Digital Economy Bill

The Digital Economy Bill was drafted in order to "ensure a world-class digital future following the Digital Britain White Paper, published on 16 June 2009, setting out the Government's ambition to secure the UK's position as one of the world's leading digital knowledge economies and take forward a new, more active industrial policy to maximize the benefits from the digital revolution".

In your opinion, and in light of the recent media backlash, how has the original philosophy behind the Bill changed and why do you think this is?

Copyright, the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same. This word “Copyright,” is what this Digital Economy Bill basically boils down to.

Upon first hearing about the bill and listening to some of the main developers of this bill, such as Stephan Timms and Peter Mandelson, there are some very good points being made when it comes to the current state that the British and global entertainment industries epically in the current sate of the economy.

The original philosophy of this controversial bill was to try and catapult Briton into being on of the digital leaders of the world as well as creating digital businesses of the 21st century, all while trying to turn around the trend in an industry that is ever becoming, less and less profitable as broadband gets faster, hard-drives get smaller and the sense of guilt for illegally attaining music, film or games is becoming non existent.

One of the reasons I feel for such a drastic and controversial bill could be because of the economy and the recent disastrous recession that has crashed through all industries and businesses. Briton has a creative sector, providing jobs for more than 1.8 million people in the UK. With unemployment booming and illegal file sharing persisting, it could be said that this bill has been introduced to try and bring much more money back into the economy. This could be seen as quite a fair feeling for Map’s such as Mandelson and Timms and is easily justifiable, however there are some aspects to this bill that seem to try to go beyond putting a stop to file sharing.

If this bill was to pass, this would allow any future secretary of state sweeping powers to take action against any user who is accused of illegal file sharing, with out any proof, possibly disconnection, al this with out setting foot in court, giving it the nickname, “The copyright protection and punishment bill”. This seems to not only be a skewed version of the original philosophy of the bill, but in also many ways a breach of democracy.

Another reason why I feel that this bill is not a step forward for the economy into the 21st century and the digital age, is that it seems that people like Mandelson are trying to keep Briton in the, “Analogue Age”. MP’s are doing this by trying to protect the particular outdated business models used in music and film. I feel that only so much should be done for this over paid, over priced industry.

It was Darwin who said, “Survival of the fittest,” this attitude should be taken towards business, businesses who can not adapt to their surroundings, as in piracy and an ever online demand for content, should not be allowed to go on. Businesses such as Spotify and Last.fm, offering music for free, on demand and also making a profit at the end of the year, should be what businesses in these industries should be striving towards. These kinds of businesses that revolve around what the customer wants are a step forward for the digital economy however if this bill was to allow outdated businesses to continue, it would further delay Britons potential to be a beacon to the rest of the world on how businesses are to handle this new digital age.

There are two main aspects to this bill which I feel go completely against its original philosophy. One aspect is the unprecedented power that it would give to ministers over the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. This part of the bill, known as clause 17, would allow parts of the act to be changed, without having to be presented in the House of Lords. This could potentially lead to the monitoring of users data where no illegal activity of any nature is taking place. This is a massive breach of privacy and gives the government a window into the home of almost every household in the UK.

The second main reason why i feel that this bill has alliterative motives, that separate to the philosophy of the original bill is mainly to do with the far from realistic target to implement the more drastic measures of this bill if piracy does not fall by 70%. As mentioned before, one of these more drastic measures in the bill is the ability for anyone to be punished for illegal file sharing without evidence and without a court hearing and this i feel will be violently abused by big media businesses. Studies have shown that illegal downloads have become 150 times more profitable for businesses than legal sales and once broken down this bill seems to become less about protecting copyright and more about punishing the avid music listener.

On average, every case that alleged file sharers pay out is around €450. Of this money, 80% goes to the anti-piracy outfits, in this case the government, and therefore 20% to the copyright holders. This works out as for a €0.60 illegal download would end up giving these big music companies €90 per infringement. This is one of the reasons why i feel the music industry is especially happy with this new bill as well as the government who can make €360 per offense without having to provide evidence that the accused is guilty.

Based on the points raised i feel that this bill has completely transformed from the philosophy of trying to put Briton ahead of the rest of the world in terms of its digital economy, to a bill that could cripple its digital growth and potentially damage its growth.

Inspiration

It is great to be back in media studies for another year of blog posting, filming and banter.

