See also: INDUSTRY ISSUES SUMMARY Digital streamed past physical in 2015
CIE Evaluation Q3 asks:
How do your products engage with the audience and how would they be distributed as real media products?
- who are the 'big three' (now big two?) of the music industry?
- what's the difference between Indie and conglomerate or subsidiary (consider vertical and horizontal integration + synergy - terms from AS learning)?
- how has digitisation impacted ('disrupted') the music industry?
- has streaming effectively replaced lost revenues from physical media sales for artists and labels?
- how else are musicians seeking to monetise their work, brand and fanbase?
- why is vinyl making a comeback, and how wide or narrow a range of artists/genres are publishing in this format? is it just for older, nostalgic audiences (Simon Reynolds: Retromania)?
- do you still need a record label/deal? think about Soundcloud, Vimeo, YouTube ... but also how difficult it is to make real money from streaming (Harlem Shake for the opposite!), and Elberse's argument/case studies (Jay-Z and Gaga) in Blockbusters (cheap as an e-book)
- does the rise of crowdfunding, Kickstarter etc, prove the audience/producer divide is dead?
- are social media interactions as important as the music itself?
- where does video fit into this picture? consider convergence and what this means for the increased accessibility of video and the expansion of video production too (you're a part of this), plus UGC such as lyric videos and digipak/CD unwrapping videos
Evaluation Q3 asks:
How do your products engage with the audience and how would they be distributed as real media products?
Focusing mainly on the second part of this, use the following resources to create a post on music video distribution. You should make some reference to recorded (CD) music distribution too, linked to your digipak, and any notes/examples on marketing, social media and audience engagement/interaction will also help.
CREATIVE APPROACHES
Interview a record shop owner
International Record Store Day feature
Interview someone (or multiple people/roles) at the record label
The artist does a promo for record store day, or speaks out about why they're unhappy with YouTube especially...
Band/act's accountant discusses their hits/streams/followers/subscribers data (screenshots!) on any streaming platform they are on (soundcloud, YT, Spotify...). Don't forget that lyric vids etc are still distributing the music
CREATIVE APPROACHES
Interview a record shop owner
International Record Store Day feature
Interview someone (or multiple people/roles) at the record label
The artist does a promo for record store day, or speaks out about why they're unhappy with YouTube especially...
Band/act's accountant discusses their hits/streams/followers/subscribers data (screenshots!) on any streaming platform they are on (soundcloud, YT, Spotify...). Don't forget that lyric vids etc are still distributing the music
