Piracy study shows illegal downloaders more likely to pay for films than music

Comparison reveals film pirates as wealthy early adopters who will stop their behaviour if they feel it is damaging the industry

According to recent studies people who illegally download movies also love going to the cinema and do not mind paying to watch films, research has shown. Those who illegally download movies are more likely to be wealthier and less worried about being caught than their music counterparts, concluded the study, thought to be the first to examine the differences between movie and music pirates.

Movie pirates are also more likely to cut down their piracy if they feel they are harming the industry compared with people who illegally download music, according to Cox and fellow Portsmouth University economist Professor Alan Collins.

Dr Joe Cox, one of the University of Portsmouth economists involved in the study, said: "It is interesting to see that people who illegally download large quantities of movie files continue to pay for legal movie consumption to a far greater extent than music downloaders."

On average, each person involved in the survey had illegally downloaded about 2,900 music files and 90 movie files. However, interestingly Previous studies have found that people who pirate content are also much more likely to purchase content legally than those who do not illegally download music and movies. Illegal filesharers from the US and Germany were found to buy 30% more music than people who did not pirate music, for instance.

In my opinion, these findings are very interesting as they show the fact that people who illegally download content are more likely to purchase content legally due to them being more involved with new and digital media. This article also suggests how people who don't illegally download do not spend as much time using new and digital media services. 

Cuban blogger to launch island's first independent digital newspaper

Yoani Sánchez's online publication called 14ymedio will challenge communist-ruled country's state-controlled media

Yoani Sánchez, who is Cuba's prize winning blog, is launching the island's first independent digital newspaper next week to challenge the communist-ruled country's state-controlled media. She said that her prize winning publication will be online and will be named 14ymedio. The name is in honour of the year of its launch and the 14th-floor Havana apartment where she writes her popular Generation Y blog on daily life and politics in Cuba. 

Sánchez states how "It will be a difficult road. In recent weeks we have seen a preview of how official propaganda will demonize us for creating this medium," She also added that several of her online team have already received warning calls from Cuban state security officials prior to the official launch on 21 May. Public criticism of Cuba's communist system can be considered enemy propaganda, punishable by jail sentences.

Sánchez is 38 and has won several prestigious media awards in the United States and Europe and has been included on Time magazine's annual list of 100 most influential people.

Interaction between audiences is key and I think it is a great idea to allow this kind of interaction on news. She should be able to create as much content as she wants without the government saying otherwise as the internet is a non-regulated space or a democratic space which should allow her to post content she wants. 

One Direction coverage boosts Sun on Sunday sales by 2%

News Group title sees biggest increase on previous month of Sunday newspapers, but circulation still down 9.7% year-on-year

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The coverage of boyband One Direction's latest tour helped to boost The Sun on Sunday's sales last month by 2% to 1.7 million copies which was the largest increase of all the Sunday papers.The News Group title sold an average of 1,721,068 copies in April, up just over 2% on March but down 9.7% year-on-year, according to figures published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published on Friday.

The paper also saw an increase in sales with scoops about boxer Amir Khan and actor Kym Marsh. Its rivals the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Mirror were also up – the Mail on Sunday growing by 0.7% on the previous month to 1,566,728, while the Trinity Mirror title was marginally up by 0.1% to 928,697.

Year-on-year both titles went down

The Mail on Sunday at 7.7%

And the Sunday Mirror at 10.2%.

In a buoyant month for the mid-market and tabloid titles, only the Daily Star Sunday was down on the previous month, slipping 0.3% to 291,439, and down 11.7% year-on-year.

The evidence suggests how the demand for print and newspapers is in decline as people aren't as interested in gaining their news from newspapers due to online sources being easier to access, free and there is a much wider range of content. 

One-quarter of Spotify tracks are skipped in first five seconds, study reveals

Analysis of unique user habits shows that attention spans are short, with listeners skipping songs once every four minutes

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One-quarter of all songs played on Spotify are skipped within the first five seconds of listening, according to a new study carried out via music analysis company The Echo Nest.

