Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Newspapers.

Subscriptions of the top newspapers in England and their circulation figures. as you can see The Sun has steadily dropped by just over half a million readers. Although a publication such as the daily star has increased in readers from 2000 to 2004 but then declined, even with the decline though they still have a larger follow ship that they did in 2000.

 
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations. 

The dailies have lost over 2,250,000 readers. (Reported 2009)         
Due to the change in readers a lot of advertising agents that used to use the newspaper to promote products, or even people that sold things in the classifieds has gone down due to people being able to list on the internet with site such as www.ebay.com or www.craigslist.com where some things to list are free of charge.
A major player in the news industry is Rupert Murdoch. A list of his assets are here. Murdoch owns a lot of Fox (television and films) and newspapers such as The Sun/ News of the World/ The Times. These are the major market dominator's in England though so he has masive power over what gets put into the news.

Friday, 1 April 2011

Spotify.

How have online media developed?
Spotify has been developed since 2006 by a team at Spotify AB, Stockholm, Sweden. The company Spotify was founded by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in Stockholm. The headquarters are located in London and research and development is located in Stockholm.
Spotify was launched for public access on 7 October 2008. While free accounts still remained available by invitation only in order to manage the growth rate of the service, the launch meant that paid subscriptions were opened to everyone. At the same time, Spotify also announced licensing deals with many major music labels.
The first step towards offering free accounts to the public without an invitation was taken on 10 February 2009 when Spotify opened for free registration in the United Kingdom.
Due to a surge in registrations following the release of the Spotify mobile service, Spotify closed its open registrations in the UK on 11 September 2009. The free service is now invitation-only, although it was possible to bypass the invitation system for several months by opening the registration page directly. This loophole has now been closed and the registration page requires an invitation code. Subscriptions may still be purchased without an invitation.
On 18 May 2010, Spotify announced that two more accounts were available. Spotify Unlimited is the same as Spotify Premium but no mobile and other features. Spotify Open is a reduced feature version of Spotify Free which allows you to listen to up to 20 hours of music each month. Spotify Free remains by invite only.

  • Founded: 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
  • Location: Headquarters in the UK with offices in Stockholm, Paris, Oslo, Madrid, Amsterdam and New York.
  • Number of tracks: Over 10,000,000
  • Registered users: 10,000,000
  • Paying users: 1,000,000
  • Goal: To help people to listen to whatever music they want, whenever they want, wherever they want.
  • Number of employees: 250
  • The name: A combination of spot and identify.



What has been the impact of the internet on media production?
Most labels have signed up to Spotify although Oasis and Led Zeppelin are currently unavailable to listeners with a UK based IP address.
10 million people use Spotify although only 1 million people pay.
Due to people not paying Spotify heavily advertise around the program and advertise between ever few songs so they can make money to pay royalties to artists.



How is consumer behaviour and audience response transformed by online media, in relation to the past?
Over 10 million tracks are on Spotify.
Over 10,000 tracks are added daily.
When listening to certain artists at the top of the page you will get recommendations to other similar artists that you may like.




 To what extent has convergence transformed the media?
You can listen to Spotify on your phone, stream it to your speakers around your house, buy tracks through Spotify to download, access the Twitter feed, and you can connect to Facebook and share the music you are listening to with friends. You can import any music you have on your computer / iTunes into Spotify and you can also listen to Spotify on your mobile phone if you pay, as you can access your already made playlists.
Sonos multi room system. Spotify have a special deal with Sonos that means that the company gets advertisement with Spotify to promote the fact if you are a paying Spotify paying customer that you can stream from your computer to anywhere in your house with this system.

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Digital Economy Act.

The Digital Economy Act 2010 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom regulating digital media. Introduced by Lord Peter Mandelson, it received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010, and came into force on 8 June 2010.

Under the act you will get 3 written warning letters about your internet download use. After 3 letters the internet at your address will either be slowed down or turned off for a period of time.

