How does the history of popular music help us understand where music is going as a business? Artistic statement? Politics?

As a business: With the development of new technologies, new sounds can also be developed. This allows the music industry to keep growing and enriching its portfolio year to year. Many want to be a part of this world because the amount of money that can be earned is absolutely insane! But in return, the level of competition is also insane. Artists and record labels continue to explore new horizons –in the music level- in order to recruit musicians and also to create new empires that will bring new hits to the world.

As an artistic statement: Music has always been a way in which people were able to express any possible thought either with lyrics or only in a melody. Artists have been writing about love and/or other topics for most of the time, but this has changed with each generation. Each year, the music industry has lowered its ‘prerequisites’ allowing anyone to enter this world and succeed. The music of our generation has left people wondering, ‘if entering the business is so hard as label records claim, then why are we saturated with mediocre artist whose songs have no meaning?’ As the years come, more and more artists will continue to come and go, but only those who can offer the whole package and actually transmit something of interest to the audience will be able to survive this competitive business.

As politics: For years artists and people have used music as a way of expressing political thoughts. Music is used because of its catchy and trendy tunes in order to attract people and reach their audience. This music used as propaganda, is mostly made by people who strongly agree or disagree with any political party. We have seen this happen in the past especially during the times of elections and it will continue to happen for the years to come. People also use this so called ‘music of politics’ to be able to express their thoughts regarding social issues and political subjects.

What copyright challenges are raised by Internet music technologies?

            Technology has brought up many positive things into the music industry, like making it easier for artists to be ‘discovered’ or even as means of promotions, but it has also brought up several issues concerning legalities and the constant exchange of music files. Technology has made it so easy for the users to obtain music without actually purchasing a CD, which is why recording companies and managers are constantly on top of Internet radio and other several legal music programs in order to collect royalties and give them to their owners. This has been the most real and difficult issue to handle, the fact that there are several other programs that are illegal or allow you to download music and share it for free. Ares, Kazaa, Limewire and Vuze are just a few of these many programs that users constantly access in order to download and share music and even movie files amongst peers and not pay at all.

            Many forms of keeping track of files have been developed but none of them have really been that precise, since there is a lot of music piracy still going on. Although some regulations have also been implemented and users know that law penalizes copyright infringement, people continue to do it with the thought that they might not get caught. The AAC and RIAA are a few if the many ways that have been developed to protect music files. Apple uses the AAC or Advanced Audio Coding. Apple’s fair play digital rights management system lets users make a certain limited number copies of a song that has been directly bought and downloaded form the itunes store. This format permits sharing among a reasonable and small number of digital music players and computers. By encoding files this way they also make it very hard for users to share music online. The RIAA or Recording Industry Association of America has also been developed to keep track of online music piracy. It uses a library of digital fingerprints that can uniquely identify MP3 files that have been traded on the Napster service. 

What has led the segmentation of rock into subgenres since the 1960’s?

     During the 1950’s and 1960”s radio’s started to get affected by the record standards that had been set years before. For a while, the limits of the 45-rpm single had limited pop songs to be around 2-3 minutes long, which many radios also found to be very efficient, but by the mid 1960’s various groups found this form of audio to be very constraining. The Beatles and other music groups pushed toward producing longer songs that allowed much more complex ideas and better arrangements, therefore some songs would go up to 6 minutes. Many FM radios then moved towards a format of ‘album oriented rock’ that stressed longer songs. Artists like Pink Floyd, Funkadelic and Bob Dylan where few of the groups that helped expand rock’s horizons by introducing new ways of performing and also new sounds.

     By the 1970’s both radios and recording companies had begun exploring and diversifying rock formats. Rock’s diverse roots fed further diversification into a number of subgenres, which also led to the development of new radio formats. Amongst the different types of rock formats developed we can find: album oriented rock, rock oldies, top 40, heavy metal and adult contemporary. During the 1970’s rock also adopted punk and glam rock. Reggae and Ska (fusion of rock, R&B and soul with Jamaican styles) were also adopted later on. Between the 1980’s and 1990’s grunge rock, techno, alternative, rap and hip-hop were also added. By the 1990’s, dozens of subgenres had descended from the 1960’s rock, pop and soul roots.

