Why is the music industry so cross with Google? #4

The key to understanding why the music industry is so angry with Google is that it’s not just about the amount of links or takedowns. This is about what broken promises (or, at least, the perception of broken promises).

In August 2012, Google announced that it would be downgrading piracy sites in its search rankings. SVP of engineering Amit Singhal explained in a blog post:

“Starting next week, we will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices we receive for any given site. Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results. This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily—whether it’s a song previewed on NPR’s music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed from Spotify.”

This was welcome news to the music industry bodies, who’d been lobbying hard for exactly this kind of action. The BPI and RIAA stepped up the number of takedown requests they were sending to Google, anticipating that they would start to see the results in search results. 

The music industry is angry with google, as they are allowing people to download music videos for free, this has lead to people getting free music, which means the music industry isn't making any money. This would mean people aren't purchasing albums of celebrities anymore as they can get it for free. However, as Beyonce launched her album without anyone being aware of it on iTunes, it meant people were forced to buy it as noone was told about it beforehand and people weren't able to download it off Google. 

The impact of new and digital media news

	NEWS
Impact on audience	Impact on institution	Theories & debates
v  Can access news easily anytime v  Information they get may be inaccurate v  Many sources of new v  They can become their own journalist ‘citizen journalist’	v  Audience numbers are down for traditional institutions v  Bad reputation on the institution v  Revenue taken by different institutions  such as: google v   Printing has considerably fallen down	v    Paretos law as 80% of audience get news from 20% of institution v  ‘The information age castells’ v  ‘Most important medium’

New and Digital Media: end of unit question

There are always concerns about new technology. In your view, what are the possible benefits and problems attached to the Internet? 

Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. New media has many benefits such as the fact we're able to have access onto on-demand content anytime, anywhere and on any digital device such as phones, laptop, ipad and tablets, as such. Furthermore, this allows people to have interactive contact with others, in different parts of the world because of the internet. 

There are many benefits of the internet, as we're able to access it at any time in today's generation. This is due to the technology in today's society, and how advance it has become. Everyone around the world is able to access the internet, and interact with other people in the world. Furthermore, technological items such as iPhones now have allow you to access the internet at a faster rate. However, some pages of the internet are blocked for the safety of people. Whereas, on the laptop it is easier to access any page, and you're able to view content that may be blocked, it is easier to use the internet on laptops, due to the sizing difference and the amount of different keys you have to change the settings. Whereas, on iPhones, it may be harder to do so, through the limited amount of keys you have on the phone. There are loads of publications added onto the internet on a daily basis, and they hold strong information in order to attract a mass audience, in order for them to read it. Furthermore, the internet is one source the majority of the worlds population is dependant on, as the internet provides everyone with facts and figures and helps in day to day lifestyle. The internet improves on a daily basis, and has new updates coming out. Internet explorer has now become one of the slowest internet browsers, despite there being a lot of different updates happening. However, Google chrome is one of the fastest internet browsers, and it is mainly what audiences prefer to use. Furthermore, google chrome has made it easier for students and people with jobs, to access the internet faster and get sufficient amount of information. The internet is used by both people and institutions, this has links with Pareto's law of the 80% of the media is controlled by 20% of the institution/companies. Google owns many different companys/pages, such as Blogger, G-mail, YouTube, allowing Google to hold a mass standing within today's society. 

On the other hand, there are many disadvantages of the internet, such as there are false things posted upon the internet, which are said to be "true facts" whereas, they're all made up. Websites such as Wikipedia, can be edited by anyone and they're able to change anything, and students usually use Wikipedia, to help them with work, which means they may be looking at things which aren't true. Sherry Turker has said the internet is a bad influence on children, as they become isolated from each other, because of the internet. Students tend to become internet freaks and don't concentrate much on their studies. As iPhones now have access on the internet, they're able to have access of the internet everywhere they go, which means they may be distracted in class. There are a variety of different social networking sites starting up such as 'Instagram', 'Keek', 'Snapchat' and the old typical Facebook, Bebo, Hi5 and MySpace. Furthermore, over 50% have access on twitter. 80% of tweets on Twitter, are created by 20% of people. Twitter doesn't hold any facts, it is all peoples opinions. Furthermore, 

New and digital media #3

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/01/internet-streaming-music-record-industry

Internet streaming won't save music – the industry still relies on hits

Perhaps the most telling comment on the end-of-year music sales figures for 2013 – reporting a 0.5% decline on the previous year – came from Kim Bayley. The internet has given lots of artists the opportunity to reach an audience, with a broader range of music. The top 10 albums of 2013 in the UK illustrated the hit reliance. The top 3 albums are compliations: Now that's what I call music 84, 85 and 86. It is said that British artists are doing well, being responsible for half of the top 10 albums of 2013. Considering that the total number of albums sold in 2013 went down to 6.4%. Furthermore, music streaming grew by 33.7%

NDM #2

When fiction becomes fact: can we trust the internet?

