Last Week of Autumn Term

Music Industry Tasks

Now that you have revisited Digital Technologies and written an essay on it, you can use the remaining lessons this week to revisit the other areas of the Music Industry that you will need to have a handle on for the exam. To do this you should complete your…

Music Industry Case Study Index
  • This is an essential document for your exam preparation
    • You should find your personal copy has been shared with you in Classroom.
      • Classroom task = “CASE STUDIES TEMPLATE/INDEX”

Suggested tasks to help you complete this:

  • Redraft your marketing and ownership essays.
  • Revisit the terms – glossary and Quizlet.
  • Re-read the Sandbox 2019 marketing case studies.
  • These have been summarised for you in our whole class case study slide show
    • Take a copy of the whole  class slideshow and slim it down to 12 case studies which you need to learn.
    • Re-read / Re-Watch Anima – Superb Case Study!
  • Listen to the Voicethread of the marketing 60″ case studies.
  • Review the material on the departmental blog (Exam Paper 1>The Music Industry)

If this is complete with about 12 case studies, you should have all you need to answer a question on the Music Industry. Remember, you can make the case studies work for you – not exactly ‘shoe horn’ them in, but they can all be used to evidence, illustrate a variety of key debates, discussions about audiences and institutions in the music industry.

Critical Reflection Final Submission

This should be copied into the blog as a new blog post.

You should include the following before the essay

  • Your full name
  • The brief in full
  • How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
  • How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
  • How do your products represent social groups or issues?
  • How do your products engage with the audience?

The essay should include the images (with captions). You should wrap the text around the images

All the section headings and questions in the body of the essay should be removed

You should make the following terms bold:

  • Branding
  • Research
  • Conventions
    • Use
    • Challenge
  • Representation
    • Star Image
  • Audience

Golden Gregsons Submission

You should submit your final coursework products for nomination to one of the categories in the Media & Film Studies Awards

Full guidance is on the blog – here

Preparation for the Digital Technologies essay

You will do some preparation for an essay on:

“Digital technologies have transformed the media world.” Discuss with reference to the media area you have studied. 

In class you will recap on some key terminology related to the area of Digital technologies in the music industry:

  • Globalisation – the idea that the world is a small place now due to technologies and cultures, countries and religions are now without borders
  • Digitalisation – the process in which communication is now quicker and cheaper and has meant the world is one small market place
  • Democratisation – the idea that with digital technologies, the world has easier and more equal access to news, commodities, products and the ability to communicate
  • Converged Technology – the process by which multiple devices are now easily combined on one device to provide multiple functions.
  • Cross Media Convergence – different media platforms using each other to spread the word using an integrated advertising campaign
  • Web 2.0 – the web that is now interactive and fully open to producers and consumers interacting
  • Streaming/Download – how music is distributed and consumed in this digital age

TASK 1

Then find your 2020 Music Industry case study index that most of you completed in lockdown.

Revisit it and also the Music Industry case study that your class will have completed too.

TASK 2

Now, on this sheet – put your name down and briefly outline who you are going to present to the class in a 60 second, open mic fashion.  This way, we won’t have repeat case studies.

TASK 3

Then using the following format, that you all used in the voicethread for the marketing case studies:

  • Outline the case study – Headline – what is it all about – ‘Sony rule the world!’
  • 2 x key – facts, stats from the case study
  • 1 x key significance – include key terms such as converged technology, cross media convergence, target audience, globalisation, democratisation, digitalisation, viral marketing, Web 2.0 and hook back to why this is linked to how digital technologies have transformed the music industry.

TASK 4

Present your 60″ open mic Digital technology in the music industry case study to the class.  We will record them and then this will be a fabulous revision resource.

We will then use some of these ideas to prep for the music industry essay, you will start in class and complete at home.

