MY ESSAY

4. Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time. Where does this leave 'professionals' and highly-skilled artists? Choose one area of creativity and discuss some of the challenges facing practitioners vs amateurs in producing digital content.



Amateurs making music and illegal downloading!

Music production technologies have made it easier for amateurs to produce music. Making music digitally is so easy now that almost everyone can do it. But where does this leave ‘professionals’ and highly-skilled artists? In this Essay I am going to discuss some of the challenges that practitioners vs amateurs are facing in producing digital content and publish it on the word wide web. I will focus on the fact that downloading music illegally is so common these days that the record companies is alarmed and worried that nobody will buy CDs anymore.

Firstly, it is fairly easy to make music and post it on the web these days. The internet has made it so easy for everyone who wants to, to post their music on the web. This is a good way to reach out to the public and might not be a threat for highly-skilled artist because many of the most known singers and songwriters these days do publish their music on for instance MySpace.com to promote their music. Artists like Lilly Allen is especially known for creating a profile on MySpace and uploading demos she made herself and with this gave her the opportunity to have a breakthrough. The question is if this is a threat for the highly skilled artists or not. I would say that amateurs who make music at home and post it on the web can not be a threat to highly-skilled artists, because this is a good development of the society that not only people with money or contacts can make music and publish it, but also average people who have a hope of becoming an artist. In an interview with Lilly Allen on how she got a contract from a record company by just making a profile on MySpace with her music she answered: ‘


"Lily Allen: No, my record company didn't even know what MySpace was. About three weeks after I set it up, my manager called me and he was like, "I think you ought to set this thing up, it's called MySpace or something," and I was like, "Already done it." (Pitchfork 2006)

"Over the past two years I had been doing demos and I probably had, like, seven or eight that I was confident enough to put on the page for people to hear. I started putting them up in November [2005], two months after I signed. I just kind of swapped them around. When we did "Nan, You're a Window Shopper", literally five minutes after we finished, it was on MySpace.” (Pitchfork 2006).

It might be difficult to become famous nowadays if you don’t have money or contacts, but with webpages like MySpace.com and Youtube.com it is easier for an average person to get known for their music. And also that it easier to produce music in a professional way is also a good chance for amateurs to make music. When even highly-skilled aritsts makes a profile on websites like MySpacem, it must be because it reaches out to a wider audience which in fact can is making their music even more popular.

Illiegal downloading of music from the internet might be the biggest threats for artists and music companies these days. The fact that most people don’t really care that they download music illleagally instead of buying the music, might threat the artists and record companies because they won’t sell as many albums as they would have. But is this the case really? Do illigal downloading of music result in less profit for the music industry and the artists? An article on www.theunsignedguide.com shows different opinions on the problems around illigal downloading of music:

"The FAC reiterated that it did not support file-sharing, saying: “We wish to make it clear that we believe the creative work of artists should be paid for by those who enjoy it, and that whenever our music is used, royalties should be paid." (The unsigned guide 2009)

"Artists opposing the FAC include Lily Allen, who wrote in The Times: “These guys from huge bands said file-sharing music is fine. It probably is fine for them. They do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world. For new talent, though, file sharing is a disaster as it’s making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge.” (The unsigned guide 2009)

According to this article, we can say that it is often about the fact that it is a principal issue that music is downloaded illegally, but also that fact that bands and artists that are not big and popular have problem with making money out of their music if everybody downloads it instead of buying it. Big bands and artists make money through touring and commercials, while artist that are not so big, will struggle to make it in the music industry if too people buy their records. On the other hand, there are many people who download a few songs by an artist form the web, as so to buy their CD’s after that because they liked what they heard and wants to have an original copy. There are many people who want to see if they like the music first before they buy it, which can result in that the artists sell more CD than they normally would. A solution to this problem though, could be to make downloading websites illegal and just allow websites who sell the downloadable music online to exist. However, there is a problem with this idea; It can be difficult to control the illegal downloading of music or “file sharing” as it is also called and the issue about file sharing and demanding suspension of accounts is a principal problem, because it can be seen as invading the personal privacy.

