

• There once was a time when high art was removed from popular culture. 
• Pop music (low art) often samples classical music (high art)
• Advertising (low art) often makes reference to visual art (high art) or uses classical music (high art) to help sell its products

Spotify can be considered as a form of low art as they are advertising the music artists.

55 Twilight Case Study

• The video used scenes from the film to promote its release and was screened on MTV as well as being available on www.twilightthemovie.com.
• The official Twilight website: www.twilightthemovie.com, featured key images used in the poster campaigns and hosted the trailers and music video, creating a link between all three media platforms. 

Music videos are an effective way to advertise for movies, artists or other products. As the visual aspects that music videos provide can be considered to be much more impacting than audio alone, this may be a reason why Spotify has decided to expand their horizons from streaming only audio to streaming music videos and other entertainment clips.

56 Gaming and Audiences 

• Whilst other areas of entertainment such as the film and music industries have found themselves struggling to maintain and increase profits, gaming has proved itself to be popular and profitable (making $57bn in 2009).
• Like other media industries, it is having to adapt to technological changes in the rise of emedia
• the threat of piracy and the challenges offered by changing audience behaviours.
• Nintendo Wii has specifically focussed its marketing on child and family target audiences with simple platform games, music and exergame titles being its mainstay.

With the gaming industry being very popular, Spotify may choose to stream songs from games and game clips to appeal to a wider audience.

67 Lady Gaga and The Music Industry

• The global music industry is dominated by four major record labels, also known as conglomerates. These are Warner Music Group, Universal, EMI & SONY.
•  aim to attract a mass audience through the production of mainstream, ‘popular’ products.
• The growth and popularity of the internet has challenged the power of conglomerate control within the industry in a number of ways
• The music industry has had to respond to the advent of the digital revolution due to its impact on production, distribution, artists and audiences. 
• The rapidly increasing trend of internet file-sharing has resulted in both positive and negative outcomes for both artists and fans.
• Artists are rewarded with free ‘viral marketing’ where word of mouth spreads ‘like a virus’ amongst users, generating free publicity and ‘buzz’ around an artist, video, album or single.
• Artists have taken ownership of key industry processes such as marketing and distribution, processes usually carried out by the record labels themselves.
• As conglomerates becomes less dominant, audiences gain more choice over the types of music they want to hear and access, rather than being restricted by the type of music distributed by record labels.
• The digital revolution has enabled audiences to move from passive to active, leading to a participatory culture as audiences get more of a say in what music is produced and which music succeeds
• By embracing social network media platforms, musicians and record labels are able to utilise an interactive relationship with fans that is beneficial to both producers and audiences.
• Richard Dyer (1985) offers a definition of escapism stating that ‘entertainment offers the image of ‘something better’ to escape into or something we want deeply that our day to day lives don’t provide’. 

Spotify can be considered to support Dyer's theory that entertainment (in this case, music) offers an opportunity to escape from life's mundane problems and enjoy 'something better'. Also, as artists have recently been using social media in order to advertise their music and other activities, Spotify may become a similar platform for artists to showcase their new content on.

 69 Music Video

• The purpose of a music video is to sell products, the most obvious of which is the song featured in the video
• However, other connected products are also marketed by a music video.
• When a music video is shown, the audience is able to hear the song the video is for so they are ‘getting’ the product that is being promoted
• However, the development of new media technologies meant that music videos, and the songs along with them, were more widely available at any time. 
• The advent of such technologies proved to be problematic for the music industry as audiences were less inclined to buy a physical copy of a song if they could listen to it online for free.
• Initially, most record companies fought against their artists’ music videos being available online and attempted to prosecute those who uploaded videos to YouTube for copyright infringement. 
• However, more recently, the music industry has come to realise that attempts to monitor sites like YouTube are time consuming, expensive and often futile. 

73 Glee 

• The music from Glee is a huge commercial success with digital single and album downloads passing the 20 million mark (January 2011). 
• Fox’s partnership with music conglomerate Sony has generated mass chart success not only for the songs covered by the Glee cast within the show, but also the recordings by the original artists
• Songs from the show are available to download on iTunes shortly after the episodes are broadcast but opportunities for further revenue are extensive.
• Audience interest in music generates further interest and activity in other musical themed media platforms such as Glee ringtones or the karaoke themed app for the iPhone and iPad. 

104 Digital Age

• Music video could only be seen when broadcast or if purchased on video/DVD collections 
• Music could only be bought as ‘hard copy’, the most successful being vinyl records, cassettes and then CDs
• Spotify offers a vast library of music that is available at any time.
•  Music videos are available anytime on YouTube and can be downloaded and played on mobile devices.
•  Digital radio can be listened to on computers 
• Music can be produced at home and made available via social networking where it can be sold or offered for free download
• Radio and music TV would be available only at the time of broadcast.

122 The Changing Face of Music

• The music industry is a complex industry which is made up of conglomerates such as those identified above as well as record labels, some of which are owned by the big 4, others which are considered to be ‘indie’ (independent) labels
•  The music industry wants to protect their position of dominance
• According to www.songrights.com music companies give between 9% and 12% to the artist and the rest is profit for their company.
•  So, for many decades the music industry had a relatively uncomplicated business model: band or artist records song, record label sells song and then artist and record label make money
• Developments in technology and the emergence of the Internet mean that artists have the potential to reach audiences without the need for a major company and where once recording equipment was expensive it was out of reach for the average person; it is now widely available at a low cost. 
• In an era of fragmented platforms, file sharing, and non-traditional routes to market, the music industry is facing various challenges.
• How audiences are purchasing and consuming music has changed dramatically with the emergence of digital technology and the music industry has struggled to keep up at times
•  One of the most problematic issues that the industry is facing is the ‘culture of free’. 
• In recent years consumers are less willing to pay for their music and as a consequence piracy and file-sharing have seen the industry lose billions over the last decade
• According to the Institute for Policy Innovation global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year.
• In order to combat this music streaming services such as Spotify have worked in conjunction with the industry to try offer audiences the opportunity to listen to music but not actually download it
•  superstars are capturing the vast majority of music revenues and their share is increasing – not decreasing – because of the rise of digital services like iTunes and Spotify. 
•  ‘Don’t make people pay for music, let them.’ - Amanda Palmer
• Artists like Amanda Palmer are trying to circumvent the big labels and do things differently by using the idea of crowdsourcing. This is where an artist asks their fans or anyone who may be interested to fund their project and be given something special in return
• What is clear is that in a trans-media age where changes are brought about by the developments in technology at a rapid pace the interrelationship between the artist and consumer is evolving beyond the traditional models