OCR AS Media Exam Section B Prep

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AS Exam Revision Section B

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Transcript of OCR AS Media Exam Section B Prep

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AS Exam RevisionSection B

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Section B will pose a question about the media industry you have studied. You might find the question hard or confusing, but you have to answer it! Again you will have 45 minutes and what you use for the content of your answer will depend upon the area you have studied, your precise case studies and the question itself. But these are the things you should know about in order to face any possible question...Production Funding Distribution Marketing ExchangeDo you know what these mean? How do they apply to your industry?Ownership- who owns your case study examples? what is the significance of this?cross-media convergence and synergy- what's the difference and how do these apply?technology- how important have recent changes in it been?hardware and proliferation (just means spread)- what impact has new hardware had on your industry?technological convergence- in what ways does this apply to your industry?targeting audiences- who is targeted and how?

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1. Break down the questionCircle key terms in the question. Spend time making sure you understand what the question is asking and what the focus should be in your answer.

2. Plan your answerMind maps using the key terms from the question and your case study examples could help. You should get to a point where you can list what each paragraph in your answer will be about. A logical structure is important.

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Read the Question Carefully

You have no choice of questions, so you have to have a go at what is there on the paper; sometimes students panic and think that they don't understand the question- maybe because of one particular word- but so long as you have prepared on all the concepts there will be something in the question that you recognise. Words like 'technology', 'convergence', 'distribution', 'marketing', 'digital' come up and you should see them as your 'hook' into the question. Even if the overall wording seems to be baffling, look for the terms that are there in the question and see them as the springboard for your answer.

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Why is marketing important for both Soul Jazz and Sony records?

Answer as a PEE paragraph

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/livbuli/2013/12/19/the-5-best-music-marketing-moves-of-2013/

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Don't spend ages on an introduction

You only have 45 minutes to answer the question, so there isn't time to waffle! A quick sentence which sets out what you are going to do and which media area or industry you are going to use will suffice. You can prepare a lot of this in your head in advance, so something like: In this essay, I shall write about (concept) in relation to the (music) industry, drawing on (examples) as my case studies.

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Know your examples

Whichever industry you are writing about, you will need examples to support your points. I would always advocate having some contrasting examples so that you can look at all angles; for example compare a major record label with a little UK indie label. That way, you can talk about the different ways in which the industry might operate in different circumstances.

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Try to be systematic

Don't jump about between points; spend a bit of time at the start of the exam planning the structure of your answer and working out the main points and examples for each paragraph.Know what key points you will make in each paragraph, what examples you will refer to and how you want to make a case from it all. Use similarity and difference as starting points for organising an argument; there will be differences between mainstream and indie which you might use as your way through, for example.

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Make it all Legible

Some students do not have great handwriting, so make it easier for the examiner to find the strengths in what you have written. Keep your paragraphs relatively short- half a page at most. Leave a clear line between each paragraph. There is nothing in the rules to say that you can't use a highlighter pen to emphasise your key examples or terms. Don't overdo this though!

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Here is a go at the distribution question last - it is a good example of structuring an argument so can be adapted for any question that comes up and to your own case study examples - as long as you

focus on the area that the question is asking you about!

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Distribution ResponseOpening sentence

In this essay I will outline the key arguments around distribution - making the product available for consumption KEY TERMS DEFINED - using Ed Sheeran and Sony as a contrast.

Billy Bragg said the music industry is thriving but the record industry is dying - is he right? In the digital age the product is not so much the recorded tracks but the artist themselves - if Lady Gaga can make millions in endorsements for Polaroid among others and Bragg himself gives music away but sells T-shirts for £20 clearly the industry has changed. As ever distribution of tracks is the key to success but what is being distributed is possibly as important as who distributes it and how it is distributed (ENOUGH REFERENCES TO QUESTION)

LINKING BIT...OWNERSHIP

The Record Industry is dominated by an oligopoly formed by Sony, Universal and warner Music Group. All are vertically and horizontally integrated meaning they control production and distribution of music and have many related businesses within each stage of the process of making material available for consumption, eg Sony are the parent company to Syco, Columbia, RCA and many more. WMG apart, the labels are part of globalised multi media conglomerates able to exploit economies of scale and synergy to sell their product to a mass audience.

LINKING BIT...MASS AUDIENCE

Universal and Sony are heavily involved with Saturday night prime time TV in the UK through The Voice and X Factor. Such talent shows: attract extremely high ratings sustained over months; have largely replaced the A and R (talent scouting) function of the majors; offer a platform through which artists can be shaped and placed in partnerships with producers, stylists, songwriters; provide the artists as winners/ runners up with both high profile promotion and market testing of product as audience vote across many media platforms - website of show and associated social media networks Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. The key for major labels is their ownership of back catalogues of songs which are covered on such programmes - Alexandra Burke’s version of Hallelujah earned Sony revenue through publishing rights due to the song’s heavy rotation on national radio station earning PRS royalties for Leonard Cohen. Universal’s involvement with BBC’s The Voice will probably result in a hit track of a song to which Universal own the rights

LINKING BIT - SONY/ US SUCCESS

One Direction have achieved success in the USA largely by being signed to Sony which has enabled them to appear on partner TV shows, affiliated radio stations and be promoted across all media platforms - an example of a 360 degree deal. For all the bands huge following on twitter and facebook the appearances on ITV have served to make the potential audience aware of their existence a fate most artists never manage. John Harris talks about the “noise” of the web- with all this music shouting at the same time how does an artist make their voice stand out?