 

Music Industry – a trip down Memory Lane

The assessment objectives (AOs) are:
AO1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical
debates, using terminology appropriately.  60
AO2 Analyse media products, and evaluate their own work, by applying knowledge and
understanding of theoretical and creative approaches, supported with relevant
textual evidence.  40

/ 25 = 23+ – A*   20+ – A     18+ – B     15+ – C     13+ – D     10+ – E

  • 10 – Terms, Examples (Case Studies)
  • 15 – Analysis, Significance, Concepts (Audiences + Institutions)

Music Industry Revision

Task 1

Let’s revisit the key areas though that you have to be familiar with:

  • Production
  • Distribution
  • Marketing
  • Exchange/Exhibition
TASK 2
  • Revisit key terms
  • USING THIS FORM
  • With a partner see if you can define the term in simple (but not simplistic) words
  • What issues / ideas flow from each of the concepts

Task 3

Key terms are essential to for success in this question. So, again let’s revisit those key terms that you must use throughout your response

See if you can match the term to the definition.

There is a glossary in classroom with the Quizlet that you played during lockdown. Revisit this and see what you know.


TASK 4

You will find an exemplar essay in classroom. On your own individual copy, read through it and highlight the relevant criteria:

  • Examples: Red
  • Terms: Green
  • Analysis/Significance/Concepts (audience/institution): Yellow

Exemplar essay – we will provide you with the annotated copy once you resubmit it. 


Task 4

Revisit your two essays that you completed during lockdown on Marketing and Ownership/Production and start to redraft them according to the feedback you received.

They can then be updated once submitted for a remark and returned and updated on the folder.

Our Mission Statement

KEY TERMS: brand, integrated advertising, promotion, audience, USP, mission statement, call to action.

Remember the brief?

promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music video (major task), together with a social media page for the band and a digipak for the album’s release (minor tasks).

It is important to note from the beginning that you are not making a digipack and social media page to advertise your music video! You are launching a new album, which contains that song, but which also contains a number of other tracks.

So before you start planning the print and web elements of this promotional package. You need to be clear about the mission statement for the whole campaign. You must think more holistically about the album and create an integrated advertising campaign…

Your Marketing Strategy & Mission Statement

Who is your Audience?  Revisit your audience profile from the music video.

  • Who they are (demographics)
  • What other media they consume and participate in.
  • What their values attitudes and beliefs (ideology / psychographics)

A Call to Action

  • How do you want the audience to engage with your star / album
  • How will they invest time and money in your star / album

Who are the competition?

  • Name three similar bands / artists.
  • What are the trends in album designs of similar stars / bands?
  • What does their website look like?

Your USP (Unique Selling Point)

  • Is your star already established or are trying to establish a new presence in the market?
  • What is your star image & how are you trying to innovate / develop that image?
    • Are you mixing up elements of different genres?
    • Are you trying to re-brand your star?
    • Are you emphasising the ordinary or extraordinary?
      • Remember according to Dyer meta narratives include both.

Your Mission Statement.

  • In 50 words or fewer write an agreed mission statement that includes the central idea that will unify your brand.
    • This will include ideas represented in your music video, but must also bring in a wider range of ideas that you will develop as you make a 3D Moodboard.

TASK.

As a group, create a google slide (example) that addresses the various aspects and complete brief notes in response to the questions.

Then, complete the mission statement in production groups and copy it into your blog.

This blog post is essential for when you come to complete Creative Critical Reflection  and have to address how ‘do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?’

TWO EXAMPLES:

One

Sunnies puts the vibe into indie rock.  Influenced by the best of Poland’s underground punk scene and the top tenners of UK Brit Pop, the Sunnies aim to go ‘where no man has gone before’. Combining a musical landscape of hard rock rifs, abrasive punk lyrics and indiistic themes, the band will satisfy the hardest of new wave critics. The new album, DON’T RAIN ON MY WELLIES,  is destined for a Grammy – making it number 3 on their mantelpiece of success.

Two

Skye is this decade’s rising moon.  Mixing indie folk and Appalachian A Capella, Skye’s haunting acoustic tones and her quirky and experimental performance style, combines the best of festival fantasy, giving her fans a visual and auditory kaleidoscope.  The new album, SKYE HIGH, features the hit song, ‘SIGH NO MORE’ and will tease the socks off the best of British female artists including Kate Bush and Florence and the Machine.

 

Week 10 – Task 22 and Task 23 – Summing Up The Music Industry and resource collation

Welcome back after half term.