There are a few problems under the act though. Wifi being one. On laptops now you can connect to any wifi that doesn't have a password so although you as the wifi/ modem owner may have not actually downloaded songs, films, or software you can have your web slowed down because it's under your I.P. address.

It also takes 2 months to track someone.

The Act requires the provision of an independent appeals process, covering the grounds on which infringement reports are made. Cases are heard by a body set up by Ofcom, or if a technical measure has been applied a First-tier Tribunal.

Unlike in judicial appeals, the subscriber is innocent until proven guilty: the Act states that "an appeal on any grounds must be determined in favour of the subscriber unless the copyright owner or internet service provider shows that a) the apparent infringement was an infringement of copyright, and b) the report relates to the subscriber’s IP address at the time of that infringement". An appeal will also succeed if the subscriber can show that the rights holder or ISP broke Ofcom's regulatory code in any way.

Friday, 4 March 2011

Wikinomics Activity 2.

Trapscott and Williams have basically stated that there are 5 big ideas, Peering, free creativity, that the internet is democratized, you think globally, and that there is a thing called the perfect storm - technology, demographics, and economics all mixed into one.
To a certain extent I do agree that the two men are correct but I also believe that there is a few problems, a main one being that not all of the world has access to the internet. About 20 - 25% of the people in the world do so not everyone gets the 'free speech' that the people of the world wide web are 'entitled' to or at least what it was based on.

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Five Big Ideas.

1. By Adam.
Peering is used in the music industry online. Peering is good for new music artists as it gives them the opportunity to upload and share their music and build a fan base and try to get noticed by a record label. On the other hand however once this new music artist begins to charge for their music, peering makes it easier for the artist's fans to illegally and freely download music, which will negatively effect the music artist.

2. Free Creativity.
Free creativity is a natural and positive outcome of the free market, it basically lets artist share their artistic works through the Internet.

Examples.


www.facebook.com/TooDeadToBury










Www.Soundcloud.com/Wibz

 

This is a screen grab from Sound Cloud where people in bands who create music individually can upload their own music to the site and then share through facebook and other social networking sights. The screen grab is from my friends profile who uploads his personal works and works the he has created at university. He then shares them with his friends and gets creative feedback from everyone. This could also act as an oppertunity for him to just send links to people in the media world or for him to be 'discovered' such as artists like Jessie J and Justin Bieber on youtube.com by uploading videos of them singing.
Example.  




A few examples for music sharing that may not come from the artist include www.spotify.com, Www.mediafire.com, www.it-leaked.com, and Napster.

3. By Rachel.







4. By Sarah.
Web 2.0 makes thinking globally inevitable. The internet is the 'worlds biggest coffeehouse', a virtual space in which a new blog is created every second. In this instantly global communication sphere, national and cultural boundaries are inevitably reduced.'


These images are examples of a virtual space. It is a prime example of just how many blogs are created every day. 
Twitter and Tumblr are just 2 of many popular social networking sites that contribute to global communication.


5. By Anna.
'The combination of three things - technology (web 2.0), demographics and economics' An example of this are stores which have online websites, for example Debenhams, which allows people to browse the stores collections before purchasing and also allowing people who live a further distance from the physical store to buy items and have them delivered. Therefore enhancing the companies profits. Also the stores can be seen on websites that are not there own through using social networking sites i.e. facebook.

 
http://www.debenhams.com/

Whereas the profits of stores which do not have any internet affiliation will suffer because of people using internet accessible shops, and internet shopping ever-growing in popularity.

Monday, 28 February 2011

The Social Network.

The Social Network is a film about the setup and first 6 to 12 months of Facebook.
It starts out showing Mark Zuckerberg with his ex girlfriend who just happens to split up with him. In a rage he first blogged about her while hacking sororities photos so he could set up a website, Facesmash to make himself feel better. This rated girls against each other to see who was 'hotter'.
Seeing the success of this Zuckerberg was perused by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss who wanted to set up a dating website for Harvard students knows as the Harvard connection. After the first meeting or two Zuckerberg took somewhat of the same idea and used different processes to set up 'the facebook'  a complete social network site for only people with a harvard email address.

