Institutions and Audiences

Institutions and Audiences

How important is technological convergence for institutions and audiences within a media area which you have studied? (including an example).

Technological convergence has become a major influencer in the changes throughout the music industry. Technological convergence is the evolving devices which have become what we are using today.

However, nowadays we are using just one product to complete several tasks. Whereas, previously, a few years back we would have had to use many to complete the same task that we do today. An example of this is, our up to date I-phone 7. An I-phone 7 has many capabilities. Firstly, the I-phone 7 can take pictures and videos in many types of forms. Such as, slow motion, different frame sizes, different tonal backgrounds and much more. An up to date I-phone can complete any tasks that we would need for a computer, an I-pod, an MP3 player, a walk-man, telephone and video camera and so on, just by using a few simple clicks.

 Technological convergence has allowed the music industry to become extremely competitive and with these new devices and technology, a song can be listened to and music video can be watched just by the simplest click on one’s phone. Moreover, the product can be shared amongst a million other electronic users all under a few seconds.  Artists take this to their full advantage.

An example of an institution which have experienced the technological convergence and realized its importance is the music industry band called, the ‘Artic Monkeys’. The ‘Artic Monkeys’ were just a small band hoping to get noticed and then in 2006 when they released their album. This album was the fastest selling in the United Kingdoms history. The subject that gave this group such confidence to do so was their ‘My-Space’ page. This website is where they would upload their files containing their music to the internet. As you can see, just by this group using a different platform to promote themselves, over time they still became extremely well known. Although, these men were independently holding their record labels, they managed to become one of the most known bands of today. This shows how powerful online devices can be. The ‘Artic Monkeys’ used todays technology to converge and promote themselves to the music industry so that the industry found them instead.

However, if this was many years back. This wouldn’t have been so easy. If it was the 1900’s, this band couldn’t have promoted themselves the way they did. It would have been impossible. They would have only been able to get their song put on a vinyl record after getting a record deal. This also wouldn’t be as easy, it would take a lot of time, an audience and money. The use of convergence has made missions easier for everyone and given many people an advantage for this industry.

On the other hand, there are a small handful of disadvantages to this idea. When artists are producing music videos for their songs, they are spending a lot of expenses to produce what they can. If the music video and song doesn’t reach its target they could lose a large amount of profit. In addition to this, many people have started to illegally download due to viewers becoming so technically advanced with their devices. This is making artists lose a lot of their profit. In contrast with many years ago, when the artists were simply tuning their songs to a CD and selling them, every disc is sold on a set price and this was thought to be fair for the customer as well as the artist. Although, times are evolving and this is barely the case nowadays.

After I completed this essay today, my teacher marked my work and wrote on my sheet where there is area for improvement. This has allowed me to improve my skills and change my errors. This is practice for my exam. By my teacher doing this, it taught me that possibly i could try and lengthen my word count, relate my answer back to the main question and check my writing for any grammatical errors. Here below is the sheet of marking. 

Here below is my improved version:

Institutions and Audiences

How important is technological convergence for institutions and audiences within a media area which you have studied?

Technological convergence has become a major influencer in the changes throughout the music industry. Technological convergence is the evolving devices which have become what we are using today.

However, nowadays we are using just one product to complete several tasks. Whereas, for an example, 15 years back when most of people were using a simple flip up phone such as Nokia. To complete a few tasks (taking pictures, texting and watching videos). We would have had to use more than one type of device to complete this mission. However, today, we have our up to date I-phone 7’s which has more than several capabilities. Firstly, the I-phone 7 can take pictures and videos in many types of forms. Such as, slow motion, different frame sizes, different tonal background. An up to date I-phone can complete any tasks that we would need for a computer, an I-pod, an MP3 player, a walk man, telephone and video camera and so on, just by using a few simple clicks.

Technological convergence has allowed the music industry to become extremely competitive and with these new devices and technology, a song can be listed to and music videos can be watched just by the simplest of clicks on one’s phone. Moreover, the product can be shared amongst a million other electronic users all under a few seconds. Artists take this to their full advantage. In addition, these benefit the audience greatly, it allows the music inspired industry to not waste time like they would have use to have done.  Technological convergence Is saving the audiences time and making everything very straight forward. An example is, the expenses, the audience only need to buy themselves an up to date popular smart phone and they can view whatever they like very effortlessly. This saves them expenses in the long term because they do not need to go ahead and buy each album which goes out etc.

An example of an institution which have experienced the technological convergence and realized its importance is the music industry band called, the Arctic Monkey’s. The Arctic Monkey’s were just a small band hoping to get noticed and then in 2006 when they released their album called ‘Whatever people say I am that’s what I am not’. This album was the fastest selling in the United Kingdom’s history. The subject that gave this group so much confidence is their My-Space page that they had. This website is where they would upload their files containing their music to the internet. As you can see, just by this group using a different platform to promote themselves, over time they still became extremely well known. Although, these men were independently holding their record labels, they managed to become one of the most known bands of today. This shows how powerful online devices can be because for an audience everything that sounds successful is shared across the internet on a lot of popular social networks very quickly. The Arctic Monkey’s used todays technology to converge and promote themselves to the music industry so that the industry found them instead.

However, if this was roughly the early too late 1900’s this wouldn’t have been so easy. This band wouldn’t have been able to promote themselves the way they did. It would have been impossible. They would have only been able to get their song put on a vinyl record after getting a record deal. This also wouldn’t have been as easy. It would consume a lot of time, an audience and money. The use of convergence has made missions easier for everyone and given many people an advantage for this industry.

On the other hand, there are quite big consequences and disadvantages to this idea for the artists. When artists are producing music videos for their songs, they are spending a lot of expenses to produce what they can. If the music video and song doesn’t reach its target they could lose a large amount of their profit. In addition to this, many people have started to illegally download music and videos. Viewers are becoming more technology thrived and advanced that they are able to do many things. For example, some would search on Google, ‘How to illegally download songs the best way’.  The world being to commercial online is both a blessing and downfall for our current artists.

In contrast, many years ago, when artists were simply tuning their songs to a CD and selling them, every disc is sold on a set price and this was thought to be fair for the consumer as well as the producer. Although, times are evolving and this is barely the case nowadays as everything is found digitally distributed online with superb quality via I-tunes, You-tube and Spotify etc.