Here are a few music videos that i feel may inspire our final piece when coming to film.

The Makings of an Introduction

Over the years the music industry has changed. Changed so much that the whole model that the industry previously lived by has been transformed into an entirely new structure. The main reason, i feel, for this change is the development of technology and how this has been implemented and how this has effected people, artists, audiences, customers and institutions.

The main development, that i feel, has changed all facets of the music industry, is the internet and specifically web 2.0. The phrase web 2.0 is used in describing the new attitude towards operating and existing on the net, allowing anyone to create material and distribute is in a new found democratic environment, the internet.

This new found environment brings wealths of advantages to audiences, consumers and artists. However, with these advantages comes major problems that are facing the industry, such as piracy, copyrighting difficulties and illegal downloads. 

As frontman for local indie unsigned band The Jane Bradfords, Decky Gallen said, 

“The major downside of the technological advances and the internet is that despite offering you a larger audience and larger market, it also takes away a large amount of your revenue by piracy.  It feels like being handed a sword going into a fist fight and then realizing the other guy has a sword as well – in other words with every new opportunity there is a downside that levels the playing field.”

Due to this level playing field and democratic atmosphere the traditional patterns of interaction between institutions and it's audience has changed dramatically. The audience is vastly different to the wide eyed consumer of yesteryear, idling a band from afar. The modern audience is much more hungrier for information and more importantly, content.

The audience must now feel in contact with the band and their music. To create this connection, institutions must converge over all the media resources at their finger tips, ranging from having a profile on MySpace for the band for the audience to comment to a video diary of the band touring on YouTube. It is this connection between the music and the audience is the new found method that institutions are using to, 

“Get the tenner from your pocket,” 

as put by one of the co founders of local independent record label Small Town America.

CD Baby Site Review

"CD Baby is a little online record store that sells albums by independent musicians."

CD Baby is a free resource used by STA in order for them to sell and distribute music online.

This allowed a small record label to introduce themselves to one of the largest market of consumers of music in the world.

"Cool thing: in a regular record deal or distribution deal, musicians only make $1-$2 per album, if they ever get paid by their label. When selling through CD Baby, musicians make $6-$12 per album, and get paid weekly."

STA's policy is that artists should get paid fairly for what they produce, a policy shared with CD Baby. This resource has allowed the band and the label, not only a much larger market than what they would have had before but also, a much larger revenue stream as they are getting much more money every time an artist on STA sells an album using this site.

With facts like,

"5,410,892 CDs sold online to customers

• $110,070,509 paid directly to the artists"

We can see the opportunities that this site has allowed for STA and as a free resource, its value is phenomenal.

Institutions and Audiences

Class Notes 7th May '09

“Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate understanding of contemporary institutional processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange/exhibition at a local, national or international level as well as British audiences’ reception and consumption.”

We have decided to study the record label Smalltown America. (http://www.smalltownamerica.co.uk/)

Smalltown America is an independent record label based in London.

Smalltown America has in many ways carries D.I.Y. ethics towards all aspects of their industry.

Some examples that we discussed in class were of the band “ The Young Playthings.”

Examples of how in which STA and The Young Playthings used “D.I.Y. ethics” can be seen from within their first single.

The “Love U Like That” single was made by cutting and sticking an ad that they placed in the newspaper, which tied in with the name of the single. This was an example of how STA are using added value and a personal approach in order to gain an emotional connection between the artist and the audience, in oder for them to have the mindset that they are not just purchasing a piece of music, but a piece of art.

The use of the advertisement can be seen as a viral approach in order to publicise the band.

Viral marketing is a form of marketing in which news of a product or service is passed from person to person rather as a virus is transmitted. The media message may be passed on simply by word of mouth or more popularly/ effectively by internet or as in the case of STA and The Young Playthings, an ad in the news paper.

Of this particular single, 50 copies where sold, it took £76 to make compared to a gross profit of £200.

The next single “She’s A Rebel”  was also given the same kind of treatment with much added value going into the CD with it’s interesting parcel / present display.

In the case of this single, 120 where sold (more than doubling the previous single) with the cost of producing increasing to £154 and a massive jump in gross profit to £480.

The third and final single, called “Fit for Me” had an interesting addition to the single. In this case each CD sold was given a free temporary tattoo. This was used as a very good, very original marketing tool. Another example of how they added value and an example of another viral campaign.