We have this week as our final week of distance learning, so make it count. We will be looking at TV drama for the rest of the week after these two summative tasks. Try and get a clear desk and blog league before we change tack tomorrow.

Task 22 – Session 1 – 1 hr

Here is a video of Mr G trying to explain the important take away points you need to consider and revise for the Media Contexts (Audience & Institutions).

Please watch through and make some bullet point notes on the significance of each the 6 exam foci.  A template is on classroom for you to use and turn in.

Task 23 – Session 2 – 1 hour

Compile your learning on the page ‘The Music Industry’, which you created in your blog.  Find all the resources you can – slideshares, worksheets, quizlets, voicethreads, videos, essays, templates, Q & A, presentations, glossaries of terms etc.

This is in order to help you recap your learning and also give you a brilliant revision source.

I suggest using the following headings to structure your page:

  1. Production
  2. Distribution
  3. Marketing
  4. Exchange
  5. Technology

Or just upload in the order you did the tasks i.e. follow the tasks on classroom as we dealt with the stages in chronological order anyway.

Remember, to update the blog league too.

We are really looking forward to seeing you next Monday. Woo hoo! But make sure you continue to work hard from home this week.

 

Task 20 – Case Study Index (and Task 19 – take a copy of the class slideshare)

Make sure you take a copy of your Class Case Study slideshare first of all and rename it as your own. You can then thin it down and delete ones you don’t like. Or redesign slides etc.

All the instructions and templates are on the blog but listen carefully to Mrs Cobb’s outline and explanation.

Remember to  use examples from across the Class Case Study Slideshare, Anima and the Voicethread Sandbox recording or pdf.

Audience

Essential Learning

The section of the exam is called ‘Audiences & Institutions’.

Much of the case study work we have done so far has been about institutions: conglomerates, major labels, indie labels and even DIY artists can be described as ‘institutions’.

However, there are a number of key ideas you need to understand about audiences &  it is key that you mention audience, their behaviour & expectations in your explanations & essays.

Key concepts for audience:

  • Mass or mainstream – the big audiences who consume (popular) music.
  • Niche – smaller, more particular audiences who consume sub-genres or follow specific smaller bands.
  • Demographics and psychographics offer ways to describe & categorise an audience
  • Social media platforms know more about the audience than they do themselves!
    • They can target content which is tailor made for a specific audience
  • An audience can be ‘sold’ to advertisers
  • The online, interactive audience expect to be able to participate in the media, not merely watch & consume.
    • The audience are prosumers not just consumers
  • The audience seek use and gratification from the media they consume
    • Blumler & Katz
  • WeMedia
  • The audience is global, national and local

You = audience.

One of the questions might be about audience behaviour so you must be able to talk about your own experiences of consuming and making music (if appropriate) and how you are ‘typical’ of the average music listener nowadays. It might be easier to adopt an approach that shows how you are easily consumed, attracted by the Big 3 to their marketing, image focused approach but also that you enjoy finding, following and listening to less synthetically produced material in the form of indie artists and can much more easily find this type of music because of Digital Technology and more importantly, they can more easily find you!

Audience Theory

This short video covers many useful concepts regarding different audience theories. It uses terms slightly differently from those we have taught you and also focuses on video games rather than music, but it is a really good refresher.

Week 8 – Distance Learning – Audience and Case Study Index

We hope your Liberation weekend was fun – different if nothing else!

This is a summing up week before we spend the final week before half-term on an essay.  We just have a bit of Listen to the screen castify and see classroom for the template index.  It is a bit of a ‘slog’ but it will be well worth it as you will have a core set of excellent case studies that you ‘get’ and can use in the exam.

  • Task 18 – Session 1 (Monday) – Audience case studies – see allocated stories for Class Slideshare  and listen to Mr Gregson’s screen castify – 1 hr
  • Task 19 – (Tuesday) TAKE A COPY OF THE CLASS SLIDESHARE FOR YOUR OWN USE
  • Task 20 – Session 2/3/4/5/6 (Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri) – Case study index – 4 hrs – See Screen Castify from Mrs C and see classroom Classroom