Mock Exam - Finn Arnold

To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing and consumption of media products in the media area you have studied?

Focus on:

- Film
- Music
- Newspaper
- Radio
- Magazines
- Video Games

Marketing and consumption has majorly been affected by distribution through digital technology through the uses of social networks, music websites, YouTube and iTunes. Digital technology has now become the easiest and best way to distribute music.

Record labels have now created an exchange with prosumers through the use of digital technology, prosumers are consumers of their music but also produce their own music out of it to create and distribute their mash ups online for free through iTunes, Soundcloud, Twitter and so on. Through this record labels have had their music marketed and advertised for free  through prosumers uploading their mash ups.
Record labels have had to adapt to these new digital technologies and find a new way of making money from downloading and prosumers.
EMI was a massive major record label that went bust due to failing to adapt to these new digital technologies, therefore digital technologies have affected the way major record labels market and distribute their own products.

However, Indie record labels haven't been affected by digital distribution as much as major record labels as they have a strong relationship with their consumers and therefore still make money from their media products being physically bought rather than downloaded.

Prosumers can link to Beck Score and his 'Song Reader' album, his album has been written in music sheets and wasn't physically recorded, he has created a exchange relationship with a niche audience by allowing them to interact with his music by performing their own interpretations of the songs and has allowed them to distribute these online and market them through YouTube, iTunes and so on.
Beck has allowed his audience to make profit from his music creating a wide prosumer audience and therefore has produced him music and allowed his audience to distribute and market his music for free. Therefore digital distribution has positively affected the way Beck's music has been marketed and consumed.

Syco is a major record label that is owned by the conglomerate, Sony. They have used digital distribution to completely visualise Sony's media products using Xfactor by using Sony's back catalogue of music to research what the audience prefer. They have done this by allowing their participatory audience to interact and vote for the winning musicians. Once the show has been shown live to the audience, the performances can then be immediately distributed online to market these songs.
The winning group or artist, or usually the runner up then go on to produce new music and distribute it to iTunes, Sound cloud, Youtube etc...
Syco has completely visualised their music live to their audience through the use of digital distribution, and therefore the marketing and consumption of their music has been majorly affected as they have used digital technologies to sign new and popular artists.

For example, One Direction has been visualised completely through Xfactor after coming second, they have created an image as a young teenage boy band as that has been researched by Syco as supposedly the most popular music taste. Digital distribution has affected the way they market their music as they have used digital technologies to visualise their music and have even been asked to create a film.

Overall, digital distribution has majorly affected the way music is marketed and consumed. Digital technologies such as YouTube, social networks and TV shows have all been used to completely visualise music, creating an exchange with their audience and overall creating a relationship.