Do you think new regulation would be justified to break up large groups and make radio a more local medium again?

No I do not believe so. Radio was the first way in which information was delivered to homes, offices and stores. It was also very local and did not found it necessary to achieve a national level to be successful. Like every other technological device, radio too has changed through the years and has found it necessary to cover more. Our society too has changed. It has evolved from being local to something national. Our interests are no longer local and with the rise of globalization, this locality has no room to continue. It is because of all this and many other factors that radios have turned national and they find it necessary have more coverage, now more than ever. They see that in order to keep up, radios need to be in tune with whatever is happening not only within US territory but also abroad. Also, competition has made it harder for radios to be local. The rise of many networks, internet radio, podcasts and other new audio media, has left no choice, but to move forward and think bigger and broader.

Our own needs would not allow for such thing to happen. We are so used to being informed with events that occur globally that it would not be possible for us to think local. Yes, we are still interested in our immediate surroundings, but radios have to find a way to bring that and also provide the global coverage. It is because of these situations and many other factors that radio will continue to be a large group that covers nation wide.

How does the history of radio help us understand how internet radio, podcasting and other audio media are going to develop as commercial forms? As political forms? As artistic forms?

     “In 1896 Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi created a wireless telegraph that used radio waves to carry messages in Morse code. This was the first practical use of radio” (Straubhaar 159). Since then, radio has evolved to become an instrument that not only conveys important messages, but it also provides knowledge and social interacting. It is also a medium that retail stores and political campaigns use in order to reach different populations and extend their needs.

     

      From the very beginning radio was utilized as a means in which retail stores and shops could promote their goods; therefore the same stores realized that by creating their own radio stations they could fulfill their need of extending of reaching more and newer customers. This “quick shaping of radio by commercial interests laid down a pattern that other media followed, both in the US and abroad. This can still be seen in today’s world since the global shape of broadcasting reflects this then-unique arrangement of radio in the US” (Straubhaar 162). Radios today still need this ‘commercial way’ of working, since it is with this that their revenue increases. Radio stations, networks, podcasts and other audio media realize that by selling advertising they can make good money and also earn more credit in comparison to other radio stations. This trend alone shows us that as the years pass, society will continue to be more materialistic and their need for commercial goods will only increase; therefore radio stations, networks and even internet radios will continue to be a link between the consumer and provider. By doing this, radios and other audio media will obtain their sponsorships and will be able to survive this competitive world.

     

      Radios also serve as means of distributing valuable information. Since the beginning of its time, radios provided different programs in which they would broadcast news and other important information. Coverage of wars, political incidents and any other news related issues were first covered by radios. In today’s world we can see that this has not changed much. We are still able to tune in for weather and traffic reports, educational programs and also coverage of the different events going on. Political coverage is something that plays a major role in media today. Political campaigns are known to ‘buy’ the different types and sectors of media in order to increase their popularity and also reach out different audiences. They too provide the radio stations with revenue by doing this, but it also creates a considerable difference in the way people perceive their stations. The growing gap between the different political parties has begun to affect the way in which we, as listeners select our radio stations and continue to listen to them. This tells us that in the future this gap will only continue to get deepened and provide a major differentiation between the stations and the way we choose them.

      Artistically speaking, radio has been a way in which artists, poets and story tellers promote themselves. Although radio’s first broadcast was not music, it did not take long for radio stations and networks to figure out that bringing music and other artistic programs to the household was not only going to increase the popular demand of the particular genre but also give much more popularity to the station. With the creation of portable audio media, radio has suffered greatly, but it still continues to improve its broadcasts in order to survive this changing world.