Soon afterward, Mark approaches Eduardo and tells him of his idea for what he calls "Thefacebook", an online social networking website exclusive to Harvard University students. He explains this would let people share personal and social information securely. Eduardo agrees to help Mark, providing $1,000 to help start the site. They distribute the link to Eduardo's connections at the Phoenix S-K final club, and it quickly becomes popular throughout the student body. When they learn of Thefacebook, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra believe Zuckerberg had stolen their idea while stalling on their website. Tyler and Divya want to sue Mark for intellectual property theft, but Cameron convinces them they can settle the matter as "Harvard gentlemen" without the courts. Meanwhile, Mark continues to add features like "relationship status" to the profile page, since "people don't walk around wearing signs."
At a visiting lecture by Bill Gates, fellow Harvard University student Christy Lee introduces herself and her friend Alice Cantwel to Eduardo and Mark. She asks the boys "Facebook us"; their use of this phrase impresses both of them. Christy invites them to a bar where Mark runs into Erica, who is not aware of Thefacebook because she is not a Harvard student. Mark decides to expand the site to more schools. As Thefacebook grows in popularity, they expand to other schools in the Northeastern United States, while the Winklevoss twins and Narendra become angrier at seeing "their idea" advance without them. Cameron refuses to sue them, instead accusing Mark of violating the Harvard student Code of Conduct. Through their father's connections they arrange a meeting with Harvard President Larry Summers, who is dismissive and sees no potential value in either a disciplinary action or in Thefacebook website itself.
Through Christy, now Eduardo's girlfriend, Eduardo and Mark arrange a meeting with Napster co-founder Sean Parker. When Christy, Mark, and Eduardo meet Sean, Eduardo becomes skeptical noting Sean's problematic personal and professional history. Christy thinks Eduardo is jealous of Sean, and attempts to calm him to avoid a scene. Sean presents a vision for Facebook similar to Mark's and impresses him. In a parting comment, Sean suggests they drop the "The" from Thefacebook.
At Sean's suggestion, Mark moves the company to Palo Alto, while Eduardo remains in New York seeking advertising support. Meanwhile in England, while competing in the Henley Royal Regatta for Harvard, the Winklevoss twins discover Facebook has expanded to a number of universities there. Cameron finally relents and they decide to sue. When Eduardo visits from New York, he is angered to find Sean is living at the house they have rented and is making business decisions for Facebook. After arguing with Mark, Eduardo freezes the company's bank account and returns to New York. Upon returning, Christy argues with Eduardo about his Facebook profile, which still lists him as "single". When Christy questions Eduardo about why he has not changed his Facebook profile, he tells her he does not know how to, further infuriating Christy because she believes he is lying. She cites his profile as evidence he cheated on her with promiscuous women in Silicon Valley and sets fire to a scarf he has given to her. While Eduardo extinguishes the fire, Mark reveals on the phone that they have secured money from an angel investor through Parker's contacts. Eduardo ends his relationship with Christy.
Eduardo soon discovers the deal he signed with Sean's investors has allowed them to dilute his share of the company from thirty-four percent to three hundredths of a percent, while maintaining the ownership percentage of all other parties. He confronts Mark and announces his intention to sue him. Later that night, during a party celebrating Facebook's 1 millionth member, Sean and a number of Facebook interns are arrested for possession of cocaine.
The framing device throughout the film shows Mark testifying in depositions in two lawsuits: one filed by the Winklevoss twins, and the other filed by Eduardo. In the final scene, a junior lawyer for the defense informs Mark they should settle with Eduardo, since the sordid details of Facebook's founding and Mark's personality will make a jury highly unsympathetic. The film ends with Mark sending a friend request to Erica on Facebook, and refreshing the page every few seconds waiting for a response.