ESSAY 2 FEEDBACK

MUSIC INDUSTRY ESSAY 2 - significance of continuing development of digital media technology on institutions and audiences. 

Anyone who handed in an essay yesterday has feedback on their blogs. I couldn't manage to put a 'new post' on people's blogs so you now have 2 comments beneath your 1st essay. The second one refers to the most recent piece. 

Anyone who hasn't given it in, needs to post it on their blogs asap. As well as this, if anyone wants to do additional questions, post them on your blogs and 'll check regularly over the next few days.

Overall the pieces are very well written and understanding of the whole industry is evident. However, it is so important that you get our case studies in and use them to support your essays. 

Any problems, get in touch. Best of luck for Tuesday! 

Miss Hunter

Level 4 section b mark scheme

Level 4

Explanation/analysis/argument (16-20 marks)

 Shows excellent understanding of the task

 Excellent knowledge and understanding of institutional/audience

practices – factual knowledge is relevant and accurate

 A clear and developed argument, substantiated by detailed

reference to case study material

 Clearly relevant to set question

Use of examples (16-20 marks)

 Offers frequent evidence from case study material – award

marks to reflect the range and appropriateness of examples from

case study and/or own experience

 Offers examples which are clearly relevant to the set question

Use of terminology (8-10 marks)

 Use of terminology is relevant and accurate

Complex issues have been expressed clearly and fluently. Sentences

and paragraphs, consistently relevant, have been well structured,

using appropriate technical terminology. There may be few, if any,

errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

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

IS THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION WINNING THE BATTLE?

An interesting piece here from The Guardian. Some helpful statistics also included.

The digital revolution has been and continues to be massive and is constantly evolving, but is there still room for the more traditional methods of consumption? This article discusses the issue and even manages to incorporate Take That : )

DIGITAL CONSUMPTION LINK

Click here for a relatively straightforward research piece on digital consumption

CONSUMPTION TASK

Due Monday

• Clarify definition - what do we mean by music consumption?



• Before the technological revolution so to speak, how was music consumed?
  


• What is the digital revolution?



• How has this transformed the ways in which audiences consume music? Consider both legal and non legal methods ie file sharing; streaming of live concerts (U2 on youtube example, buying concerts on Sky etc); putting live concert on USBs after the show etc. NOTE: This should be a big research section!



• Along with digital consumption, what other ways do people still consume music and it's related products today? CD sales? Concert tickets?
  
  

*Ensure you use technical terminology where possible.

**Address all areas.

Titling your project

Titles must not be an afterthought, they are a vital part of the connection between film and audience and help to establish and develop expectations of your film. You should hopefully have looked at http://www.artofthetitle.com/ for inspiration. Your task for Friday is to create a timeline for all that happens in the opening sequence of a film in the genre that you have chosen.

An example is included below

DISTRIBUTION TASK

**NOTE: THIS TASK HAS REPLACED THE 'BIG 3' RESEARCH TASK. I WILL GIVE YOU A NEW DATE FOR THAT SHORTLY.


You've completed research on 'Production' of music - let's look at the next step, 'Distribution' (ie once the music is made, getting it out there)

The case studies will be our reference points, but it's important to have a general understanding of each section before we dive indepth into our specific case studies.

For Tuesday, complete research on 'Distribution' (be careful - don't drift into consumption which is about how we actually buy it)

Consider:
* What are the different ways in which music is distributed today?

* Where did we come from? Where are we now?

* How have technological advances effected this area?

* The future for distribution?

DUE TUESDAY PLEASE.

REMEMBER, THE MORE YOU PUT IN, THE MORE YOU WILL GET OUT OF THIS ALL AND THE GREATER BENEFIT IT WILL BE TO YOU IN YOUR EXAM.

HISTORY OF THE IPOD/MP3

History of the Ipod click here for timeline

Interesting piece on Production

Some of the pros and cons in the revolution of production in the music industry

Click here

TASK- DUE MONDAY

Production in the music industry

1. Watch the video posted a few days ago on the blog entitled "excellent video on the digital revolution" - it definitely provides food for thought and gives an interesting insight into the changes of late.

2. Complete independent research on changes in production in the music industry in the last 10 years.

You might want to look at:

• where we came from?
• where are we now?
• what technologies helped us to get there? How are they used. Be specific - release dates, models etc
• what are some of the positive aspects of the changes?
• are there any negative results of the changes?

You should also include:

• statistics to support your findings
• focused references and examples from particular artists - they could be artists that you are interested in.

Due Monday please (ie should be completed by Sunday night! Don't upload it at midnight on Monday!) Just posting it on your blog will suffice. As always, any problems come and see me.

Miss Hunter

Personal Reflection essays

I must say, these made for an interesting read! Short feedback is at the end of the essays. Lots of conflicting opinions and many interesting slants and insights. In class tomorrow (Wednesday) we will be talking about the essays and their findings and then moving on to a discussion on production - what it is, how it's changing etc.

OCR AS WEBLINK

We will be chipping away at the various sections as detailed previously, however here is a good link to get you thinking about the areas of production, marketing, distribution and audience.

It's an official OCR AS Media Studies webpage and although there have been more developments since these examples, they are still great examples of how far the industry has come of late and the new and innovative techniques that are out there (plus if you've time you can play the slightly creepy Lily Allen game...)

TASKS FOR TUESDAY

1. Read the info on 'what am I being assessed on?'

2. On your own blogs, write your own 'Music reflection' essay. This should include a discussion on:

How you obtain your music

How you watch/listen to your music in different environments

How you store and organise your music

How you engage with the artists you like

How you support the artists you like

What would encourage/discourage you to buy music from a band

How your consumption is similar/different from peers and family

Does the possibility of legal action/internet disconnection ever worry you?

Do the people who pay for broadband know how you access your music?