Steph’s Blog
A glimpse into my world…
I found that both pieces were very strong visually and they showed depth in the photos themselves. I thought that the photos were well chosen because of what I mentionned before, that the photos had more meaning to them and relayed the story well.
I felt that the Washington Post Soundslides was well formated because it used background noise effectively. This story didn’t really need to have a voiceover explaining what was happening and where because the stills represented it well.
The New York Times Soundslides was well-done and I felt that the voiceover was needed in order to locate and educate the viewer. The photos weren’t able to stand by their own and it was necessary to have the reporter tell the story. I did find however that the piece was a bit too short and at times felt rushed. I would have liked to see the pace slow down as well as tell me more about the subject.
For my project, I plan on using the format the reporter from the New York Times used. I feel that it is more appropriate for my story and that it will add information to the photos that will be presented.
The 360 Spin-around
Are you suffering from awkward plastic lying around your house, a broken disc or even a case of the Walkman? Say no more. The music industry has come to your rescue to cure those compact disc blues.
The remedy? The music industry’s 360 contract deal.
This recent agreement has the record label making a profit off of all aspects of an artist’s revenues in order to develop a well-rounded musician. Instead of making money only from CD sales (which are almost non-existent these days), the label gets a portion of the profits from concert revenue, merchandise sales, endorsement deals, ringtones and other beneficial areas. The exchange is that the music label will work with the artist to improve their overall career by using their developed resources, like contacts and press relation officers. The major labels even go as far as to say that they have more time to promote their artists because they’re not hunting down record sales to cover their investment.
With CD sales of 2008 slumping 20% from 2007 numbers while the CD’s arch-enemy, illegal downloading, rises 32% from 2007, there is no wonder the music industry feels the need to cash in on all areas of their artists’ success.
According to an article on TechCrunch.com, Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman says that these contracts are mandatory for all new artists who sign with his label. He also went on to comment that about a third of all of his company’s signed artists are already under this kind of contract.
But there has been a lot of controversy surrounding these deals amongst artists, as well as amid music fans. Many feel that these newly signed artists are not fully ‘reaping the benefits’ from their work and become more of a product, rather than a talent. The element of choice is taken away from the artist when these deals are made since the record label often has control of over 33% of the artists’ profits.
The decrease of CD sales has also led to the music industry becoming more selective with the artists they sign to a record label. The labels need to be very careful of the artist’s they recruit as well as the hit singles they release to the fans because the industry no longer relies on CD sales to establish a accepted musician. The success of the artist relies primarily on the artist themselves but also relies on the influence, power and opinion from the record label.
According to a Huffington Post article, Atlantic Records was quite successful with profits from digital revenue in 2008 when compared to the labels’ physical CD profit. Popular artists from Atlantic Records, like T.I. and Jason Mraz, are some of the artists who helped to achieve this downloading success.
The record labels have also teamed up with MySpace this past year to create MySpace Music, a webpage solely dedicated to upcoming artists as well as popular musicians. The website has specific links to videos, tour dates and special contests. The webpage allows the musicians and their labels to display new talent to a wide community of music fans around the world with very little promotional effort involved.
The 360 deal is also making its way across the border into Canada. In the United States, the four major music labels have all adopted this new kind of deal but Canada has smaller, independent labels using the 360 deal for their artists. The Canadian music labels vary from their American counterparts because some staffers even stand in as promoters and artist merchandisers for their artist.
The 360 contract first got its origins in the 2000s with UK pop star Robbie Williams who was able to draw large crowds to concerts but wasn’t able to move many albums in the United States. Eventually, major artists like Madonna and The PussyCat Dolls followed the trend which has led to their profitable success.
It seems that the remedy to the diminishing CD sales and the illegal downloading is for the record labels to make more money off their artists. Even in these hard economic times, the music industry seems to know how to make their artists’ good until the last beat.