This single saw their numbers ever increasing with 150 copies sold, a production cost of £246 and a gross profit of £600.

This final single brought the total net profits to £806, however this does not include the exposure that all the single releases, gigs and press that The Young Playthings received.

Next they went on to produce the D.I.Y album. With the revenue generated from the first three singles they set their recording budget at £800. They spent £150 on mastering the tracks, mastering is a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master); the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). £150 for artwork, which includes an hour to turn the images into CD artwork.

£496.15 for 500 CD’s, including a 4 page booklet inside the common jewel case. £100 on promo mail outs, making sure that their music was heard by the right people. 300 where sent to shops at £6.15, generating £1845. 100 sold online at £10, generating £1000

Approximately the total costs of this process was £1500 and the total profit was £1000.

The process ended with a full album “Who Invented Love?” which allowed The Young Playthings to go on a full UK Summer Tour playing in big name concerts and artists. With a sales expectancy of 1200 and a profit base of 6000 with which The Young Playthings will use to record and market the 2nd album.

Marketing was a very large process of the success of The Young Playthings and STA as a whole.

STA made sure that their songs, sent out using the promotional mail outs, on the radio by the right people and on stations where the potential audience of the band would listen to. They also made sure to display posters at places that the band would be expected to play and where their expected audience was to be. T-shirts and other merchandise was given out to fans of the band, this was to give the bad a larger audience and encourage word of mouth advertising.

STA encourage the idea of “being bespoke.” This is, the encouragement of being original and individual to all the other music and products out there. The fact that STA is an independent record label allows them to be different and much more engaging. 

An example of how STA was helping their artist’s to being bespoke is with a band called Oppenheimer.

In an Oppenheimer album, STA created a CD that which was designed in such a way that the listener had to rip it open in oder to get at the CD inside. This subliminally gave the message of a present inside the packaging as we have seen before with The Young Playthings previous single but also came with another advantage. As the cover was so beautifully done, had crafted with amazing art, the customer was forces to buy two of the same album. One in order for them to listen to but also one in which that they could keep as a collectors item. This simple design and originality allowed a relatively unknown band such as Oppenheimer to boost sales dramatically compared to how they could have fared with a simple CD jewel case.

Remembering that STA have a keen eye on D.I.Y. they believe that there are many free solutions on the internet to a lot of the problems that may arise.

One site in particular that we will be looking in to more is “CD Baby.”

CD Baby allowed a small record label with little money to spare, free US sales and distribution. This allowed STA a chance to enter into one of the largest music markets on the planet.

Another site that we discussed is Myspace. It is a social networking site that has become very focused on networking between bands, artists and DJ’s. This is breaking down the barrier between themselves and the audience allowing for a much better connection. This connection is the new found power in order to “get the tenner out of your pocket” i.e. to generate sales.

This site allows the public to see what they are doing using their blog, listen to some of their music e.g. their new single, back catalogue, remixes all by using the online player built into the site. It allows them to see the bands schedule with the upcoming gigs menu, see pictures of the artist and past gigs, embedded videos of the gigs or music videos.

Arguably the best feature with this site in breaking down the barrier is the comments option. This allows the audience to leave a comment on the page of the artist that they may read and reply to.

However this site in resent years faces much spam due to this feature, it again is a free resource that STA encourages their artists to use.

An example of how this kind of social network marketing can benefit bands comes from another STA band, “And So I Watch You From Afar”. This allowed a relatively unknown local band to fill a massive venue like Mandela Hall and gain a massive group of hardcore fans, all from a free resource such as Myspace.

Evaluation of Preliminary Exercise

For part of our course work we where asked to do a preliminary exercise showing continuity.

Continuity task involves filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse and shot and the 180 degree rule.

I feel that when i first heard the task i felt that it would have been very easy and that no problems would arise, it was only until we started serious planning for the exercise that my group and i ran into difficulties.

Firstly we had to do some research on how we should approach the exercise, this involved creating a story board. To do this we used a piece of free software online “Comic Life” that allowed us to drag and drop images of the locations we where thinking about using into a story board template. I could start to see the group dynamic being formed with myself beginning to take charge of the group and trying to move us forward as fast as we could work in order to start filming as soon as we could which in hindsight was probably not a good idea and a possible better final piece could have been made with more preparation in the post production part of the preliminary exercise.

