Institutions and audiences question

To what extent has convergence affected the production, exchange and consumption of media products in the Music Industry?


Essay to be completed for Tuesday (strictly no excuses!)


Ensure that you understand and answer all parts of the question, using plenty of case study and research material.


Good luck!

SMALL TOWN AMERICA RESEARCH TASK

Complete a detailed profile on Small Town America.

Use the following questions as guidance and ensure each area is covered in sufficient depth (text book examples are good indicators of depth, length and quality).

1. What kinds of music do STA produce?
2. What strategies do they use to promote and distribute their music?
3. Who is their audience?
4. What is the relationship between STA and the mainstream music industry?
5. What ways do STA audiences consume STA music?
6. How would you describe the relationship between STA and their audience?
7. What is STA's attitude to file sharing?
8. What ways do STA differ from a major record label?

RESEARCH TASKS

MANY ARE NOT ON THE BLOGS - THIS NEEDS TO BE RECTIFIED ASAP.

THIS TASK IS PREP FOR YOUR EXAM.

CASE STUDY 1 – SOUL JAZZ RECORDS

This label has established a reputation for distributing a range of music to a wide audience, often Reggae and other styles given the label ‘underground’. It also distributes a wealth of older music that was not given due recognition at the time of its original release.

Develop a case study on the label, using the questions as starting point.
· First go to the website souljazzrecords.co.uk and familiarise yourself with it.
· Look at the range of music they distribute, the way in which you can purchase - make notes.
· Research the label and some of its key signings – make notes.
· Answer these questions:
o What kinds of music do Soul Jazz Records produce?
o What strategies do they use to promote and distribute their music?
o Who is the audience?
o What is the relationship between SJR and the mainstream music industry?

Try and keep your work organised and split into relevant sections.
DUE MONDAY ALONG WITH GLOSSARY.

KEY TERMS

You have a lot of foundation and starting info. We now need to tighten everything up into ideas and points you can learn which in turn will help you write your essays.

Complete a glossary for all of these key terms (a line or 2 will suffice).
Some ask for an example - simply cite it.

NOTE: in langauge you understand and can learn.
We will go over these in class.

• PRODUCTION



• DISTRIBUTION



• MARKETING



• CONSUMPTION



• THE MUSIC INDUSTRY (lovely def. in handout)



• FILE SHARING



• VERTICAL INTEGRATION + example



• SYNERGY



• CONVERGENCE



• COPYRIGHT



• CONVENTIONS



• DEMOGRAPHIC



• DOWNLOAD



• HARDWARE



• INDEPENDENT



• SUBSIDIARY



• HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION + EXAMPLE



• THE BIG 3

FEEDBACK ON DISTRIBUTION AND PRODUCTION ESSAYS

Everyone has individual feedback on both these essays on their blogs, however here are few general points:

• many seem to have a genuine engagement with the tasks and personal views are apparent.
• some great research and inclusion on statistics/examples.
• a few brilliant weblinks to interesting articles.
• Understanding of the different areas is becoming more evident - keep it up.

• Quite a few have been asked to re do 1 of the tasks. While the info provided is not inaccurate, it is not about the set task eg several 'production' essays don't mention production at all. All must be aware of sticking to the task set as soon of you have made massive amounts of extra work for yourself. Because this is such a massive industry and there is so much info, it's easy to drift but if this happens in the exam you will gain little marks.
• Looking at each other's blogs for help occasionally is fine, however I think this might have caused so many to go off task in the production task - keep referring to the wording of the task on the class blog to keep you on track.
• Pick out key info both in these tasks and once we look at our specific case studies - copying and pasting massive pieces of info won't really aid your understanding and will certainly be very hard to learn for the exam.

MORE CONSUMPTION - USBs JUST GOT PROMOTED!

Here's an example of what we were talking about in class - buying a USB directly after a concert with all the footage on it. Look at some of their clients! An idea which is definitely on the up.

Click here for weblink