Me and kierans revision of terminology

music industry terminology with links

Mock question

To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing and consumption of music products in the media area you have studied.

Digital distribution has disrupted the traditional methods of the marketing and consumption of music. This is through advances in technology such as the rise of social media and the ability to illegally download music for free.

Social media such as twitter and instagram and websites for uploading new music like youtube and soundcloud. This allows for feedback useful to the a&r department and also allows for the exchange of new music. This can be a good thing as people can leave good feedback in the form of likes and comments and also they can see what isnt so effective by using dislikes and commenting. The fanbase regularly check the artists songs so by using the feedback the artist becomes more consistent. The use of these sites can also be bad however, the music can be devalued by prosumers like madeon who take the music by downloading it and changing it. Madeon was eventually signed by sony by proving he can take some of their songs and produce gold with it, so youtube is an advantage for prosumers like him.

Another example of digital distribution affecting the marketing and consumption of music is shows such as x factor. Simon cowell the ceo of syco (a branch of sony) gets the acts in the show to perform songs in sony's back catalogue. The advantages of this is that old songs that would not get any sales anymore are reacknowledged to the public's ears. This boosts sales of the original record and also sales are made from the x factor version by the actual itunes sales and by voting from the public. The disadvantages of this is that it devalues music because the original song loses its meaning.

The artist Beck uses an alternative method to distributed music to other artists. He released 'song reader' in the form of scores, this allowed the public to have their own take on the music and interpret it themselves. 

The indie label GOOD music (Getting Out Our Dreams) is a branch of def jam music. They digitally distribute their music  through their own website which fans check regularly and also they have their albums on itunes. Their music appears in the game grand theft auto 5, old def jam and new GOOD music songs in the game. This affects how people are consuming the music because they are consuming it through purchasing the game and not an album. It also revamps old songs and makes them relevant again, boosting sales.