Media Industries Essay

“In the last decade, technology has changed the creative media sector beyond all recognition”

This essay will investigate the impact of technology on two industries in the creative media sector; it will explore the music and print industries.

“40 billion songs were downloaded illegally in 2008…this huge figure equates to 95% of all music downloads”. http://drownedinsound.com/news/4136081-95-of-music-downloads-in-2008-were-illegal-dis-reacts-and-suggests-two-solutions This is a massive amount of songs and even though these downloads are illegal, without technology this wouldn’t of happened. New technology plays such a big part on the media sector, it changes almost everything.

Currently the creative media sector is dominated by the big 6. These are The Walt Disney Company, News Corporation, Time Warner, Viacom, General Electric and CBS. A conglomerate is a company that is made up of lots of different companies, it is one huge company. An independent company is a smaller company that is just on its own, it does not link to any other companies it is purely an independent, on its own company. There are many differences between conglomerates and independent companies, one difference is the size of the companies. Conglomerates are massive and are often worldwide companies whereas independents are small businesses normally just in one country. Another is the popularity, conglomerates are more popular than independent companies because they are more well known and have a bigger audience because they are in other countries than just there own. Conglomerates are linked to lots of other companies and all those other companies make one big conglomerate. The advantages of being a conglomerate is that the company is known through out the world more because it has businesses in lots of different countries, it has a bigger audience. The disadvantage would be the fact that the profit of the conglomerate is spread out over the different companies. the advantage to being an independent company is the fact that all profits made stay within the company, that independent company keep all the profit they make. The disadvantage to being an independent company is the fact that they are not known worldwide, they have a smaller audience, just from their own country.

In the last decade, technology has changed the creative media sector beyond recognition. Technology has also changed the music industry drastically. The distribution of music has become a lot easier because of technology as people just go on and download the music they want online. People wouldn’t be able to do this without the developments in technology. The internet was the major breakthrough as it allowed the audience to go online and listen and view music videos on websits such as YouTube. The creation of the internet allowed the audience to download music online instead of going out and buying CDs, although there are still some people that go out and buy CDs even with the convenience of just going online and downloading music.

Technology has also changed the print industry over the years. The development of the internet is pushing the print industry to die out. Newspapers now post a lot of their stories online and less and less people go out and buy the hard copies of newspapers when they can just go online and view them for free. Other developments in technology have also changed the print industry. Things like iPads, smart phones, laptop computers and kindles have changed the print industry because they all now provide access to the news stories and lots of newspapers, meaning less people go out buy traditional newspapers.

New technology that is introduced has really had an effect on the music industry and its audience. Because the distribution of music has become easier through the use of the internet, this makes it a lot easier, quicker and cheaper to for the audience to listen to music, as apposed to having to spend the time going out to shops and paying a lot more money for traditional CDs. However, there are still some people that go out and buy CDs so the industry still makes money from CDs, just not nearly as much. Internet and download technology is a bonus for the audience, however it isn’t so great for the music industry and places like HMV and Amazon as it means they are loosing out on a lot of money because a lot of people download illegally meaning the music industry isn’t getting the money for it. New technology like the Internet is also a threat for conglomerates as they are getting less money. This encourages them to develop other technology to make their money back up. This can only have a positive effect on the audience and the music industry itself, because the industry will start to make more money back again and the audience will have new technology to use. The distribution of music became easier globally and was a benefit to the worldwide music industry audience. This was a big effect on globalization. No longer did people have to go out and buy hard copy CDs they could just go online and download them. With so many people now going online to download music, this effects the advertising cake as there is a lot more space to advertise online. Advertising becomes unlimited. This is a benefit to the media industry as because they can advertise new music videos and albums online. The adverts have more chance of being seen because so many people use the Internet, this brings a benefit to the music industry.

For the print industry, the new technology that’s introduced has also really has an effect on it. Less and less people are going out and buying the traditional newspapers because its just so much more convenient to go online and read stories on there. It’s a huge benefit for the audience as it saves them money and effort. On the other hand, it is a big drawback for the print industry as it means they are missing out on a lot of money and profit that they used to get from people buying newspapers, but now people are going online and getting them for free, meaning the print industry is slowly loosing out on money and dying out.

Technology has and will continue to affect both the conglomerates and the Indies in huge ways. New technology is an advantage to both of them because it means that with things like the internet they can advertise online and can have websites to sell their company products. It also means that more people will know about their company and their products because the internet can be accessed from anywhere, all over the world so people from different countries can access the company website and buy products. Other new technology is also an advantage for both conglomerates and indies, things like new hi-tech computers and software that can design things like posters and video adverts for advertising. The better their advertisements are, the more chance the companies have of gaining a bigger audience and more customers. On the other hand, new technology isn’t always a good thing for conglomerates or indies. New technology such as the internet can stop companies from making as much money. For the music industry companies, more people are downloading illegally on the internet because of the new technology allowing them to do so, which means the companies suffer and lose money. This is a really big threat for conglomerates, however it will encourage them to develop more new technology to get their profits back up.

Amongst all of the new changes, there have still been some things that have stayed the same. In the music industry, there are still people that go out and buy CD’s, there are people that pay money to download music from places like itunes instead of downloading illegally for free; so the music industry is still the same in one way and they still make money the same ways the used to, through customers actually going out and buying CDs. It is a similar story with the print industry, some things still remain the same, there are still people that go out and buy hard copy traditional newspapers, which still brings money to the print industry. Although there are less people that buy CDs and less people that buy newspapers, there are still some people that do so these parts of the industries have stayed the same.

Overall, technology has changed the media sector, especially the music and print industries for the better. It has lost them a bit of money but has made things a lot easier for them. It has made communication and advertising easier which results in gaining a bigger audience and more cutstomers and eventually bringing their profits back up. I agree “In the last decade, technology has changed the creative media sector beyond all recognition” people nowadays wouldn’t even be able to live their daily lives without the new advances in technology such as the internet. People depend on the internet so it has been such a huge benefit to everyone, especially in the creative media sector. I believe new technology can only make things better so in the future I think with more and more new technology being developed, the world can only get better and the creative media sector can only become greater.