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Sources for story
1)Arrigton, Michael. (2008) “360″ Music Deals Become Mandatory as Labels Prepare for Free Music. Retrieved February 13,2008 from http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/08/360-music-deals-become-mandatory-as-labels-prepare-for-free-music/
2) Abramovitch,Susan and Carnegie,Shelagh (2007).FOCUS ON MEDIA LAW. The Lawyers Weekly, p.1.
3)McDonald, Heather.(N.D.)360 Deals.Retrieved February 13,2008 from http://musicians.about.com/od/ah/g/360deals.htm
4)Gasparek, Brian(N.D.). The 360 Deal:Examining the modern record contract. Retreived February 6,2008 from http://www.indiscover.net/Features/Articles/the_360_deal_examining_the_modern_record_contract.
5)Sandoval, Greg (2008). MySpace Music makes its debut. Retrieved February 6,2008 from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10050206-93.html.
This assignment was relatively useful in the sense that it helped me address some concerns I have with my upcoming project for this class. I think that most of the information that was provided has been covered in my radio classes that I took with Trudie Mason. She would often encourage us to use ambient sound, extra sound (i.e. music) for our pieces because she insisted that it gave a location for the listener as well as something nice for the ear, rather than a interviewee’s voice.
The only problem with this assignment was that I wasn’t able to finish it by using the sound mixer. It wouldn’t load the sound clips and ended up freezing my computer several times. Even though I have done a lot of radio editing, I would have liked to fully complete the assignment.
These two videos were very compelling and interesting. They both focused on very different subject matters. I really liked how they both used video in a very interesting way that stimulated the subject’s theme.For example, in the L.A. Sun piece, it plays with video tools like slow motion or fastforward. It made this somewhat dry (no pun intended, I swear) subject more interesting. I also enjoyed the interactive map at the bottom of the window that moved across Nevada when the interview subject changed. I thought that was a great way to help situate the viewer while being discreet.
The Dallas news video, I felt that the use of photos was outstanding. It relayed the narration from Yolanda while still concentrating on her powerful words. I found that the use of photos mixed with video that portrayed her point-of-view was a great idea. It really allowed me to be in her shoes and explore her horrible travels.
In terms of my captivation as a viewer, the L.A. Sun video on Las Vegas’s diminishing water supply failed to do so. I think the subject was a little on the boring side and leaned towards being preachy/repetitive in terms of environmental journalism. I feel like there is this sort of problem around the world and the Las Vegas one wasn’t captivating enough to hold my attention. The Yolanda’s Crossing video on the other hand had me looking forward for the next chapter. Not that I enjoyed hearing about this girl’s rape but I thought that the way her story was told through photographs and her narration was to the point and emotional. I felt like she was telling me the story and as if she was right next to me.
I found them both very strong pieces but Yolanda’s Crossing was more compelling in all aspects: journalistically, visually, narratively.
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Interview Sources-Known
1) Brian Joseph
Brian Joseph is the Program Director at Concordia’s CJLO and is very knowledgeable on the subject. He has already been contacted and interviewed for a previous television project. I plan on exploring the possible future of the CD and where it is headed and how that effects radio stations. Since he is a great interviewee and has great on-camera presence, I plan on featuring him for my video section of my project.
2) Hamid Rouse and “Solo” Rouse
Tel. (514) 651-4545
These brothers are the owners of Montreal record label Tru Kings and have already given me an interview. They provide an interesting aspect on the demise of the CD since they are the “artistic producers” of the CDs themselves. I think I will use their interview for my audio aspect of my project since the visuals for their interview are not overly stimulating.
3) Mark-Anthony Maimone
Mark-Anthony is a local DJ who has a positive point of view on the CD. I feel like he will add a great opposition p.o.v. to the other interviewees who take the popular view. Since I have already interviewed him, I will use his interview for my visual project. Also, since he is a DJ and I have footage of him DJ-ing, it makes for a better visual story.
