The Internet is now an apparent place where major music studies are placing their promotional material and music videos to gain audiences and overall revenue. The main digital convergence that I will be focusing on is youtube and the music industry (being music videos) and how it has converged to our mobile music devices via music players and that this is where the future of music entertainment is heading.It is now clear that this is where the main attention of it audiences are being brought to. Youtube is a website that streams videos for free to the public with access to any user, it is apparent that music fans no longer go to the television (for stations such as channel V, MTV) instead directly to youtube to see the latest music video culture. A keyword that I believe why this digital convergence is occurring is simply “convenience”. Music Videos On Youtube
Major companies such as Sony Music group have utilized digital convergence as a marketing tool, an example of that would be Lady Gaga’s bad romance a music video that has received a total viewing of over 480 millions views, the most on youtube's music video history count.
Lady Gaga's Bad Romance was a video made for the digital convergence Era
But of course a number of digital media aspects is what created such a large view count, other services such as twitter or Facebook are used by people and the record labels to share and distribute the video among the music community. Before the days of such services word of mouth would result in people waiting to watch the music video on television.
To utilise digital convergence each music video found on youtube by major music companies usually link the albums place of purchase of the song in the video description (seeing how it is apparent that music is now a digital convergence from CD’s now to digital audio files).
The Link To purchase the song instantly
If the youtube user clicks that link it takes them across to iTunes in which the song can be purchased for $2.19 (in Australian dollars), so if bad romance has received such a large amount of views most likely a large amount of viewers have purchased it via this direct link.
Another key aspect of this is the advertisement sector with music videos. Before a video begins on youtube an advertisement plays, from this the music industries generate revenue just the amount of viewers that have generally been forced to watch the advertisement before the video. Much like being forced to watch commercial on a music video channel on television, indeed advertisement has invaded to the digital world.
But this does not only apply to modern music videos but indeed even older and more obscure ones, major studies are remastering videos from their archives and placing them on youtube as it is “Culled from users personal collections of recrodings and productions, the sites videos and its search engines offer some evidence of what from televisions past now constitutes our cultural memory- a concept that suggests the idiosyncratic ways that personal experience, popular culture and historical narritives intersect” (hilderband, L)
An example I will use is Ice Cubes music video ‘It was a good day’ a song from 1992 (now 20 years old) that currently has over over 25 million views million views and once again a link to instantly purchase the song. Music videos can really create a large amount of attention for its users. Youtube is a cultural ground as anyone can literally instantly find the video of their choice from decades ago within a few seconds. In terms of digital convergence youtube could be seen a the new television and Itunes can be seen as the new CD. Itunes is now a major software source for accessing a large amount of music directly from a computer or mobile device (such as Iphone or Ipad). We can stream music videos directly off these devices with their built in youtube video app, allowing the users to see all the lastest in the music video world.
Digital convergence as a Lifestyle
What I am trying to present here is that youtube music videos and itunes work
together in a circular pattern in digital convergence that rely on each other.
Viewers watch the music video on youtube and can instantly get told where to purchase the song digitally, remember when we used to watch music videos on TV and got told where to buy the CD at a retailer?
There are a number of reasons why society is adapting this digital convergence of the music video era and digital music, it can on being an economical factor. Digital downloads of tracks appear to be a cheaper option then their physical CD counterpart in various cases.
“U.S. digital music sales will rise to $3.4
billion this year, exceeding the $3.38 billion in revenue from CDs and vinyl,
Boston-based Strategy Analytics Inc. said yesterday on its website” -Bloomberg
together in a circular pattern in digital convergence that rely on each other.
Viewers watch the music video on youtube and can instantly get told where to purchase the song digitally, remember when we used to watch music videos on TV and got told where to buy the CD at a retailer?
There are a number of reasons why society is adapting this digital convergence of the music video era and digital music, it can on being an economical factor. Digital downloads of tracks appear to be a cheaper option then their physical CD counterpart in various cases.
Recent studies are showing that digital downloads are now taking over physical sales. Culturally this is just a far easier and convenient option as most people would prefer to instantly download their tracks then travel to a retailer and purchase the physical item. With youtube, streaming music videos after all is completely a free service, instead of paying for cable subscription on television. Even major retailers are converging to this digital music era as its clear this is where it is heading.
Youtube’s video streaming service has also influenced music based streaming services, from where anyone can instantly stream their music much like a video on youtube. Based on all this “History teaches us that old media never die- and they don’t necessarily fade away. What dies simply the tools we use to access media content” (Jenkins, N) in this case its apparent that the physical media format tools will die (being the cd and television audience). In lifestyle terms people are adopting this as physical media can be seen as space consuming, once again it leads back to convenience. If we can access any from of media from an easier, faster, more efficient way through hardware of software, ultimately a digital convergence is going to occur. Looking through history we have evolved from different formats of media tools (such as cassette, vinyl, cd’s) however the music video and music itself will still live on.
So ultimately in the future based on this a majority of people will have moved over to the digital era. What I tried to represent was a circular pattern of youtube’s music video broadcasting and itunes music service. We are in the process of a new generation of digital convergence from the television to youtube and from the cd to itunes, with evidence of digital sales taking over it won’t be long until we have completely converted due to the lifestyle and convenience.
By John Mathews (42886767)
References:
Resources (stats):
http://afr.com/p/technology/can_cloud_save_the_music_industry_MEmbzXdZ8aeu8FaDtk91wK
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-16/spotify-pandora-spur-u-s-digital-music-sales-past-cds.html
http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/is-youtube-destroying-or-saving-music.html
Reading sources:
Unit guide:
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture, New York, New YorkUniversity Press, pp 1-24.