Proving that our music listening habits are becoming increasingly more fractured, the study, which was published by director of developer platform Paul Lamere, looks primarily into the "skip" habits of users of the streaming service. A skip is registered each time a listener abandons a song before the song has completely finished, either because the listener explicitly presses the skip button, they clicked on a different song or they searched for and started another song before the current song ended.

The series of graphs were created by processing billions of plays from millions of unique listeners worldwide. The graphs show that nearly one-quarter of all songs played are skipped in the first five seconds, with the likelihood that a song will be skipped within the first 30 seconds rising to 35.05%. An average listener skips a song once every four minutes, and there is a 48.6% chance that a song will be skipped before it ends.

While there is very little difference between the male and female skipping rate (male listeners' rate is 44.75% and female listeners is 45.23%), the mobile skipping rate (51.1%) is greater than the desktop skipping rate (40.1%), meaning that those on their handheld devices interact and divert much more regularly than solitary desktop users.

Spotify says it's 'a matter of time' before it overtakes Apple's iTunes in Europe
Streaming music service says it has added 1m active users in the UK alone in the last four months



Streaming music service Spotify has added more than 1m active users in the UK in the last four months, as it tries to overtake Apple's iTunes as the biggest digital music service in Europe. "Some of our partners are saying Spotify is now generating more revenue each month across Continental Europe than iTunes," Spotify's head of label relations in Europe, Kevin Brown, told industry site Music Week. "Given that download sales are declining and Spotify is growing rapidly, particularly in the UK, it is only a matter of time before Spotify is bigger than iTunes across Europe as a whole."

Brown added that a "significant amount" of the million new British Spotify users are paying for a subscription, rather than listening to its free, advertising-supported version. The growth has been sparked by marketing partnerships with Vodafone and the Sunday Times.

• Spotify said in March 2013 that it had 24 million active users
• The UK is one of Spotifys biggest markets 
• In 2013, streaming music services generated £103m of revenues in the UK according to figures from industry body the BPI
• Streaming accounted for just 10% of overall UK recorded music revenues in 2013

For now, Spotify versus iTunes is a fairly clear streaming versus iTunes comparison. But with Apple already having a streaming radio service – iTunes Radio – in a few countries, and tipped to launch a full Spotify-style "on-demand" streaming service later this year, the two companies are likely to be even more direct competitors in the coming years.

In my opinion I think that Spotify and music streaming services are rising in terms of subscribers and will continue to gain more and more users due to the simple fact that it's free and much more convenient to use than downloading songs. You are able to listen to music anywhere for free through a device connected to a network.

Print is not the future, but it's not the past either

The latest US figures on newspaper decline may be sobering, but pundits and managers alike are starting to despair of digital

Once a year the Newspaper Association of America pulls together its overall performance figures, so once a year we can see more clearly than ever which way the US press industry (hugely influential in terms of expected British and European performance) is heading. Current answer, for 2013 as for every year since 2007: down.

• Print advertising is 10% off the previous pace. 
• However this is still 2.8% worse than 2012
• Both print and digital ads together creates an income of about  $21 billion
• In under a decade, it decreased from $49 billion to $21 billion

Talking of decline, what about print? "We in the print business have given it up. [But] advertising probably works better in print than in any other medium; it represents the ultimate engagement… It came about because ad agencies made more money on other kinds of advertising. Now, no one knows how to create print ads."

In my opinion I think that print is in decline due to the fact that younger generations find it easier to access news content through new technology such as devices like smartphones. It comes down to the accessibility and what's more convenient for audiences to access their content. Despite saying that, there is a still an audience for print and therefore it's not completely dying/or will dye out anytime soon.