The Web is Dead Long Live the Internet

1. Why does the author say the web is dead?

During the 2000’s the web was at its peak and it a countered for more than 50% of all Internet traffic, but with the explosion of peer-to-peer communication and online video sharing that number has been reduced to 23% of total internet use. The decline is blamed on two things: one factor is our own predilections and the inevitable course of capitalism for narrowing our Internet use to things we can get easily through the world of apps. The other factor being blamed is the deep-pocketed businessmen seeking to control the web.

The web can be described as a browser looking at it through a set of protocols or a construct. The Internet is a pipe that moves things or the distribution mechanism of our day and the future. Does the web truly go away? No, it becomes extremely marginalized because of all the different apps and media created making the web just a part of the experience.

2. Summarize how the authors characterize the following three media companies: Facebook, Google, Apple

* Facebook: is also an alternative to Google. People tend to think of it as the web but in reality it is something separate from the web. Facebook is something that you reach over the web. One of its purposes is to keep people out of the web because they find themselves satisfied with what Facebook provides and so they never venture into the web.
* Google: controls the web. Nobody else can get into it, because of this Facebook, Apple and Netflix have come up with alternatives in order to compete with Google.
* Apple: besides providing leading technology it has come up with alternatives from other media companies so that it can compete and stay in the same market as Google, Facebook and arguable Netflix.

3. What are the key issues facing new media today

Technology is continuously changing in order to become better, cheaper, faster and more efficient. There is opportunity for anyone to participate (good thing) but the problem is that it is hard to make a business here, hard to make a buck since many of the forces in the business are not here because they want their voice to be heard but because they want their money. Media has to be the kind of structure that gives us information, entertains us, holds our interest, does what we want to do, and organizes our information lives. Media is good and it can be good/bad for culture. Good for democracy if there is media that can support itself.

What are some of the ways in which new media are changing society?

Thanks to new media, great partnerships have been formed in the business world, creating new ways of interaction, communication and technologies. Computer, internet, cable and satellite television and media firms are fusing, forming partnerships, which enable competition and greater development, but at the same time threaten to wipe out small businesses, especially those that are not in constant touch with the changing world.


Cell-phones, laptops and portable DVD and music players are just a few of the various devices that have been developed in order to make access to information easier and faster. Competition amongst corporations in this field has grown immensely and it continues to get harder as time passes, since everyone wants to be a part of it. This new technology has brought positive things into our society like: mass communication and easy share of files and data around the world. Not long ago, country-to-country communication was complicated, expensive and troublesome, with the development of new technologies and partnerships of great business industries this has become an easy thing to do. Applications like Ichat and Skype are just a few of the several programs that lead world communication and interaction at a low cost and easy use. Just as new media has brought positive things into society, it has also brought negative things like making humans lazy and dependable of these devices. People no longer feel the need to leave their homes in order to shop or interact with people, because online chatting, dating and the multiple shopping sites have provided everything to the user. It also has broadened the gap between the rich and the poor in a way, since who ever is not able to afford any of this technology is left out of the loop and not considered qualified enough as someone who has access to this.

In what ways are new media affecting careers?

Not long ago, a degree could only be earned by attending school (physically going to school), which meant not everyone had access to all fields of study or even a good education. Now-a-days with the high development of technology, everyone in the world has access to any school, online course and any kind of data at any time, bringing a higher rate of competition not only amongst students but also amongst schools. Students wanting to succeed and differentiate themselves from the rest have to obtain more than one specialization and become great at it; since competition now is not only based between peers from the local area but between people around the world. Higher education no longer has the value that it once had. Therefore, people achieve an even higher level of education and try to broaden their horizons in order to stand out and ensure success in their lives.


New media also brings change in the work environment. Technology has come to rapidly replace manual labor. What once required a number of people to do at a factory or plant is now being done by robotic technology or heavy machinery that does not need a human to oversee the job being done. At the same time, it has opened up doors for new careers to be developed, since more and more people are needed to give maintenance to this equipment and develop better and greater versions of all technology. In order to survive in the work force today, people have to constantly keep up with the rapid change of technology so they can maintain their positions and not be left behind.