“In the last decade, technology has changed the creative media sector beyond all recognition”
In this essay I will explore some of the Sectors in the Media Industry, and explain how technology of today is affecting it. It is going to investigate the Music Industry and the Print Industry, whilst giving clear examples throughout.
As early as 2002, Dr Martin Peitz, Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Mannheim stated, …” the downloading of music could have caused a 20% reduction in music sales worldwide between 1998 and 2002.” Considering how technology has improved over the years, imagine where this reduction is at now?
The Music Industry is where a variety of conglomerate and independent companies make music. Currently the creative media sector is dominated by the big six, they are the conglomerates. The conglomerates are companies that own lots of different companies within that, ranging in different sectors such as music, TV and print. The conglomerates are losing money through the media sector because of the amount of free access over the internet; this is also affecting the Independent companies. Independent companies are smaller companies that don’t have any bigger companies funding it; they also only focus on one aspect of the media, because they can’t take risks in funding other things.There are many different labels within the music industry, from the performers and composers, to the producers and music publishers. Throughout the 19th and 20th century, publishers of sheet music over powered the industry,but later on records became the ‘in’ thing and pushed sheet music out of the lime light.
The Music Industry is seen to be getting very twisted in the way the production companies work, and is being overcome by Music Technology. It has got so easy for anyone to sit at home and make their own music, then instead of having to pay hundreds, to get big companies to hear it or see a group play, it can be uploaded onto places like Facebook and YouTube. Consequently conglomerate companies are losing sales of recorded music substantially, it is now said, since the 1990’s consumers spend less money on CD’s and formally recorded music. IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) said that “company income for sale of CD’s have dropped 25% in 2008 and continue to fall”. Because of this ongoing trend to change, companies are having to re-think their business models in order to stay in business. For example HMV, the biggest British entertainment retail chain has made lots of cuts throughout the 21st century. In 2003, they closed all of their shops in Germany because of product areas failing in sales and they couldn’t afford the funding to work in most countries on earth. They are now making changes and add ons to their company, for example they took over Waterstones and Ottakar’s to improve the growth and income for HMV Group. Doing this they are also editing their main product for sale, which could be seen as remodelling their initial ideas. For the Unfortunate Independent companies, like Tower Records, they have been driven out of business due to bankruptcy. This is a small aspect of what is happening worldwide. It is said that by 2013 revenues in the USA who normally receive an income of 10-14 billion will only be receiving 9 at the most.
This is the same with the Print Industry, because the technology of today has changed dramatically as now everything can be accessed over the internet or via a personal Smart Phone. The growth of the internet and the effect of the recession caused many independent newspaper companies to close, only leaving the conglomerates to spread and take over the ones that they see fit. Although the internet has become dominant, print companies are arguably still successful as; in 2007 there were 6580 newspapers in the world, selling 395 copies daily.
Like the Music Industry, The print industry is made up of the conglomerates and the independents. The conglomerates, like CBS and Time Warner, have many companies that work in all the different sectors of the media, including print and publishing. These companies may own many different newspapers and/or magazines, but publish each, for a different target audience. This is different to the Independent companies such as Meon Valley News, because they concentrate on only one sector which in this case is a Community Newspaper. Normally, published products may not be as well known to their audience because they have a much smaller budget, therefore the product may not be up to the same standards as the conglomerate companies. In this case the newspaper delivers over 52,000 copies to homes and businesses surrounding Meon Valley.
The closing of companies in the print industry is normally happening to the independent, but they are not just giving up, just changing location. Most independent companies are publishing their newspapers and/or magazines on the internet. They are doing this because it is a lot cheaper, and is still getting their publishing read. South Port Reporter decided after 149 years of selling newspapers to move online in 2009, there Editor Patrick Trollope said “Publishing on the internet is cheaper for the company and the audience”. This would appear to be true, but causes different effects for the conglomerate and independent companies. It is good for the independent because then there are less competition, therefore more profits but is bad for the conglomerates because there are fewer companies that they would have to opportunity to buy or fund to help them make money. However, newspapers have a lower impact on global warming than going online does. This creates a big debate about whether the transference onto the internet is a good idea, or that the new technologies today are just making more problems for our planet than we already have.
