Media Culture Essay Example

Media culture is known to be associated with cultural studies. One can't rely on the culture of a particular society without paying attention to media influences. The term generally insinuates the overall impingement from clothing all the way to intellectual guidance expended by the media (Television, radio and also the press) , not only on objective basis but also on individual tastes and values of people. Media culture is defined as the swinging western society that has developed from media prominence as from the dawn of the 20th century. Media culture is considered as an entity centered on directing the community (Kellner, 2003). This review seeks to explore the effects of media prominence paying specific attention to Harveys Station To Station - The Past, Present, and Future of Streaming Music impression of media impact in Australia.

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Internet streaming refers to content delivered in real time over the Internet. This method involves, a multimedia file being recapitulated without being completely downloaded first. Its mostly seen in the forms of audio and video streaming (Priestman, 2002). However, most of the files downloaded from the Internet, are not streaming data. Nonetheless, certain audio and video files like Windows Media, Real Media, MPEG-4 and Flash can be streaming files implying you can listen to audio or watch a video file while it's being downloaded to your personal computer. Contrary to other downloading methods where the order of the data is not necessary, streaming data is delivered according to availability.

Streaming requires a source media, an encoder for digitizing the content, a media publisher, and a delivery network to circulate and distribute the content. It conveys media as a steady stream and so with a fast Internet connection, one can stream live audio or video to his/her personal computer.

This form of media consumption became airborne in the late 1990s, with significant advancements in technology that led to increased Internet bandwidth and speed (two factors necessary for optimal media streaming functionality). The onset of the 20th century marks the beginning of a new era of Internet consumerization (Moores, 1993) with many innovations and advancements in networking, combined with modern operating systems and powerful computers. Data streaming has been made serviceable and affordable to large number of consumers. It began with Muzak (a technology of streaming continuous music to pecuniary consumers without using a radio), after the invention of a system that was able to transmit and distribute signals over electrical lines by George O. Squire. Further efforts to display different media forms on computers have suffered gradual progress due to the high costs and finite capabilities of computer hardware. (Muthukrishnana, 2005)However, in 1993 a global release of this new product into the market was conducted by a group of scientists. They were discussing the potentiality and possibility of new technologies in broadcasting on the Internet via multicasting while a band was playing a gig somewhere in the same building. As evident of this new invention by the scientists the band Severe Tire Damage, was being broadcasted to the scientist and at the same type could be seen performing live all over Australia. Today data streaming has become the predominant technological arm driving digital music. This new age has been ushered in by a ripple of turnout of events with the major streaming media sites such as the 2005 Pandoras launch.

Although the idea of streaming of music presages recordings, the music industrys interests in current technology are fashioned to regain control through unlimited access after a long time of unfettered access to mp3 downloading fans. This strategy appears to be making much progress on sales of single mp3 downloads have declined over the past years while streaming activity increasing drastically. (Jesse Russell, 2012)Streaming platforms such as YouTube found in every streaming site avail listeners with large chunks of data by a click of a button. But this seems to be a one-way enterprise, as, despite a well-served commercial consumer, artists have hurled questions regarding compensation. Some of the famous artists believe that they have been stripped the right to decide how they're going to put their stuff out. And have withdrawn themselves from these streaming sites services. A good example is the Spotify controversy 2011.

As a result, many questions piled over a long history of music have been casted. Do this streaming platform business models only attend to the needs of the listeners and in a way exploit artists? Are we living in a technological era of a prolific possibility or a surveillance case manipulated by privately owned brands reassuring unlimited access at the risk of minimum control? To be in a better position to answer these questions, we shouldnt not only keep our minds opened to possibilities but also keep our eyes opened to the lessons learned from the past. In a way, the advantages of a streaming site outmatch its disadvantages as a small-scale composite analysis conducted on a variety of artists proved streaming sites to be an imperative tool.

Michael Alvarado a producer and an upcoming artist said that. The pricing aspect of these streaming sites isnt of much help if you are at Taylor Swifts level but its ideal for an upcoming artist during the AMAs (American Music Awards). Straight from the early 1920s, the music industry had begun to rise. Historians assure as that pornography owners by this time were able to create spates of intermittent music in their homes. This era was the period of automatic record changers/jukeboxes.