Hilderbrand, L. (2007) 'Youtube: Where Cultural Memory and Copyright Converge', Film Quarterly, Vol 61, pp 48-57
Recommended reading:
Kung, L Picard, R and Towes, R (eds 2008) The Internet and mass media , London Sage , pp23-28
Own Researched Reading:
Piredda, (2007) ‘COMMUNICATION DESIGN FOR DIGITAL CONVERGENCE.
A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO THE AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM.’
,polyu, International associates of Design Research, pp 1-17
Pdf version: http://www.sd.polyu.edu.hk/iasdr/proceeding/papers/Communication%20design%20for%20digital%20convergence.%20A%20strategic%20approach%20to%20the%20audiovisual%20communication%20system.pdf
Images:
MTV Logo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/MTV_Logo.svg/644px-MTV_Logo.svg.png
Lady Gaga Bad Romance video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I
Image of Video count/ Advertisement screen grabbed from lady gaga video page
Music Video Ice cube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWfbGGZE07M
Image of Video count/ Advertisement screen grabbed from ice cube video page
Ipad youtube image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgRc6zfuZZgd0vX-ckBlDqSSYsd6dIi-Q01SV1ReAFzFWUqYbdbFyDyKE6Le1W72ethH-ryQ1Q7amIu7MLGX3uk1zvSisjMU7rPV37tc9UFYQx2tcBej-b37zZy69JyEozUyVhinF1K-4/s1600/youtube_search_20100225.jpg
Jb hi fi Store: http://www.flash.com.au/bulletin/Sept08/images/JB_HIFI.png
Iphone beatles : http://s3.favim.com/orig/42/apple-beatles-cute-iphone-ipod-Favim.com-353881.jpg
Title heading created on apples Pages using the following images:
CD: http://www.multi-tech.com.au/Discs/120cd.html
Itunes logo: http://www.thetechscoop.net/2011/12/04/itunes-match-explained/
Youtube logo: http://www.youtube.com/t/press_room_image_files
TV:: http://blogs.abc.net.au/.a/6a00e0097e4e6888330168e698c607970c-800wi
“Traditional retailer JB Hi-Fi has launched
its own Now service as a response to declining CD sales.” – financial review
Youtube’s video streaming service has also influenced music based streaming services, from where anyone can instantly stream their music much like a video on youtube. Based on all this “History teaches us that old media never die- and they don’t necessarily fade away. What dies simply the tools we use to access media content” (Jenkins, N) in this case its apparent that the physical media format tools will die (being the cd and television audience). In lifestyle terms people are adopting this as physical media can be seen as space consuming, once again it leads back to convenience. If we can access any from of media from an easier, faster, more efficient way through hardware of software, ultimately a digital convergence is going to occur. Looking through history we have evolved from different formats of media tools (such as cassette, vinyl, cd’s) however the music video and music itself will still live on.
Conclusion
So ultimately in the future based on this a majority of people will have moved over to the digital era. What I tried to represent was a circular pattern of youtube’s music video broadcasting and itunes music service. We are in the process of a new generation of digital convergence from the television to youtube and from the cd to itunes, with evidence of digital sales taking over it won’t be long until we have completely converted due to the lifestyle and convenience.
By John Mathews (42886767)
References:
Resources (stats):
http://afr.com/p/technology/can_cloud_save_the_music_industry_MEmbzXdZ8aeu8FaDtk91wK
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-16/spotify-pandora-spur-u-s-digital-music-sales-past-cds.html
http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/is-youtube-destroying-or-saving-music.html
Reading sources:
Unit guide:
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture, New York, New YorkUniversity Press, pp 1-24.
Hilderbrand, L. (2007) 'Youtube: Where Cultural Memory and Copyright Converge', Film Quarterly, Vol 61, pp 48-57
Recommended reading:
Kung, L Picard, R and Towes, R (eds 2008) The Internet and mass media , London Sage , pp23-28
Own Researched Reading:
Piredda, (2007) ‘COMMUNICATION DESIGN FOR DIGITAL CONVERGENCE.
A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO THE AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM.’
,polyu, International associates of Design Research, pp 1-17
Pdf version: http://www.sd.polyu.edu.hk/iasdr/proceeding/papers/Communication%20design%20for%20digital%20convergence.%20A%20strategic%20approach%20to%20the%20audiovisual%20communication%20system.pdf
Images:
MTV Logo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/MTV_Logo.svg/644px-MTV_Logo.svg.png
Lady Gaga Bad Romance video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I
Image of Video count/ Advertisement screen grabbed from lady gaga video page
Music Video Ice cube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWfbGGZE07M
Image of Video count/ Advertisement screen grabbed from ice cube video page
Ipad youtube image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgRc6zfuZZgd0vX-ckBlDqSSYsd6dIi-Q01SV1ReAFzFWUqYbdbFyDyKE6Le1W72ethH-ryQ1Q7amIu7MLGX3uk1zvSisjMU7rPV37tc9UFYQx2tcBej-b37zZy69JyEozUyVhinF1K-4/s1600/youtube_search_20100225.jpg
Jb hi fi Store: http://www.flash.com.au/bulletin/Sept08/images/JB_HIFI.png
Iphone beatles : http://s3.favim.com/orig/42/apple-beatles-cute-iphone-ipod-Favim.com-353881.jpg
Title heading created on apples Pages using the following images:
CD: http://www.multi-tech.com.au/Discs/120cd.html
Itunes logo: http://www.thetechscoop.net/2011/12/04/itunes-match-explained/
Youtube logo: http://www.youtube.com/t/press_room_image_files
TV:: http://blogs.abc.net.au/.a/6a00e0097e4e6888330168e698c607970c-800wi
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