new and digital media stories 9/2/14

Spotify Premium membership offer for Times subscribers

News UK strikes deal for year's membership to digital music service for all subscribers to newspapers' digital pack

Subscribers to the Times and Sunday Times will be offered a free year's membership to Spotify Premium as part of the latest deal struck by News UK to enhance its paywall offering. Under the exclusive deal, which Spotify said is the first it has done of this nature with any media owner, the newspaper publisher is offering a free year's membership to Spotify Premium, the music service's £9.99 a month service, as part of the package available to subscribers to its two quality titles.

It was said that the service is aiming to "boost the uptake of the Times and Sunday Times' 153,000-strong digital subscription base – and 207,000 print subscribers – as well as push more consumers onto its top-priced packages to increase revenue from its paywall model."

This deal should in theory...

• Improve the Times and Sunday Times' ratings
• Improve the ratings of Spotify
• Allow a wider range of audiences due to everyone loves to listen to music

In my opinion, tactically its a good strategy as giving people something which they like to do for free is always a good idea from a marketing perspective as audience are made to believe they are benefiting more than the organisation themselves. Ratings is key in terms of the Time and Sunday Times and therefore this idea should help boost them.

Facebook's 10th birthday: from college dorm to 1.23 billion users

Mark Zuckerberg's social network has straddled the planet in its short life – and plans many more big strides

"I don't know if the balance has swung too far, but I definitely think we're at the point where we don't need to keep on only doing real identity things,"  told Mark Zuckerberg to BusinessWeek recently. "If you're always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden."

What does the future look like? According to Facebook, exactly 10 years after the social network was created, the future is called Paper. But it's not quite as nostalgic as it sounds. This is the future where we write, film and share our stories via our mobile phones. A sleek cut-down version of the Facebook site, Paper replaces buttons with touchscreen swipes, and uses full-screen to play video on the handheld devices, where the future of the internet will be fought. But Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's 29-year-old founder, also wants to hire human editors to promote the most interesting content, harking back to newspapers themselves. In this case, the retro nomenclature represents something more: a desire to find new ways to make Facebook more relevant to the human desire for communication, by enlisting people themselves. It is a sign that Facebook is looking to secure its place in the firmament by branching out into new forms of communication. By the end of 2013, Facebook was being used by 1.23 billion users worldwide, adding 170 million in just one year.

Part of Facebook's success has been timing, says Dr Bernie Hogan, research fellow at the Oxford internet institute, because the world was ready for a shared list of connections that works like a supercharged, definitive phone book for the digital age. "Before Facebook, we had to cover up our identities online and there was uncertainty over who to trust. Facebook gave us the notion that it was safe, and useful."

• Facebook accounted for 5.7% of all global digital advertising revenues in 2013
• 18.4% of mobile ad spend
• Floated at $38 a share
• The stock now is estimated at $61.76.

Personally I believe that Facebook has reached its peak in terms of social networking and youths are now onto the next big craze. Whatever becomes popular, youths will move to therefore on Facebooks behalf, its something which is out of their control however it has had an amazingly long run which does not tend to happen in this day and age online. 

New and digital media stories 2/2/14

JK Rowling sues Daily Mail for libel over 'single mother' article

Harry Potter author seeks 'unspecified damages' for 'causing distress'

The Daily Mail have taken down a story from its website base on the author JK Rowling after she sued the newspaper for libel. She said that the article misrepresented her comments which she had posted on a blog 10 days before the article. The Daily Mails article was called "How JK Rowling's sob story about her past as a single mother has left churchgoers who cared for her upset and bewildered"

The article injured her reputation and caused her great distress and embarrassment, according to documents filed at the high court by Rowling's lawyers and therefore she felt the need to sue the newspaper due to her upset. Her lawyers accuse the Daily Mail as being "misleading and unfair" due to them falsely accusing Rowling of these accusations. Furthermore the Daily Mail journalist did contact Rowling's representative prior to publication but he "failed to put to her or offer any opportunity to comment on the allegations he was proposing to publish", which is "contrary to basic standards of fair and responsible journalism."

In my opinion I think it is wrong for the Daily Mail to publish a story accusing JK Rowling (or anyone in that matter) of anything without hard evidence or proof. Even then, I think they still should not be accusing people of wrong as they are ruining the reputations of people,inevitably  ruining lives in some respect. 

If Spotify is saving Swedish music sales, why aren't indies celebrating?

It's often hailed as a model for the future of digital music, but the reality is that many smaller labels can't survive on streaming.

"Swedish music sales up again thanks to Spotify" according to last weeks headlines. "No one can say that streams don't cannibalise sales, cause I can't imagine those streams wouldn't have generated at least a few sales [if people couldn't stream it unlimited times]," says David Elfström Lilja. 

• In Sweden, there is a 30% decrease in CD sales
• And also a 22.6% decrease in digital downloads 

This is the case due to the rise in the demand for music streaming services such as Spotify. However for artists this is not a good thing as the songwriter and performer mentions. He says that people can stream and therefore artist do not get paid as much. For 18,035 stream on Spotify he made £0.80 whereas for 2 downloads on iTunes he made £3. Artists aren't happy about the streaming service as they do not get the well deserved money which they should receive through these services. 

It is unfair to put all the blame on Spotify as it is simply operating in an environment where music has been devalued to the point of worthlessness. Paid digital downloads barely took hold in Sweden, as by the time iTunes arrived downloaders were already using The Pirate Bay. So it's not a bad thing in Sweden as people would be downloading their music for free anyway so at least artists can get a small income through Spotify. Furthermore, it's said that there are other services such as soundcloud which allows a similar service which Spotify gives however is free and does not pay artists yet they do not get as many negative articles or criticised by everyone like Spotify do. 

In my opinion, I think Spotify is a growing service which is gaining more and more attention and demand for. In terms of mainstream music, it is a good service that allows people to stream there favourite songs through. The concept of Spotify is a good one however i feel that it still has some work to do before it can be recognised as a fair source of music which pays the artists a fair income for the streams which take place.