LINKING BIT - WEB

The record industry has migrated toward the web - from distributing physical products - CDs - to digital downloads via iTunes. Clearly there is potential for huge savings as distribution costs in the physical era were huge, requiring investment in manufacturing of CDs and transportation to retail outlets (eg HMV) - high street chains typically took 33 % of profits too; digital distribution is virtually free. In addition if a major label pressed physical copies of a CD and the resultant CD flopped this money was wasted; digital distribution is on demand.

LINKING BIT - iTUNES

Such a move has enabled artists like Ed Sheeran to self release tracks and through the use of aggregators access an audience via iTunes - No 5 Collaborations Project EP sold 7,000 copies within the first week reaching No 2 on the chart. This release was promoted by intensive gigging. Such distribution would not have been possible before the digital age. This EP served as a calling card and Sheeran signed to Asylum/ Atlantic part of Warners Music Group - a classic example of indie success leading to a major deal following in the footsteps of Coldplay and Radiohead. As these self -funded recordings are a relatively cheap investment due to the availability of excellent quality/ lower cost bedroom studio recording equipment such successes may mean artists wish to remain outside of the majors (possibly retaining complete artistic control) and distribute their music via web services such as Bandcamp or ReverbNation which allow them to interact directly with their audience.

LINKING BIT - INDEPENDENT TO MAJOR

However, it is rare for artists to achieve truly global success and attendant revenues without such a major deal so it came as no surprise that Ed Sheeran’s move to Asylum led to a massive increase in his mainstream media profile - a huge factor in his track The A Team selling 800,000 copies - a massive difference in scale. His appearance on the Brits as a nominee increased sales of all his product (as it did all of the nominated/ featured artists) with such increased exposure helping to create a virtuous circle of more TV airtime - more sales- more TV airtime etc. You need to build a fanbase before you can interact with them and major labels have the resources to enable this particularly in marketing and distribution

LINKING BIT - iTUNES

The technology that enables such savings also has a down side for the majors as mp3 files can be pirated through youtube converter and other online services. The BPI estimate that 95% of music owned by youth is illegally downloaded and a quick class survey revealed this to be approximately right. Digital distribution is virtually instant, simple to use and requires a relatively low entry cost - smartphone, laptop, PC/Mac. The move towards the web has been disastrous for the major labels as they have largely failed to keep pace with innovation. Historically, new technological developments have come from within the record industry (Phillips/ Sony invented CD) but the main mp3 distribution iTunes came from Apple, Youtube is now owned by Google (there is constant conflict over copyright issues with the majors which the labels tried to force on the video sharing site but failed, SOPA is the latest attempt by media conglomerates to prevent piracy). Due to this failure to innovate it would appear the record industry is shrinking fast.

CONCLUSION - KEY POINTS

So if copyright of performance on record cannot be protected meaning some revenue streams are diminished artists need to look elsewhere for earnings. Live events, festivals, merchandise, endorsements, licensing of music for films, TV dramas, videogames can all be exploited by copyright owners and the easy availability of digitally distributed tracks allow potential for cross promotion - constant urging to share/ retweet which can lead to big profits for ubiquitous acts like One Direction and potentially Ed Sheeran. In such instances the audience become the distributors by liking tracks on spotify etc The major labels problem is that the increased revenue from above will probably never compensate for their loss of control over distribution of their expensive investments (production/marketing) in recorded music brought about by the digital age.

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1kpwF6HRT56zFCsgvUx6nadk1rwlYLbwbD2dEZfuxq0g

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SynergyWhere spin off products and services are created on the back of a successful music track, e.g. music videos. Often involves companies, products or services coming together for mutual benefit and cross-promotion.

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SynergyWhere spin off products and services are created on the back of a successful music track, e.g. music videos. Often involves companies, products or services coming together for mutual benefit and cross-promotion.

Compare how Soul Jazz and Sony do

this

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Cross Media ConvergenceThis is always a tricky term and it is useful to consider it in relation to both technological convergence and synergy rather than in isolation. Cross media convergence can be understood as different media industries or media companies coming together, often this is to create more opportunities for promotion (including cross promotion and synergy) or to create new revenue streams. Music videos are also examples of this, consider the recent Beyoncé and iTunes only release . Cross media convergence can also be understood in terms of many forms of media all being accessible from one platform - you can see the overlap with technological convergence here. There are an increasing number of websites that converge different media. For example, Facebook enables you to watch music videos, listen to Soundcloud clips, read music reviews, interact with the artist/band, play games/widgets relating to an artist, etc. Therefore Soul Jazz and Sony will take advantage of such sites.

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TaskWrite a paragraph

comparing and contrasting how Soul Jazz and Sony take advantage of cross

media convergence

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Why is technological convergence

good for audiences?

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TASKWho is the

audience for independent and major labels and

why?

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Revision Links

First port of call…http://portfolio.reigate.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=4903Another must…http://musicindustrysectionb.blogspot.co.uk