There has been many threats facing the conglomerate newspaper companies, for example, on average a newspaper generates 70-80% of its revenue from advertising and the rest from sales to the public, and bulk buys for shops to sell. But if the public aren’t buying as many newspapers, and just viewing them online, these figures will fall and therefore it will domino with the whole process of making money. And to make matters worse, now, people use the internet to find new things and explore different ideas, adverts in places like Supermarkets are getting the same attention. Also the price to advertise there has increased substantially therefore reducing income. Then when they advertise online, instead of people buying a hard copy of the newspaper they just look at the online one instead, making advertising online seem like a bad idea. This is when things like Industry Consolidation may take place, because the companies would think that if two conglomerates merged then there would not be as much competition for profits and there income would be combined making bigger revenue than any of its other competition.
Because of this revolution, what is appearing on the Internet newspaper is different as well. The company’s have completely changed their structure of the text, and made it a lot more basic for quick and easy understanding of what is being said. However, even though the newspapers and magazines can be accessed through smart phones from the Internet, it is not as easy to flick through to the main pages you want to see. You have to do everything in order, which slows you down and can get complicated. Also, for most newspapers when they are viewed on your phone it is very difficult to see the whole page, and very easy to press the wrong button. This is not good because then whilst you are reading, you are constantly stopping and starting so then you lose your trail of thought.
This is like the music industry, because when people are listening to music on the internet they are not hearing the pure and original versions of it. They are hearing an edited and different version. For example, Sugarbabes always edit their voices when in a recording studio and when they are live they sound completely different and not as good as their CD version. Although this example contradicts what’s been said for other artists, it is good because then when people go and see them in concert they will have that different and innocent edition to enjoy, instead of having to hear something they could listen to at home for free. Also, this is a good idea because then people would be willing to pay more to go and see them, and if a hard copy of the songs sung live were made people would be willing to pay more for that as well. This would be a good way for the Recording group to make money. The only downside to this is that people will eventually get bored with the song, and therefore expect new music more often, making it harder for the artist. However, having songs and videos on websites like YouTube is good because then people are not only relating with them through the music, but their image as well so, they are creating another dimension to it. You can also see live performances of artists on YouTube, which may counteract the whole idea of having a live performance in the first place.
Technology as a whole has made our lives a lot easier, and we could be seen as being lazy. Many people would say they would much rather press a few buttons to access something from their Smartphones on line, then have to go to the shop, pay for something like a newspaper or CD and then bring it back home. But there is always the bad things that happen because of technology, for example the Korean baby who died because their parents became obsessed with caring for their virtual baby on a game instead of caring for their real one. This is a prime example of technology over powering human mind, and brainwashing us into thinking it’s good. It’s as though “technology has built itself and we are not doing anything to make it suit us, we are changing ourselves to suit technology”, especially in the media industries.
We are all being a very passive audience and just doing this because others are and it’s not as complicated. However, there are the few people, mainly from the older generation that do still go to the shop every day, and buy things like a newspaper. It could be seen that they do this as a natural part of their day or just for human contact, because in their time they didn’t know any different. Subsequently technology seems to be having a bigger effect on the younger audience because of the need to be up to date. This could be indicating that many media products such as music and magazines are aimed at the younger audience so the newspaper is changing their format to fit their demographic profiling. A main example of this is the downloading or music and online newspapers.
To conclude, I think that although technology is affecting the media sector in many different ways, things like the Internet would not permanently change it. There will always be things like Newspapers and CDs, even thought the value of music is being diminished by downloads. Gerd Leonard, a key speaker and media futurist feels “Piracy will fade if the industry embraces technology than fight it.” This is the same as I think about the effects of technology and I think it sums up the essay well showing the bigger picture of technology’s effects.
Bibliography:
YouTube, www.youtube.co.uk , Technology's Effect On The Music Industry: Pros & Cons Of Living In A Digital Age, 2011
Slide Share, www.slideshare.net , The Effect of the Internet on the Magazine Publishing Industry, 2001
Information science blog, www.informationscienceblog.com, EFFECTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment