Top of the Pack

So now that we have told you all what we will be doing with our feature, we at 'Who's Listening' also know the importance of being unique. Of course, in the vast web of the internet, it is likely that someone may have come up with your idea well before you had. Even South Park had this problem:



Here is one particular existing feature that we came across:

Indie bands talk digital music and life without the labels

But we don't think this is a problem, and even if it was, it is hard to avoid it. Instead, we see it is an incentive to make our feature stand out and be that much better.

In talking about the internet music world, it is easy to get shrouded by emotions about music piracy. It will be our task to provide a more rational, informed and instructive discussion for musicians and listeners alike.

Though what will make our feature most appealing is the diverse range of voices that we will be speaking with, and the multimedia media approach we are adopting. We will be speaking with a range of different artists, music industry bodies, record labels and marketing experts about how to achieve online music success.

 Our innovative approach may not be top secret, but it does match that of the all-pervasive Apple

So what is this multimedia approach? To present these voices, we will be using videos, photos, audio clips, alongside words. Scroll through our feature and you will not be bombarded by a mass of tangled words. We will make use of the possibilities of the digital medium, with screens that have a seemingly, infinite resolution to bring you a colorful, engaging and entertaining feature.

It's not far off now. So please stay tuned and keep listening! 

What we are getting at

It’s almost impossible to get accurate numbers when it comes to music downloads, but we can comfortably say that each year around 4 billion songs are legally downloaded, and between 4 trillionand 10 trillion songs are illegally downloaded. 

So how do musicians make money online? This graph might give you an idea.

Since the introduction of peer to peer (P2P) filesharing, with programs such as edonkey and Napster, music has become an online commodity easily copied and shared, with little thought of the larger effect it has on those who produce it.  Programs such as Limewire and even faster torrent platforms, such as the Pirate Bay, have made it all to easy for a couple of hyperlinks to land you the latest album for free. Not surprisingly, music labels and their artists have condemned such platforms as parasites who are chipping away at the future of music.

Our feature, Who’s Listening, is going to be concerned with how music is consumed online. More importantly, we will be looking at how the online music sphere is constantly changing with new technological developtments. New programs can dramatically change the online music landscape. We saw this with Napster, Limewire, Itunes, The Pirate Bay and now Spotify. We cannot avoid the internet, as much as industry folk would like to live in denial, if anything is to be done about music piracy, it's going to be done online. They need to make it easier to pay for music than it is to get it for free.  

Sony music did this is the days of Limewire. They were in the habit of releasing dummy songs with the names of their artists to push listeners, in a spell of frustration, to buy the real thing. A little ingenuity goes a long way. Of course people will never completely stop getting music for free, but you cannot treat every person who has visited the Pirate Bay as a pirate. Most just need a gentle nudge in the right direction.

This brings me to Spotify. Spotify, sparking great outrage and praise at the same time, is a perfect example of this seemingly neevernding debate between the stereotypical over-zealous industry heads, criminal programmers, and listeners who are seen to have an undying sense of entitlement.

There have been some refuseniks to Spotify in the industry. Coldplay, Adelle, The Black Keys and the labels behind them are strongly resisting the Spotify movement because the artists are not earning enough.

The Black Keys 

With millions of listens a day, not everyone is loving spotify, read this Rolling Stones article on The Black Keys vs Spotify

Some argue however, that record companies need to become more comfortable with the digital era, accepting Spotify and similar platforms as a much needed push in the right direction. Whilst it isn’t seeing huge profits, it is seen to be assisting in winning the public over to legal online music consumption. Maybe they can be the tugboat that drives us out of the pirates bay? A new, inventive move towards legitimate downloading. 

We need to understand that streaming could slowly replace piracy and is far more malleable and has greater future possibilities for artists revenue. Cd sales are dropping consistently every year, streaming being one area which is growing, offering new avenues.

To learn more about the spotify debate click here and here.

In other news co-founder of The Pirate Bay, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, is going to be deported from Cambodia! looks like Spotify might start to get a whole lot more popular.

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg

For more on the Gottfrid read this Sydney Morning Herald Article.

User awareness

Demographic: 14-30

“…young people are beginning to consider free music a right…”

With Shawn Fanning’s internet phenomenon ‘Napter’ being established in 1999, internet users between the ages of 14 and 30 years of age have effectively grown up with or been introduced to, easily downloadable music over the internet.

This demographic is very aware of social media. They interact online via facebook and twitter joining fan pages and following artists. They find new music and monitor artists on youtube and soudcloud.

Online Consumption

Facebook has 845 million active users - 0-34 demographic makes up 32% of facebook users who on average visit the site 40 times a month for an average of 23mins and 20 seconds per visit

Twitter has 127 million active users of which 42% are between 0-34 years of age. Tweeters will spend, on average, 11mins and 50 seconds on the site each visit.

The two perspectives below highlight the changing landscape of the music industry over the past few years;

‘Imagine a world where music companies don’t make their money from CDs. Instead, the big pop stars make money from concerts, T-shirts, merchandising deals and advertising.’ February 2003

‘You're not going to be buying your new house in Malibu any time soon by getting your album up on Spotify, but it's definitely a way to find new ears and new fans that could potentially help you get there one day.’ Duncan Byrne-Sydney Music Manager May 2012

Blogging our Research: Content Development

Early on in this project we decided on the sort of content we would like to include in our feature. Each topic was chosen after a consideration of our anticipated users (musicians, producers and those with an interest in the music industry).

So, without further ado, here is our plan for the web feature’s content:

TOPIC: Is the Internet a Help or a Hindrance?

•  This section is what makes the entire feature newsworthy, particularly in the context of Internet music piracy and file sharing. We will explore both sides of this issue, through interviews and short research posts.
• An example is the interview with ENA.
• Interviews: in this section, we will have video and written interviews with key persons, who have a strong opinion on the issue of online music.
• Presenting interviews in a manner other than simply written is vital. Interviews in a visual form will add colour and humanity to our feature, for the user’s enjoyment. 

TOPIC: One to Watch

• This section will examine artists who have already found success in the music industry through the online sphere.
• This will be particularly appealing to users who identify with human stories.
• The online medium will contribute to the entertainment value of this topic. It is possible to include audio and visual clips of the artist’s work.
• The posts on Azealia Banks and Chief Keef are examples of how this part might look.

TOPIC: How To

• Under this topic area, we will explore how artists and consumers can use specific aspects of the Internet to share music. One example might be a ‘how to’ guide for Napster.
• This will be particularly useful for musicians aiming to gain exposure in the online realm.
• We don’t assume that our users are automatically familiar with all aspects of the Internet. This section will guide the process of learning.

TOPIC: What to Do

• This section will examine the practical aspects of the relationship between the music industry and the online sphere. For example, how does an Internet music artist approach a record label? How can they gain industry representation? These questions are particularly pertinent for musicians and producers.
• The online medium is especially useful in this regard. We can make use of relatively simple tools, such as hyperlinks, to direct people to appropriate sites.
• The post regarding Viral Spiral is an example of the sorts of content featured in this section of our project.

What to Do: Profit from Your Success

This type of post would form part of a feature about how musicians can develop a career based off an online platform. It would be presented under the heading of ‘What to Do’ (the content of the feature will be discussed in a later post).

This meets a key objective of our proposed web-feature: to inform about, and clarify, the relationship between the internet and the music industry today.

Ideally, Damian Collier himself would be contacted and interviewed about the specific nature of online music. A particular challenge for a post such as this is just how text heavy it is.

Viral Spiral

“Never, in the history of show business, have so many become known so fast…If you have access to the internet, then you have the tools you need to go ‘viral’” – Damian Collier, creator of Viral Spiral.

So how can you, an aspiring musician who has hit the jackpot and found internet success, capitalize on this position? Or in less subtle terms: how can you make money?

Enter Damian Collier, former concert producer and now internet entrepreneur. His London based company, Viral Spiral, serves internet music sensations such as yourself, by helping you to (legitimately) demand money every time a TV show or advertising agency uses your content. (Of course, this is assuming you haven’t already been snapped up by a savvy record label).

As an added bonus, Viral Spiral can put you in contact with people who could, say, develop an app for and about you, or even (and this is what really gets me) make a t-shirt…your own personal t-shirt!

Between the use of a popular song in an advertisement, and the profits from t-shirts and associated merchandise, Damian has said that it is possible to make anywhere up to $500,000 for the duration of a viral hit.

Perhaps less exciting, yet certainly no less important, is Viral Spiral’s specialty in copyright – they can help you copyright your song before crude remixes devalue the brand you worked so hard to create.

You can find out more about the services Viral Spiral has to offer by following the link here.