Unknown interview sources
1) Owner of Primitive record store on St.Denis
2) A person with a large record collection
3) A music fan with a large CD collection
Secondary Sources
Published articles
1) USA TODAY article
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-04-02-album-sales_N.htm
This article discusses how and why CD sales have gone down in 2008.
2) Globe and Mail article
This article is interesting because it discusses the return of the record.
2) Toronto Star article
This piece discusses the changes the industry has made in order to generate extra revenue.
Online only articles
1) The 360 Deal: Examining the modern record contract
http://www.indiscover.net/Features/Articles/the_360_deal_examining_the_modern_record_contract
This article talks about how the music industry is trying to generate revenue (due to the diminishing revenue from CDs) through this unique recording contract.
2) MySpace Music makes its debut
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10050206-93.html
This piece talks about how Myspace Music plans on changing how music fans get their music. I think it’s interesting to see how illegal downloading is being embraced by Myspace.
3) Is the CD still a viable market?
http://www.slyck.com/story1125_Is_the_Physical_CD_Still_A_Viable_Market
This article is interesting because the writer examines how CDs are a dying breed and how the technology is dying with it. He also discusses how illegal downloading has its ‘cons’ as well.
After reading your comments, I feel that the local Montreal grasp on the issue is a good idea.
I still plan on pursuing a video/photo timeline for this project,since I feel that would be the most productive and informative style. I would like to use Final Cut to edit the video and with Soundslides, I plan on making the photo aspect of this project.
In terms of the subjects that I wish to represent in my timeline, I want to keep them brief and in different layouts. For example, I want one section to have an interview only with a knowledgeable subject, like a music fanatic or record label. For other sections, I was thinking of a series of short clips, kind of like a streeter format, with different points of view on one subject. I think the ’streeter’ format would work well with issues like illegal downloaders and music collecters.
To be more specific, here are the subjects that I wish to represent in my multimedia project (not in any particular order):
- History of the CD
- Reason for the decline
- The digital age: Pros and Cons
- The future of CDs: To the trash or storage, like records?
- The impact on music fans and their thoughts
- The players in the music industry and how it affects them (i.e. performers, DJs, record labels, CD cover artists)
- Illegal downloading and how it has affected the music industry and CDs
I feel that these subjects address the issues I want to cover in this project while still being interesting and informative.
The people I wish to contact for this project range from professionals to average people because the music industry is meant for everyone. Since I have done this idea of the decline of the CD for another class, I have three interviews I could use for this project but may not use them. Nevertheless, I have listed those three men as well as other sources that I plan on interviewing. Here are the sources(not in any particular order):
- David Barnes, famed cartoonist who does cover art for music group Of Montreal
- Owner of Primitive record store on St.Denis (has been there for over 20 years)
- Owner of Beatnik record store, who also sells CDs (could be interesting since they could make a valid comparison)
- A 21-year old with a large record collection
- A 36-year old with a large CD collection
- Montreal DJ, Mark-Anthony Maimone
- Tru Kings, Montreal record label
- CJLO Music Director, Brian Joseph
- Local Montreal album cover artist
- 5-6 interviews with illegal downloaders
I am confident that these interviews and subjects on the demise of the CD will allow for a solid multimedia project. I look forward to using the different technology as an addition to this print-style idea.
This is my panorama photo that I did. I’m not sure why there is black on the edge and tried to fix it with no success.
These three photos were from a summer vacation to Mont Tremblant this summer. I took these photos from the viewpoint on top of the mountain (which would look very different now!). I was happy the lakes sort of work together and look like one.
I had tried another one with photos from New Hampshire with no success. The consistency was not there.
I enjoyed this photo due to its simplicity. I found it very easy to upload my photos once you download the software. I tried using Vuvox too but for my own personal use of a day trip to Ottawa for Canada’s Day. It worked out to be pretty nice. I look forward to exploring with the audio tools Vuvox encourages.
