Mock Exam

To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing and consumption of media products in the music industry?

Digital distribution is the main factor that affected the music industry and how music itself is shared. More artists are able to share their music online (free of charge) via websites like Youtube and Souncloud. Throughout this, an increase of prosumers excelled to take advantage of producing music in the easiest possible way. Artists like Beck and Madeon distribute, produce and exchange their own music via horizontal integration (The merger of competing companies from the same line of business and involved at the same level of activity). Music production has become more accessible so that it isn't necessary for artists to go to record labels anymore and pay other people for their music to be made - they can produce music themselves. Commercial television shows like X-Factor use music from the label that it's owned/funded by. This is easier than getting permission from every artist outside the label, also, when prosumers and audiences download the songs from X-Factor, the money goes straight to the record label. Another way X-Factor contributes to the music industry is re-using old songs from the label it's owned by to promote itself. As people re-discover these songs and download them again, more money goes to the record label who own the rights to those songs. This is called back-catalogue. In terms of music exchange processes, artists can share their music online to gain popularity and recognition and views from a wider audience. Audiences are also able to give the artists feedback online about what they enjoyed about their music, what they didn't particularly like and suggestions to what the artists could do differently. This helps the artist build up a relationship with the audience and creates a fan-base. The audience (prosumers) buy the artists' music, merchandise, concert tickets and are bought into the full music experience. The blurring of PDE is caused by online music and digital distribution.

Digital distribution is a positive way for artists and musicians to get picked up and singed by/to a record label. For example, Madeon is now signed to Sony after they saw and heard his mash-up song on Youtube. He now gains money whenever he features one of their label's old songs or backing tracks - he was not able to do this before as a general prosumer. A lot of musicians distribute their music online in the hopes that they'll get recognised by a record label and that they'll be signed, further helping their music career. Exchange is the largest form of music promotion. Independent artists use digital distribution to their advantage becausse it helps promote their music and provides opportunities for gigs and larger audiences to hear their material.

Online marketing works well with digital distribution in the sense that it is more accessible to prosumers. Examples of this are Spotify adverts that promote new releases from all different genres of music and up and coming artists, Youtube advertisements that have previews of an artists new single or album that is soon to be released and iTunes has a "suggested music" section to widen the prosumers' choice of what they could be listening to. Artists can release their music videos online so that audiences can see their image and the song gets promoted. Music videos are a large contibution to the visualisation aspect of the music industry. Music video can cause arguments, disruption, different opinions and sometimes the song has absolutely no relation to the music video. Online marketing is cheaper which gives the artists more money to produce their music and get it to a better quality. The downside to this is that because music is so easily acessible online, other artists and prosumers are able to download and pirate music and pass it off as their own. Music can be purchased online via iTunes, but not all people will do so. Because music is easily accessible online, prosumers may feel entitled to free music and download it illegally without purchasing. Some prosumers still go to record stores and HMV to legally buy the music they enjoy - this helps the music industry get the money back. Existing music stores try to get their audiences involved in the industry again by selling musical produce like headphones, speakers and band merhcandise in attempts to boost sales within the music industry. Other attempts to promote new music is to feature artists on film soundtracks, in television programs, background music in advertisements and in video games (e.g. Fifa, Fallout), this is known as synergy. With digital distribution and illegal downloading affecting the music industry and its economy, many record stores like HMV have shut down as a result of this.

In conclusion, digital distribution has caused a negative effect on the music industry, causing piracy to become more frequent which causes the music industry to lose money. Many people would argue that digital distribution tampers with the purity of music and that it is no longer fully appreciated. Digital distribution causes albums to be leaked online before the release date which is a massive loss for the music industry. Although more prosumers are being exposed to different types of music, people are no longer paying for the music which damages the music industry's economy