Presentations

Nadeem:

Twitter 

• Gained 500 million users worldwide
• Youths socially connected
• Speed of information 

Information is able to be spread within a matter of seconds

Its at the speed of NOW

Twitters discover page -> News stories by news institutions

• Straight from the main source

Citizen journalism 

Navneet: 

"The internet is an empowering too" Al Gore

"Global village" McLuhan 

China's government blocked Facebook and western county sites in 2009.

Society became more fragmented due to this censorship policy.

Facebook was used as a means to kick start activist groups and set up secret meetings to plot against the government.

• Users can connect with each other online 
• Citizen journalism
•  (UGC)

Anita:

Netflix -> second popular provider of on demand internet streaming media and produces their own content now after gaining a mass audience of consumers.

• Provides films and TV shows 
• Created in 2008
• Available on all devices -> smartphones, tablets ect.
• The concept of convenience -> time shifting and scheduling 

Primary target audience is 18-36 year olds

• subscriptions at £6.50 -> attempting to increase this rate by a £1 more

Has the internet killed traditional video stores?

BBC Iplayer, ITV player -> provide catch up TV on programs on that specific network, that you may have missed

Gagan:

Music industries aren't making as much as they use to due to new and digital media

• CD revenues dropped by 11.7%
• Digital revenues grew by 4.3%

Audience -> engage with new technology and new devices which therefore means they are more likely to engage with streaming services

Institutions blaming Google -> Google is not interested in protecting content creators.

Moral panic for music industries 

Audience can get content for free online

• Digital Economy Act (DEA)

Jinan:

Smartphones

Iphone 5

• Released on 12th september 2012
• Simplistic yet multi-functional

Samsung Galaxy S3

• Android operating system
• Main competitor for iphone

Social networking, Facebook, Twitter..

Affects other institutions (more traditional industries)

• Disruptive
• Canon (cameras)
• Also can be used for gaming disturbing handheld gaming companies such as Nintendo.

Zulq:

BskyB

founded November 1990

Sky + -> launched in 2002

SkyGo -> launched 2006

• For film lovers

30th September 2009, BskyB got 9.4 million users

Prewatershed -> Pin 

Channel 4 and ITV

2012 -> 40% decrease

Samuel: 

"technology has changed everything"

• CD revenues dropped by 11.7%
• Digital revenues grew by 4.3%
• Artists lose out

Record and media institutions make the money 

The audience can be considered as gatekeepers

• They can control who becomes successful 

Justin Bieber -> Fame through Youtube covers 

Jackson 5 -> publicity on MTV (more traditional method)

Youtube helps artists promote and release their music for free

Its easy and only requires a Google email/account

Stefan:

Instagram

Creator was working for Google for 2 years

Launched October 2010

By 2012 -> 100,000 users 

Ownership vs. Facebook takeover

40 million images sent daily across the medium

• 10th April 2012 -> Facebook brought Instagram.

Harvey: 

There is a huge difference in quality.

It has now become much quicker to edit footage

Digital cameras now save money for high quality box office movies.

The speed has changed between traditional and digital films

Format change/switch over

Ordinary people have the means of production 

Exam mock

Media product 1 - An excerpt from Educating Yorkshire (Channel 4, 2013)

Media Product 2 - An excerpt from Waterloo Road (BBC1, 2013)


Question 1
How do the two texts use narrative techniques to draw the attention of an audience?
The two texts use narrative techniques to draw in an audience. Educating Yorkshire is an eight-episode series based on the BAFTA award-winning series known as Educating Essex. The other media clip shown is an extract from Waterloo Road; a trailer shown on BBC1; which is a nine series show and has attracted a large amount of viewers. Throughout the clips shown, there are various narrative techniques which are evident. One theory which can be applied to both texts is Todorov's narrative theory in regards to equilibriums. Educating Yorkshire's main focus; in the clip; is on Mushy who is a boy in the series who is attempting to overcome his speech impediment. The clip shows how this character is trying to overcome the problem in an attempt to read a speech out loud. Mr Burton; who is a teacher at the school; is helping him with his disequilibrium in order to help Mushy overcome his problem. This point also links to Propp's theory of character types as Mushy can be referred to as the hero (attempting to succeed in the situation) and Mr Burton as a helper to the hero.

