Saturday 28 April 2012

Discuss the extent to which the distribution and consumption of media has been transformed by the internet (50)

The internet has played a major role in revolutionising the music and entertainment industry since coming to prominence, and continues to change the way products are consumed and distributed.

The long tail theory suggests that the internet has significantly changed consumer habits as there is a more fragmented audience now whom are actively choosing what they want to listen to. This creates more niche markets and means that labels can now benefit more from signing many artists of different genres, than focusing on one mainstream artist and the coinciding mass audience. This means that the soncumer market is no longer dominated by only a few major artists as it was before the internet.

The internet has not only altered consumption, but distribution as well. Web 2.0 has offered a new forum for people to share and listen to music, through websites such as YouTube and Soundcloud. Gauntlett would note how anyone has the power to produce and share music for free now, whereas before it was only 'media Gods' such as labels whom held distribution power. This also gives the audience power to dictate the sound and direction of musical content rather than just established musicians. Wesch used the term 'prosumer' to describe consumers who also produce their own material on websites such as YouTube where everyone can take part in the two-way activity of producing and listening. This shows how the industry has transformed as it is not simply a case of there being producers and consumers, but there is now a middle ground where people can do both. Some people however suggest that this activity is exaggerated as in actual fact, some statistics suggest that 80% of the videos are produced by the same 20% of people, rather than it being a case of everyone equally contributing and consuming in a kind of 'Wikinomics' culture.

The term 'Wikinomics' was used by Tapscott and Williams to describe the culture of everyone contributing to build something completely (in this case a website such as YouTube, or indeed Wikipedia; the site which inspired the term). Not only do online communities help to create websites and forums, but also they can guide the direction of the consumer market. This is seen with YouTube features such as 'recommended videos'; a section which suggests more videos a user might like, based on what they have already watched. Curators also perform a similar function, as they wade through all the amateur to professional material which crops up online, and provide reviews and suggestions of which ones have real talent; as an obvious weakness of the simple nature of producing music now, is that even un-talented people have the same resources to upload their material. This is a more advanced version of the consumer industry we saw pre-internet when only mainstream professional music was reviewed, mostly in magazines which consumers had to pay for.

The internet has clearly aided distribution as it has become easy for people to consume music without even leaving their house, thanks to inventions such as online downloading on services such as iTunes. Although this is very practical there are negative implications; such as the fact that this has lead to high-street music shops losing profits, and some becoming extinct. The more high profile negative issue which has arisen here however is the way that music can be illegally distributed through torrents and other illegal downloading methods; which evade any method of payment to the creators or distributors of the music. This online piracy is the main reason cited for decreasing profits being made by artists, and is rapidly transforming the way artists make profits; with much more emphasis now on touring and other promotions rather than album sales.

Overall the internet has revolutionised the industry in every way possible in terms of consumption and distribution. Some of this revolution has had a negative affect on the industry; such as piracy, whereas some areas such as the easy nature of uploading material, has had a positive impact, as it is now much easier for amateur talent to be scouted, recognised or even signed. A recent example of a band being signed due to their online performances is the carribean band; Cover Drive.

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