Youtube's effect on the music industry

The website YouTube has had an effect on the music industry and CD sales. The website itself allows people to post, view and share videos across the globe, the videos can consist of music videos, film trailers, TV programmes etc. The ability to view music videos online may effect the music industry as it allows people to watch and more importantly listen to their favourite music for free.

The website was created February 14th, 2005 by three former Paypal employees. As the website has grown and is now the most famous website to find video content online major corporations such as BBC, VEVO and CBS have begun to upload videos. There is also an option whilst watching a music video to buy the song straight from iTunes, with some videos getting millions of hits people may be persuaded to buy their music from iTunes due to links on YouTube that allow the song to be bought. The CD industry is rapidly declining due to illegal downloading, however the introduction of YouTube and the link it has to iTunes means more people are either downloading music illegally or purchasing straight from iTunes.

Illegal Downloading Software

Limewire is a file sharing program which is free to download off the internet. It allows people to search for music they enjoy and download it to their computer free of charge as the song is supplied by someone who allows it to be shared, or downloadable.

On October 26th, 2010, an injunction was forced onLimewire which meant users could no longer search, download, upload, share or trade music files.

At the time of operation Limewire also had a PRO version, which meant users could upgrade their standard program by paying a certain fee to get more downloadable songs at a faster speed. This was a method to earn money from the software which was created, as people would pay to use the enhanced version to get more music at a certain time.

Another example of illegal downloading software is BitTorrent. This is very similar to Limewire as it allows people to share large files across the internet. BitTorrent is believed to cause 27% to 55% of all internet traffic, depending on location, this figure is from February 2009. The software itself is also a free downloadable program, which enables users to download entire films to whole music albums free of charge.

BitTorrent involves various websites which enable people to share their music files with anyone across the world. The websites may involve signing up or registering to share files, however they do not require any personal information to download certain files. Once the user finds a suitable website to download the desired torrent, the file is then opened in the software which allows the user to place the music into their iTunes library and therefore onto their iPod or mp3 player.

How do these programs effect the music industry?

Software that is available to anyone to download from the internet is effecting the music industry badly, this is because recored labels and artists are losing profits due to CD sales declining. The ability to download your favourite music from the internet free of charge has caused the decline in the CD sales, this is because it is much quicker and more importantly to those who do, free. Although it is illegal, many people continue to download their music illegally as why would they pay for a CD, then have to upload the songs onto their computer and finally their mp3 player to listen to music? When they could easily download the music from home and drag the files straight onto their iTunes account.

With the economic climate of the world in recent times, more people are opting to download their music illegally as they cannot afford to pay between 10 and 15 pounds for an album. There are other options to going out and paying for a CD, people can now buy songs from iTunes for around 79p per single and around £7 for an album, however sales via this way have also declined as downloading the music using such software is free and takes little time to complete.

Illegal Downloads On The Rise

Illegal music downloads are 'on the rise'

Around 7.7m people have illegally downloaded music this year, according to research commissioned by the British record industry's trade association.

Its latest report suggests more than 1.2bn tracks were pirated or shared, costing the industry £219m.

Geoff Taylor, of the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI), said illegal downloading was becoming a "parasite".

Yet campaigners for consumers' digital rights claim its call for new anti-piracy legislation is "immoral".

According to Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group, the industry was calling for measures "that would curtail innocent people's human rights in order to increase their profits".

The BPI's research, based on internet users' habits, claims that more than three quarters of music downloaded in the UK is illegally obtained, with no payment to the musicians, songwriters or music companies producing it.

This is despite a digital music market in the UK which is served by 67 legal downloading services.

The report said that illegal mp3 pay sites and cyberlockers - sites offering space to store illicit files - are "rising alarmingly".

It added there is still no effective deterrent against illegal downloading .

"It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the burgeoning digital entertainment sector," Mr Taylor said, adding new legislation was "urgently needed".

He called for swift action be taken to help "Britain to achieve its potential in the global digital market".

'Saving pocket money'

Mark Mulligan, an analyst in the online distribution of music, said: "The music industry has been fighting hard against piracy for over a decade, but they haven't managed to stem the flow.

"The reason for that is because technology moves much more quickly than counter measures."

There is now a generation that believes music is available to download for free on the internet, he added.

I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas was the first single to sell more than 1m digital copies

This generation, he said, had never experienced the concept of "saving their pocket money to buy a record, which is why file sharing is never going to go away".

Earlier this year the BPI reported music sales in the UK had grown for the first time in six years.

It said legal downloads had seen sales rise by more than 50% to £154 million, compared with £101.5 million in 2008.

They are expected to reach 160 millions sales this year, an increase of more than 10 million in 2009.

This year also saw I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas become the first single to sell more than one million digital copies.

But the BPI's call for new legislation cut little ice with Mr Killock, whose organisation "aims to raise awareness of digital rights and civil liberties issues".

"The BPI are whinging that massive growth in their profits in the middle of a recession isn't good enough," he said.

Question Section B

Section B: Contemporary Media Regulation (50 marks)

For this theme you need to learn about the following in relation to at least two areas of the media:

• How media regulation now is different to the past - the historical angle
• The different kinds of media regulation and how they all seek to 'protect' people in some way
• The efficiency and impact of various forms of media regulation - how well they work, and what difference do they make to people's lives?
• Debates around the role of the regulator in a democracy - arguments for and against various forms of media regulation.

You can explore combinations of film censorship, the regulation of advertising, the Press and regulation / control, computer / video game classification, contemporary broadcasting and political control, the effects debate and alternative theories of audience, children and television, violence and the media or a range of other study contexts relating to the regulation of contemporary media.

The theme of Contemporary Media Regulation takes us into the heart of public debate about the media. Whether or not a government should, or can, regulate the media, and if so, how, is one of the most important political questions we can raise about the media. Alongside these political issues, there are crucial economic decisions to be made. The media is big business, and if unregulated, companies and corporations can gain a great deal of power and influence through acquisition of media organisations. And there are, of course, the well-know social factors relating to the media and how we use it (or are used by it), so there are always heated discussions in the public forum about the need for the powers-that-be to be regulated the content of media and more importantly perhaps people's access to it, especially children who are more vulnerable to media effects.

Media effects

Question Section A

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)

This section gives you the opportunity to write about your productions over the two years and there are two compulsory questions. The first requires you to describe and evaluate your skill development over the course of your production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The second will ask you to identify one production and evaluate it in relation to one theoretical concept.

Question 1 (a) The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development and in the examination questions will be posed using one or two of the following categories:

• Digital technology
• Creativity
• Research and planning
• Post-production
• Using conventions from real media texts

Question 1 (b) requires you to select one production (work undertaken as AS or A2, main task or preliminary/ancillary) and evaluate it in relation to a media concept from the following list:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language