In the extract from Waterloo Road, Todorov's theory is also present as we are shown how a single girl is creating friction in the school and this is the first sign off this. The disequilibrium is when this girl kisses another boy; who has a girlfriend. There is then a cutaway at the reaction of the guys girlfriend which could be seen as a action code as we see her as not happy - potentially foreshadowing a fight/disagreement breaking out in the future between them two. The disequilibrium is then left unsolved as this is typical code and convention of a trailer. By Todorov's theory of equilibrium not being solved, this creates an enigma code (Barthes) as we are left wondering what is to take place in the future. Furthermore, this technique draws in the attention of the audience and almost makes viewers want to watch and find out what series of events is to take place. 

The narrative shown in Educating Yorkshire portrays a school which is 

Paul Weller children win privacy damages over photos on Mail Online
Associated Newspapers pays £10,000 over seven pictures of teenage daughter and twins on Mail Online in 2012



Three of singer Paul Weller's children have won £10,000 privacy damages after their faces were "plastered" over Mail Onlines website. Weller (aged 55) sued Associated Newspapers for misuse of private information on behalf of daughter Dylan, who was 16 when the seven pictures of her appeared on Mail Online back in October 2012, and twin sons John Paul and Bowie, who were 10 months old.
The one-time frontman of The Jam and the Style Council was not at London's high court to hear the ruling by Mr Justice Dingemans.

The pictures were published after a paparazzo followed Weller and the children on a shopping trip through the streets of Santa Monica, California, taking photos without their consent despite being asked to stop. Associated Newspapers argued that they were entirely innocuous and inoffensive images taken in public places and that the Wellers had previously chosen to open up their private family life to public gaze to a significant degree.

Weller gave evidence that he did not volunteer information about his family when he spoke to the press to promote his records but was a candid person who would answer a question if asked. He said: "My preference would be just to talk about my music but I can also see that would be a very dull interview. It's just chit-chat. There's a big difference between that and someone following you around and taking photos of babies. That's a distinction that needs to be made."

In my opinion I think that the paparazzo were in the wrong to constantly keep taking photographs of them after Weller told them to stop. They need their privacy and they should respect that however we as individuals; in this day and age; no longer have the privacy which we were once able to have.



MusicQubed aims for ‘forgotten fans’ priced out by streaming music services
British startup thinks there is room for mid-priced music apps as an alternative to Spotify and iTunes




Digital music in 2014 tends to divide between three main strands: Apple’s iTunes and other download stores; streaming music services like Spotify, Deezer and Rdio; and YouTube or Vevo for music videos. It's basically a market split between people buying individual song or album downloads; people paying £10 a month to stream anything they like (well, apart from Atoms for Peace or the new Beyoncé album); and The Kids merrily streaming all their music on YouTube.

This isn’t quite the whole story, though. A growing number of companies are exploring what you might call “mid-price” subscription music services, hoping that there are lots of people out there willing to pay a few quid a month for a more limited selection of music.
Another company exploring this mid-priced space is British startup MusicQubed, which runs the O2 Tracks service for mobile operator O2.
Available for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10, the app downloads the UK's Top 40 chart plus extra tracks and playlists to subscribers' phones every week, charging O2 customers £1 a week and everyone else £4.99 a month.

• O2 Tracks launched in March 2013, reached 60m track plays that July
• O2 ran a £7.3m ad campaign for O2 Tracks last year
• In March 2014 there were around 15m plays a month for its first four months for 02 Tracks

In my opinion I think that music streaming services are much more easier to use on a day to day basis instead of downloading music off iTunes or syncing music to my phone (which can take some time). Streaming music is quick and easy and also studies have also proved that streaming services have decreased the amount of piracy that takes places to a certain degree.