A series of hoaxes have flown around the internet. But what happens when news sites report fiction as fact, delighting then disappointing their readers?

A story went viral of a man live-tweeting his interactions with a woman on the plane – was revealed to be fake. At the same time a Twitter conversation between a comedian and an American salsa brand – which appeared to result in employees being fired and had shot, sneeze-like across the internet – was confirmed as a hoax.

BuzzFeed is a lot of things. It's a gallery of grinning dogs. It's a thousand comedy lists about the 90s. It's a scrolling advert, a comic sports site, a politics blog, a moving newspaper, and its ad revenues this year are estimated to be $40m. As it stretches across our consciousness like clingfilm, its responsibilities are being called into question more and more. As a news organisation, profiting from the stories it shares, shouldn't it be verifying them before it publishes? And if this continues to happen – if it repeatedly reports on fictions as if they're fact – then won't it start to lose us, its fast-clicking readers? We don't expect every story posted by a stranger on Twitter to be true, but we do expect every story reported on by a huge media organisation to be, because that's what they're for. The point of them is to filter through the daily mess of culture and to repackage it for us in witty, bite-sized, trustworthy chunks. The more they mess up, the less we'll return.

That we see isn't always true, the internet can be edited. Television is an illusion - we believe what we see. This article talks about the issues about publishing newspaper articles, nobody verifies them before publishing, however they make profit, and a moving newspaper and it's ad revenue this year are estimated to be $40m. A story written by a reality TV producer then reported as fact by an international media company (BuzzFeed's post got almost 1.5m views) and shared frantically by those who think it's real.Also, on twitter we won't expect every story posted by a stranger to be true. However, we expect every story report by media to be true.  This is because of the authority they hold, and the power, they are able to engage audiences and can fool them into believing anything and everything is true, as audiences are fooled to believe the articles have been verified beforehand and are official, even though they may not be verified. Also, the internet is harmless, nobody gets hurt, but it affects how we engage online. We will be led to trust less and enjoy less. In the long-term it is said that our lives will become fractionally worse, but the issue lies not with the storyteller, it lies with the sites that share it. 

Pareto's Law

1) What is Pareto's Law? Sum it up in a paragraph.
Pareto's law is the 80/20 rule

2) What other industries or examples can you apply the 80/20 rule to?

• 80% of the media is owned by 20% of the institutions 
• 80% of a company's profits come from 20% of its customers
• 80% of a company's complaints come from 20% of its customers
• 80% of a company's profits come from 20% of the time its staff spend
• 80% of a company's sales come from 20% of its products
• 80% of a company's sales are made by 20% of its sales staff

3) List three arguments in FAVOUR of Pareto's Law applying to the internet:
Microsoft owns Hotmail and Skype
Google owns Gmail, Android, YouTube, Blogger
75% of users volume is from 5% of the top sites. 

4) List three arguments AGAINST Pareto's Law applying to the internet:
Wikipedia - user generated information - not reliable information
Twitter - don't own what is produced, there can be many rumours about a certain topic. 
Tumblr - we post images up, not always true can just copy it from somewhere else

Finally, answer the following question:
5) Even if Pareto's Law applies to internet ownership, does it still apply to the content we read online?

New and Digital Media #1

Rich kids of instagram - http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/06/selfies-status-updates-digital-bragging-web

Launched in 2012, Rich Kids Of Instagram is a blog dedicated to the iPhone snapshots of teens and twentysomethings living opulent lifestyles around the world, like a two-dimensional MTV Cribs for people who aren't famous. If you live by the philosophy "money talks but wealth whispers", perhaps look away now, because this is high-pitched shouting. As the website tagline puts it: "They have more money than you and this is what they do." Much of it involves infinity pools, yachts and private jets, and bar tab receipts going into the tens of thousands. Many of the posts are accompanied by nauseating captions: a picture of a room featuring a giant Lichtenstein canvas bears the words "home is where the art is"; an image of a woman's head emerging from a sea of Chanel and Hermès bags is tagged as #goldrush; a young man's "reptile" shoe collection, meanwhile, is labelled #endangered. But even more likely to have you clamouring for revolution are the posts of mock humility: a #livingroom containing an old master and a chandelier, or "weekend at the farm" involving a young man in red trousers disembarking from a helicopter.

You may think looking at a 17-year-old's Ferrari ("This is how the pimps roll") might be an exercise in impoverished masochism, but the lack of self-awareness makes the whole experience strangely gratifying. It's that old schadenfreude working its magic again. These people may have "more money than you", but they're making complete tits of themselves in the process.

Instagram was launched in 2012, there is a blog post of instagram which is dedicated to the rich kids. This article talks about the glam of instagram and has quotes of what people do on instagram, such as '#' this is a way other people can search up the hashtag and then their picture will be there, so others are able to see it. It talks about different hash tags which are used on instagram and what they show i.e #livingroom it clearly says what the image contains, of an old master and chandelier.