These were very efficient as the owner needed to know the musical tastes of a subtle population and program it. The jukeboxes opened the possibilities of creating a gadget that could provide such detailed listening data. And so the course for creating a radio began. (Tshmuck, 2012)The tyranny of choice has brought about the development of many radio stations, digitization of tens of millions of songs and building of big libraries of songs. This digitization craves for persistent developments in technology to counter these unsatisfied listener demands by providing infinite options on what can be listened. Escalating over the past years this work has been done by the use of algorithms. (EisenBerg, 2005)Just the other day, computer engineers have devised a way to search for content-based music. This breakthrough has outlined music from being just a mere generic commodity. Most notable applications are the Shazam application, Echo Nest in which a song is overlooked for musicological elements and matched across other songs in incalculable configurations. Echo Nest is far most advanced from Shazam as it can to cure and retrieve data by getting rid of information from entertaining media platforms, blog posts, album reviews attached to artists and their songs. This invention has opened new ideas of conceptualizing the users of streaming platforms, and figuring out their wants. And so the more interaction the user has with Echo Nest, the easier it is for Echo Nest to compile metadata matching your taste profile.

For over a century now, music has been regarded to be objective as people of different financial status are thought to listen to different genres of music. Recent researches conducted by sociologists have revealed the omnivore as the new model for the 21st music connoisseur. This model regards ones musical assortment in terms of listening across the high/little spectrum as the social signal of elegant taste. A higher diversity score connotes a higher social status, which implies that this listener poses very expensive ads. (Wilson, 2007)During the jukebox era, many musicians who made most of their earnings through live performing were contesting the use of these jukeboxes claiming that it was putting them out of work. This direction resulted in artists going to extreme measures to protect their interests. A good example is the Philadelphia station law suit by Fred Waring. Today, the technology has changed, but the struggles seem to be the same. Many artists feel that the streaming sites have breached the connection between them and their fans and feared these advancements in technology might escalate the levels of piracy. This position, however, appears not to be a problem for high-profile artists due to them having other sources of income such as merchant sales, brand tie-ins, and recordings. And so they rarely complain about streaming micropayments as a means to compensate them as piracy is concerned.

Its clear that, upcoming artists are the ones experiencing the heat of the music industry. This spot, calls for a new business model in streaming platforms. Pandora has been certified by webcasting designation with a legal license as that of a Broadcast radio station. The only difference between Pandora and other over-the-air radio stations is who gets paid. Pandora is obligated to pay performers, who collect straightly from Sound Exchange (a non-profit performance rights organization), whereas radio stations pay royalties through ASCAP and BMI only to songwriters and promoters. Over the past decades, radio stations have persisted in paying performance royalties, arguing that playing songs over the air is immanently promotional. The solution lies in between a sustainable internet broadcast radio model with ample capacity and preference to gratify consumers and can also gather enough revenue through subscriptions and exhibitions to pay the artists a courteous wage.

Jace Clayton takes a twist and bases his interest into the cultural implications of music streaming, which have been neglected. His approach to this was small scale with a few data in stake. But the effects his results proved exponential. New music cultures have sprouted from the incorporation of hip-hop elements, such as the updated version of a popular Egyptian roughneck music called shabby. He goes further to explain the drift from DJs to music streaming.

Works Cited

Wilson, C. (2007). Let's talk about love: a journey to the end of taste. Continuum.

EisenBerg, E. (2005). The Recording Angel (Reprint, revised ed.). Yale University Press.

Jesse Russell, R. C. (2012). Nielsen Soundscan. Book on Demand.

Kellner, D. (2003). Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the modern and the post-modern. Routledge.

Muthukrishnana, S. (2005). Data StreamsL Algorithms and Applications. (Illustrated, Ed.) Now Publishers Inc.

Moores, S. (1993). Interpreting Audiences: The Ethnography of Media Consumption. SAGE.

Priestman, C. (2002). Web Radio: Radio Production for Internet Streaming. Gulf Professional Publishing.

Tshmuck, P. (2012). Creativity and Innovation in the Music Industry. (Illustrated, Ed.) Springer Science & Business Media.