"Yesterday the FAC — which includes members of Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Blur — said that its meetings with record labels had failed to find a solution. In a statement the group said: “[The] power to demand suspensions of accounts is only achievable through a wide-scale invasion of personal privacy which we believe would result in a dangerous reduction in the rights to protection of the individual. Putting this power in place would reduce the civil liberties of every one of us in the country in order to afford a disincentive threat to a small minority of ‘egregious offenders’. We believe this would be both disproportionate and unenforceable." (The unsigned guide 2009). ‘

We can therefore say that this is a problem that is difficult to solve, because the internet is difficult to control and the principal of privacy is making it hard to find a good solution to the problem. On the other hand, many artists become more popular due to the fact that it is possible to download their music. The more people who listen to their music, the more popular they get and the more concert tickets, commercials, pictures and videos and other products like iPods and dvds can they sell. This suggests that illegal downloading can also be a beneficial advantage for the professional artists as well as the amateurs.

We can conclude with one thing, and that is that the fact that it is easier to produce music and publish it digitally these days is an advantage for amateurs as well as highly skilled artists. Websites like MySpace and Youtube makes them more popular and can increase the sale of records and concert tickets, and it makes their music reach out to a broader audience. The fact that it is so easy to download music on the other hand, is a problem for the record companies and the artists that make music because their music is been given out for free and they loose income and profit. This problem is however quite difficult to solve, due to the fact that the world wide web is so world wide that it is difficult to control it, and it is also a principal issue against personal privacy if one starts to demand suspension of accounts.





Reference list:



Foster, P 2009, Music Industry talks Illegal Downloading, retrived 18th October 2009 from
http://www.theunsignedguide.com/news/617/music-industry-talks-break-down-in-illegal-downloading-row/





Plagenoef, S 2006, Lilly allen, retrieved 19th October 2009 from http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/6476-lily-allen/

Week 6 ireport.com

Hi!

I made a film with Hanne, Katrine and Linn from the tutorial that is on wednesdays from 4-6 with Kaya as my tutor. It was filmed with a Nokia mobile phone and we used www.ireport.com. But it didnt work to upload the video to my blog! Its always something wrong with my computer or the computer i have in class, so i have no choice but let it be. But i made it together with the girls and you can see it if you follow this link:

Video name: Empty at Griffith
Tagline: Where are all the students?

http://devarengang.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-report.html

The i report is a funny homemade video of Griffith university being totally empty even in the daytime. The reason for this was that all the student had gone to Tavern in Parkwood to party and have fun instead of studying. We made a video where Katrine went to the university one day and found it completely empty with no students. We also had Linn as the reporter, and Hanne and I did the filming and editing. I'm really sorry that it was not possible to upload it!

WEEK 4-5 : Internet delivered short films!

Short film 1:

Animation

This short video is an animated video of stick figures fighting against each other. It is quite well made and funny in a way. I chose this video because it shows a spimple way of making animation film. I don't think this video has ever been shown on the cinema or the the TV because its fairly simple. I still think its quite unique even though it's simple because tehy made it by only painitng stick figures.

Stick fight animation



Short film nr.2!

Dog on skateboard

This short video a video that show a dog that can skate. It is hillarious and entertaining, and quite unique. I have never seen a dog that can skateboard before. I chose this video because it is a video of people filming their pet, which is quite usual these days. There are many people who make a home video of their pet and post it on the internet.


Skateboarding dog




Short film 3!

This video that shows a room that is for rent for Griffith university student. I chose this video because it's a new and untraditional way of advertising for a room that is for rent. This can probably be a trend on the internet that people make a homemade video of what they have for rent and then post it on youtube or other places on the internet. And this is also a free way of advertising too, so its quite smart. I just searched Griffith university and this video came up together with other videos of Giffith university.

Room for rent andvertising

Interesting websites!

1. http://www.polyvore.com/

This site has nice and individual clothes! This website is probably chosen because it has a good layout. It is quite clever how they have structured the page.








2. http://mashable.com/2008/05/14/17-google-maps-mashups-to-waste-away-your-day/

This site is very interesting, and its good to know that you can do lots of different things with googlemaps.


3. http://turbulence.org/

This website has not a good layout, and the color is bad.


4. http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php

This is a really useful map! I liked the idea as well.


5. http://www.speedtest.net/index.php?nojs=1

This is website is not that interesting for me since its about how fast my internet speed is.

JASON WEEK 5

Week 5, google maps and my name

View Natalie travels around the word in a larger map