After finding our location and drawing out our story board, we started to think about possible characters in our exercise, however we where limited to whoever had a free period during our class time which we hit walls with when we appointed Oisin and Niall as our actors.

With our dialogue, we produced a rough guide in which the actors could edit to whatever they feel comfortable with. This was definitely the wrong way to go about this. This causes confusion and the actors waste time thinking of what they are going to say which increases the time in which we are filming.

When it came to the first day of filming, things seemed to be going well. The scene was set right, all the actors where there and we had all the cameras and tripods that we needed. The filming proceeded to go very well, or so we thought, until we got back to the class room to upload the footage to our macs, for this we used iMovie 08.

We noticed that some of the clips did not sync with the rest of the filming after we edited it down. We went back to the raw footage to realize that we did not film enough takes of the same scene. This meant that we had to do a second day of filming.

When the second day of filming came about we ran into problems again, this time with the actors. Once of the actors, Niall, that we used for the previous video would not be able to get out of class for when we had the time to do the filming, this meant that we had to find a new actor to play the Niall's role, which also meant that the entire video that we shot from the first day of filming could not be used, except the shots with just Oisin’s character. Excepting this we found our new actor to feature in our video, David.

Trying not to waste too much time of our second day’s filming we got straight to work with the filming, making sure to get the shots but also to get a number to takes in order to pick the best one back in the classroom when it came to editing it together.

When the filming process was over we came back again to the classroom to begin the editing process, as we did before. My group and i where fairly happy with the piece after we edited it together, however when we asked our teacher to tell us his thoughts he pointed out some of the thing we where over looking.

In this piece we over looked some vital pieces that are essential in the final piece such as sound, continuity and the 180 degree rule. The had a lot of shots where the actors where mumbling and covering their mouths when they where talking, we noticed this when we where filming but we didn't realize how much this effected the sound when we played the sound through the camera’s playback feature, this would involve us as a group being stricter with the actors in order to keep them doing the right thing and not to fall into these mistakes in future filming.
Also we got a bit carried away with our camera angles which confused the audience, when we where trying to film a simple piece while keeping the 180 degree rule.
Continuity was also a thing that we would need to keep a tight hold of in the next day filming and make sure that the characters are sitting in the exact same position from shot to shot and that all props such as the books in front of Oisin would have to be in the same spot from shot to shot.

On the final day of filming we felt fully prepared for the task at hand. The main problem that arose on this day of filming was the camera equipment. The cameras where not charged for fully and so when it came to filming we where limited to placing the camera near plugs. Luckily we only needed a few shots so this did not cause us a great deal of difficulty. We came back to the class room and edited the final piece that you can see at the end of this blog post.

There are some things that i would consider keeping in mind when it come to the actual coursework.

One thing that i will learn to keep in mind is sound. We realized that sound is a very important aspect in a piece of video like this especially when it is in terms of continuity. The sound has to be clear and edited in at the right time n order to seem realistically placed and also in order not to confuse the audience watching the piece. Also for the next piece we may consider using external microphone in order to capture the audio better such as the dialogue as the microphones on the camera may not be up to power when trying to produce our next piece of work.

Another aspect of filming that i will have learnt from in the next piece is lighting. It is so important to get the lighting right from scene to scene. We noticed this when trying to edit scenes together from multiple days and we couldn't because it looked too different because of the difference in the weather and the lighting of the location from day to day. We may try and feature all the filming on one day or have an internal location so if any more filming has to be taken place it does not have to depend on the weather.

One more point that i have learnt from the entire filming process is in relation to the groups work as a whole and the allocation of tasks. I feel that in order for a video like this to be successful each member of the group has to be pulling his or her own weight. On this point the allocate of tasks is very important as i found that at some point during this exercise, all of the members of the group where working on a single aspect of the process, such as the story board, when we could have had only one person working on that while the others getting on with other work such as looking at locations or scripting the video. Learning from this will allow me to save time in the future and be possibly better organized and produce a better final piece.
Some of the thing i would have changed with my final piece would include such things as a better script as i found myself being distracted by the actors improvisations when i could have been focusing on the filming and keeping in line with the guidelines of the task. Another aspect that i would have changed is a long time spent on pre production as a whole as i felt that we may have rushed into the filming aspect of it under prepared which possibly explains why we had so many errors.

Over all i feel that our final piece has turned out quite strong and keeps in line with the task we were given at the beginning.