Thursday 26 March 2015

Music case studies (12th April)

PAWS are features in rocksmith. This is very rare as they are under an indie label. Indie labels are not one to often have synergy across platforms. This is a deep interaction as its as if PAWS are teaching you guitar themselves and can be like them. People then make covers and upload them to YouTube, not only promoting the game and the band.

The XX's app allows people to not only get updates/contact the band, but gets them to sing along to their songs in a karaoke-esque manor. This is very unique.

People in the indie music scene, are museos who will actively search for artists and thus will be found on Soundcloud. They share and spread the songs, meaning that it's a social network.

Major labels are beginning to mirror the traditional indie roles of fan interaction (through Social Media) so that they will get fans who will buy and support their artist through buying music and tour tickets.

Ed Sheeran vs Taylor Swift (9th March)

What's the point of contrast between Ed Sheeran & Taylor Swift? What's so important about these artists?

Tay swift removed all music of hers off spotify and Ed Sheeran kept all of his on there. This is because Tay wants more money for her music (paying full price) rather than allow them to pay a Lower price for a subscription service where she gets little royalties. They both rose in the charts after their awards, meaning they gain more publicity, fans and income.
Streaming gives little to the artists for their music, meaning they get little incentive to carry on. The popularity of streaming services is mainly due to their affordability and the fact that you can pay little each month and get  multiple full albums for this price, which would usually equate to <£10 each. Ed Sheerans popularity was aided by the fact that he could be streamed as streaming is a trend (new technology)

DIY Artists and Prosumers

#DIY Artists - Promote, produce, distribute their music themselves
Producers - People who actively buy and produce music by mashing up and remixing pre-existing songs

Beck = DIY artist
Madeon / Us, the people = Preexisting

Beck - Loser: Alternative rock, country?
Beck - Devils Haircut: Rock
Does not conform to one genre. Audiences of these genres of music will therefore be attracted to listening to Beck. All Time Low only fit to one genre and cannot do this, if they deviate from this sound, they may lose fans.

The instantaneous-ness of music made for several genres affects the purity of the industry. The same applies for mashup style music (having the littlest purity), which after getting so recycled for so long, becomes style

In purity order:
DIY
Indie
Majors
Prosumers

Music industry is far more based about image than the music. The dance video is an image that sticks in your head more than the launchpad video. Even the LCD screens and pyrotechnics at live shows are an image. These videos are created by fans, meaning they are participating and collaborating.

Madeon then went on to get signed by Sony after he generated a lot of hits. He then uses people on his subsidiary label (deadmau5) which also aids both sides.

Sound cloud is the audio version of YouTube.

A&R search on YouTube for new artists on YouTube and on the internet.

This was all made possible through digital technology.

----

Purity of music? Is digital technology damaging or aiding purity?

"Reluctant to pay something for something we want?" Piracy will diminish if industry embraces  technology, open to wider audience.

Purity is also affected by the image they put on the internet via videos, e.g: sexuality. Also by autotune and lip syncing the vocals removes the purity.