Thursday 12 January 2012

Terminology

Convergence of technology
The coming together of new technology.
 Example television is now digital and interactive, with the potential for 1,000 channels and with technology available to download and store programmes; television can also be used for banking and shopping; internet webcams allow for visual interaction between users; music can be downloaded and burnt onto CD’s and mobile phones and can take and send pictures and access the internet.
Convergence of industrial activity
The coming together of industries so that you don’t have to separate and become specialized in each part of media to be successful.
Synergy
The coming together of media texts in such a way as to benefit both. So a film and the soundtrack will have more consumer interest.
For example James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ featured the song ‘my heart will go on’ by Celine Dion and her album sold 23 million copies.
Conglomerate
An international company with a wide and varied range of commercial interests.
Globalisation
The growing tendency of industrial and commercial companies to merge and operate on an international rather than national or regional basis.
Analogue music- An analog recording is one where a property or characteristic of a physical recording medium is made to vary in a manner analogous to the variations in air pressure of the original sound. Generally, the air pressure variations are first converted (by a transducer such as a microphone) into an electrical analog signal in which either the instantaneous voltage or current is directly proportional to the instantaneous air pressure (or is a function of the pressure). The variations of the electrical signal in turn are converted to variations in the recording medium by a recording machine such as a tape recorder or record cutter—the variable property of the medium is modulated by the signal. Examples of properties that are modified are the magnetization of magnetic tape or the deviation (or displacement) of the groove of a gramophone disc from a smooth, flat spiral track.
Vertical integration- the merger or takeover of companies operating at different stages of the production/distribution process
Total vertical integration gives a company control of a product from raw materials to distribution.
Horizontal integration- the merger of competing companies from the same line of business and involved at the same level of activity.
Mergers or take-overs that would allow particular companies to dominate a market and create a monopoly are subject to laws restricting ownership and government regulation.
Web 2.0- A term used to describe companies, applications and services on the Internet that have transitioned from the old "Web 1.0" structure. Web 2.0, in general, refers to the web applications that have transformed following the dotcom bubble. It describes the new age of the Internet – a higher level of information sharing and interconnectedness among participants. Web 2.0 does not refer to any technical upgrades to the Internet; it simply refers to a shift in how it is used.

Meta-tags/ personalisation- html coding, so if you type something into a search engine it comes up with a linked website
Download- To transfer files or data from one computer to another.To download means to receive; to upload means to transmit.
Streaming- Streaming or media streaming is a technique for transferring data so that it can be processed as a steady and continuous stream. Streaming technologies are becoming increasingly important with the growth of the Internet because most users do not have fast enough access to download large multimedia files quickly. With streaming, the client browser or plug-in can start displaying the data before the entire file has been transmitted
Piracy- Piracy is the illegal copying of copyrighted material.  This can be, but is not limited to music, games, and videos.
Major Record Label -  sony, universal and a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos.
Subsidiary Label – a large record label that owns smaller labels. (smaller label is the subsidiary)
Independent Label –an independent label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent label.
Niche Audience - Relatively small audience with specialized interests, tastes, and backgrounds. Many important forms of social creativity are of direct interest only to niche audiences.
Mainstream Audience - Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. Therefore majority audience.
Fans – the audience you had appealed too.
Active Audience - Active audience theory is a theory that people receive and interpret media messages in different ways, usually according to factors such as age, ethnicity, social class, etc. The audience is neither passive nor homogenous.
AudiophilesAn audiophile is a person who has a great interest in high-fidelity sound reproduction. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the recorded musical performance, or even more important.
Early Adopters – first people to get on board with a new service or the first to use a certain technology.
Consumption - A musical work; the art of writing music.
A&R, Artist and repertoire - An individual or group under recording contract.
Distribution – how it’s released or how it makes it way from the producers to the audience.
Plugging/marketing-  the transmission of information about a media text to a target audience in such a way as to maximise its appeal to that audience/ Broadcast of a song; to push for a song's performance
Digitalisation – moved from analogue to a transferable file format.
Digital audio workstation - (DAW) is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio.
Sampling -  is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece.
Multi-track - is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole.
Peer-to-peer - file sharing allows users to download media files such as music, movies, and games using a P2P software client that searches for other connected computers

Thursday 5 January 2012

Key Terms

Key Terms
Convergence - The coming together of multimedia digital data technologies allowing words, audio, video, graphics and animation to be linked and routed together via broadband to create two-way communications. The idea being to produce, distribute and share.

Synergy - Similar to convergence but used to describe how companies can pool their resources and exploit products in different markets.

Institution – Refers to the companies and organisations that provide media content and involves and understanding of media as business.

Audience – This refers to the way in which people engage with the media. The new digital media: convergence, user-created content and social networking have transformed the audience from a traditional ‘mass’ into a ‘fragmented’ definition.

Production – Recording music.

Distribution – Promoting music and getting it into shops, on the radio and downloaded for payment.

Consumption – People buying C.D’s, downloading music, paying for live concert tickets and purchasing related products.

Vertical Integration – Where a media company profits from all aspects of production, distribution and consumption.

Cross Media Ownership – the record company for your case study can be a mainstream major company, a multinational or an independent company.

There are the ‘Big Three’ – Sony/BMG, Warner Bros. Universal. But you need to compare and contrast these with smaller independent label and music organisation, the music industry is much more open in this respect, with many small labels that contribute to around 20% of the market.