The Essay

The question I chose to answer was #3 – Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time. Where does this leave ‘professionals’ and highly-skilled artists? Choose one area of creativity and discuss some of the challenges facing practitioner’s vs. amateurs in producing digital content.

Digital media opposed to simply media is usually defined by common society as electronic media. Simply media which is produced on a digital level, such as; the computer. Today’s society has become so in synced with digital media that it has created a battlefield between amateurs and professions ranging between all fields of digital media. The following essay shall briefly discuss the challenges of both amateurs and professionals in the production of digital media focusing on the international music industry. Commonly known as ‘the language of the world’ the changes occurring within the music industry are clearly noticeable. Previously having to travel to the ends of the earth to get noticed within the music industry the digital media has introduced the amateur into a new world in which getting noticed is as simple as uploading their own music to the world wide web and hoping that their talent is noticed. So where does this revolution within the music industry leave professionals and the skilled artists who have already made it big in this industry and are trying to continue their careers, or those who are earning less and less due to the ease of downloadable music, or those who have been training for years and years for their chance to shine. The digital media revolves the music industry and its professionals are being left in its wake, as society discovers new ways to getting noticed and thus new artists.

Think back to days when the music industry was made up of a select group of talented artists discovered at a young age and made worldwide family names. Think back to the days of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake, and more closely to the ways in which they came into their careers and fame. The Mickey Mouse Club; Hollywood’s answer to discovering new stars. Yet does it seriously work, does today’s society really watch let alone actually care, is society really interested.

The answer is almost always a NO, as rating for shows such as idol decrease and the popularity of the internet increases, these statistics show that society is moving away from industry run careers and searching and finding their own person choice, listen to what they want not exactly what the industry wants. It’s this shift in society that has paved the way for new talent and thus new success stories against the music industries will. One Republic, internationally shot to fame following there hit single release Apologize, yet how they got recognised is what the music industry is struggling to deal with and the ease in which there music got international acclaim. Discovered after uploading their music onto MySpace.

When it comes to examining the negatives of this newly formed music industry it is important to look at the three main stake holders. They are the amateur, the professional within the industry and what could be the most important the consumer.

Beginning with the amateur, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of negatives towards the new music industry, it has become easier than ever to create music and thus get noticed. The hardest part remains creating good music, yet the idea of struggling to capture attention no longer existent. Simply upload your music to your awaiting location either a site, music dedicated shops such as iTunes and creative commons and your done, the small dilemma begins when you think of how simple it is to become an artist, how is true talent supposed to get noticed with so much media around and so much of it being personally uploaded by just wannabee’s. In comparison the music industry views the web as the major reason behind loss in earning and thus have always viewed it with a certain anger, although it has been seen to change tunes, realising that it was time to shift its focus, musicians have realised that their music has become more accessible than ever to anyone who wishes to listen. Realising that the point of becoming an artist is to entertain, and not just the fame and money which comes along with the success. Although there are a few artists who have different opinions, James Blunt a British singer songwriter comments “At long last the Government is looking to legislate to protect the industry,” Blunt writes. “Peter Mandelson is looking to engage the internet service providers who, in my opinion, handle stolen goods, and should take much more responsibility. How this legislation pans out, and if it goes through at all, is critical to the survival of the British music business.” (Foster, 2009).

Finally and most importantly it’s the consumers, those faithful people by which the industry would be nothing without. Undoubtedly almost everyone has downloaded a song before, whether legally or illegal, I for one have, and personally have nothing against the idea. The point behind creating music is for it to be heard, however it occurs. The most fabulous music may still be unsigned and the only way to discover that is for society to realise it exist and thus go looking for it.
The idea that there is an amateur and professional in a market of constant new comers is an argument that will stand the test of time, with such a broad argument and its unlikely to find a balance between to equally strong yet different views. At the end of the day, music is made to be heard, and so as long as music is been made there isn’t really a loser in the argument.