6 Digital Devices Per Teenager = A Very Different Future

http://t.co/yyTcDNZfWt A report in on the BBC news site yesterday says the average teenager now owns 6 digital devices and anticipates that soon teenagers will view "always on connectivity" as a right - a bit like those of you who seem to have your smartphone tattooed to your inside wrist. 

The question this kind if ownership and access throws up is, what's the impact of this on the music industry. Will this finally signal the end of the CD and cement the power of Spotify? Will it increase the sharing of music or will it lead us further down our personalised cul de sacs of taste? Answers on an exam booklet please.

Are Spotify the new Gatekeepers in the Music Industry?

There was a brief moment a few years ago when digital technology promised to get rid of record companies and allow artists to directly reach out to audiences.  The band Radiohead were pioneers in doing this when they released their In Rainbows album digitally through their website.  They invited the audience to download it and pay as much as they thought it was worth.  The great hope at the time was that role of the record company as the "gatekeeper" between artist and audience would gradually disappear as digital production and distribution made everything more affordable and accessible and dispensed with the need the record company.

The idea of the 'gatekeeper' is a vital one.  It is the gatekeeper who controls who goes in and who goes out - what artists get signed, when and how the public get to hear about them and how the artist interacts with their audience. Think about the debate sparked by Sinead O'Connor about Miley Cyrus's image and who is responsible for it.  This was added to recently when Charlotte Church spoke out about record company execs convincing her that in order for her to sell to an audience, she would need a more sexualised image. Gabriella Cilmi talks about a similar experience in today's Metro.  The gatekeeper, here, is a very powerful figure and Thom Yorke from Radiohead has recently argued that instead of the record companies, the gatekeeper role is now being taken up by streaming services such as Spotify.  Because Spotify have become so dominant, they have greater control whether your music is heard or not.  If the mass audience are using Spotify to access new music, it makes it much more difficult for artists who are not on the service to get heard.  Read more by clicking on all the links - the more you read, the more case study material you have for the exam.

For those of you unfamiliar with Radiohead, check this out.

Streaming - and the debate goes on.

You've read what David Byrne had to say about the effect of streaming services on artists and creativity - your homework this week in case you needed reminding.  This article about musicians in Sweden suing record labels has a ton of facts and figures that can be used in the exam.  The musicians claim that the labels aren't giving them a big enough cut of money made through streaming services.  Depending on your record contract, an artist could be in a position where they make £500 compared to the record companies £4,500 from 1 million plays of their music on a streaming service, e.g. Spotify.  On Facebook, the musician and activist Billy Bragg, has argued that musician's shouldn't complain about the streaming services but try to negotiate better contracts with the record companies.

If you haven't heard of Billy Bragg before, check this out.

Excellent Music Industry Resource

Helienne Lindvall is a songwriter and musician who regularly writes for the Guardian about matters related to the music industry. I occasionally post links to some of her articles here but if you follow this link you can access all that she's written for the Guardian in the past. These are an excellent resource if you want to understand the issues from an artist's point of view.

The Last Shot

The last shot is crucial.  It's often what lives with the viewer the longest and can certainly either confirm or change the viewer's impression of all the went before; an impressive last shot can elevate a mediocre piece of film making and a mediocre last shot can undermine a film that may have had moments of excellence.  See how many of these you recognise and seek out the ones that grab you.



The blog this originates from looks like a great resource if you're interested in cinema greats or looking for some visual inspiration.  It's called The Final Image.

Production Tips

There are loads of these out there, but for clarity and ease the Frugal Filmmaker is a great place to find some very useful production tips and accessible solutions to many of your problems.

#Music

If you want a highly contemporary example to illustrate how digital technology allow the audience to personalise their music experience and artists to promote their music for free, look no further than Twitter's new music service #Music.  You can read a simple explanation of how it works - recommends music to the user based on who they follow on Twitter - by reading this BBC News article.  Alternatively, you can get a more in depth analysis of how it will benefit everyone - Twitter, the music industry, artists and the audience - on the Wired website. Here's a short extract from the Wired article to illustrate the promotional benefits of the service:
"It’s a smart play to get more musicians to become more active on Twitter. Let’s say you are Lady Gaga. When your new single drops, you can now use Twitter Music to send it out to every one of your 36 million followers–and they can play it without even leaving Twitter, thanks to Twitter Cards. Her followers can retweet that, effectively amplifying your 36 million strong following by an order of magnitude. Because website can embed tweets, complete with media, news organization and bloggers can take the original Tweet and drop it in a story so people can play the track all across the Web. And if enough people Tweet it, that song hits the Popular tracks page. Which means even more people hear it. It’s an upward spiral You can also imagine what happens to the obscure artist if a Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber tweets one of their new tracks. It’s got amazing viral possibilities that are great for artists, which means they’re more likely to be active on Twitter. And as it turns out, musicians are one of Twitter’s more vital assets."

A Surprising Fact About Music Sales

Who would have thought it?  Newsbeat reports that the 18-24 year old are the largest group responsible for purchasing music recorded on vinyl records - a format more familiar to people over the age of 35.  Read the full article here.  There are some interesting reasons given for the growth in Vinyl sales, including the physical experience of it and the personalised service associated with going into a small, independent record store to buy it.  Interesting to note, also, that the XX (signed to Beggars Banquet, parent company of Rough Trade) had one of the best selling vinyl records last year.

Director Alan Parker on Trailers

He's one of Britain's most famous directors and here's his word of warning to cinema goers, "avoid all movies where the trailer has more explosions than dialogue."

Serious About Making Films? Apply Here.

Anyone interested in applying for the BFI's Film Academy Talent Campus should click on this link.   Feb 18th is the deadline for applications. This is an amazing opportunity - a brilliant learning experience and a real leg up in getting started in the industry.

Music Industry - Pity the Songwriter

My last post linked to an article in the Guardian about how sharing ad revenue with Youtube is an important new revenue source for music artists and record companies.  Hellienne Lindvall's follow up article deals with how difficult it is for songwriters to make money from Youtube.  The problems that songwriters face in this regard are illustrative of the importance of scale or size when it comes to making money.

Put simply, if you're a big organisation you're more likely to be in a position to make money from people playing videos that use your music on Youtube.  If, however, you're a lone operator (as many songwriters are) or small organisation, it may not be worth the effort and time it costs you to try to collect money from such uses of your music

Music Industry - How to Make Money from Youtube

If sales of CDs are in a permanent state of decline and illegal downloading continues to gather pace, how are music artists and record labels going to make money out of music?  This article from The Guardian breaks down one of the key new revenue sources - sharing ad revenue with Youtube.  There are lots of great statistics and commentaries in here.  It's well worth mining for exam material. It even has figures for the Beggars Group, which part owns Rough Trade.

Music Industry - An Artist's Perspective

For more on the imminent closure of HMV and the reasons behind it, have a read of Irish musician Bressie's take on events.  It's interesting to read how an artist views issues around 360 record deals and illegal downloading. In particular, it's worth noting how he finds it difficult to resolve his understanding of the consumer's demand for easy and cheap access to music and his own need as an artist to make a living.

The Bad News That Should Help You In The Exam

So it's finally come to pass. I remember how in the months leading up to the death of my dog he stank something awful as his insides began to decay. Such has been the slow and drawn out demise of HMV that it seems such a smell has surrounded it for years. In any case, dog deaths aside, read this article on the BBC News site to explore the reasons for the end of HMV. If you don't mention this in the exam, one of two things will have happened: it will have been a very odd question or you will have been horribly distracted by the graffiti of previous exam candidates.