Music Industry - Online Age - Has the music piracy battle been won?

Has the music piracy battle been won?
Read full article here (from wired.co.uk)

Extract:
But they [the stats] show that very few people, proportionally, are interested in downloading music files, despite the BPI chief Geoff Taylor's recent claims (PDF link) that "the enormous scale of the piracy problem shows no signs of abating".

Music set the foundations for the current filesharing community -- it's what made the likes of Napster, Kazaa and Limewire so big in the first place. At the start of the 00s, you couldn't move for websites offering as much music as you could listen to for absolutely nothing.

For a while, the major record labels didn't notice -- people were still buying CDs, so it was less of an issue. But then they stopped, and all hell broke loose -- the major labels poured what was left of their rapidly-dwindling cash into their legal departments and the anti-piracy efforts co-ordinated by trade bodies like the BPI, RIAA and the IFPI.
[...]
In fact, what's more likely to have been the cause for the decline in music filesharing is the glut of good, legal, music services that have emerged in that time. The likes of iTunes and Amazon MP3 made it simply and easy to get music onto portable music players and mobile phones, and companies like Spotify and Last.fm proved that sharing free music isn't something to be feared -- it's to be encouraged, and it can be monetised.

With the evidence showing that pirates are the music industry's most valuable customers, and all the barriers to digital content nirvana having been removed by innovative technology companies and record companies that are willing to license more freely, is it really any surprise that music piracy is far less of a problem than it once was?

The history of the iPhone - video

Great one to watch for online age! http://themediablog.typepad.com/the-media-blog/2011/09/video-infographic-apple-iphone.html

The State of the INternet Infograhic -great info at a glance

Created by: Online Schools

From Online Schools website

News at MySpace!!! And BskyB...

Bought for $580m, sold for $35m: Murdoch cuts his MySpace losses
By Stephen Foley in New York
Rupert Murdoch's six-year stewardship of the social-networking pioneer MySpace reached its ignominious end last night as the media mogul sold the company for less than one-tenth of the price he paid for it.
Read the Independent article here.

Justin Timberlake buys his own social network with Myspace investment
Singer turned actor Justin Timberlake takes a stake in $35m purchase of Myspace from News Corp
Read the Guardian article here.

Meanwhile, Murdoch has also been busy on the BskyB front.
Rupert Murdoch BSkyB takeover gets government go-ahead
Read the bbc online report here.
(And watch the video: Jeremy Hunt says the deal ensures Sky News will be 'more independent')

Onwards and Upwards

AS and A2 exams done! AS students back to start their A2 course...
Great stuff!
Best wishes to everyone!

AS Exam done and dusted!

We hope you liked the paper!!! See you all soon to get started on the the A2 Music video unit!

Summer Day Camp and Summer Residential - ACT2CAM

This sounds great, though it's not that cheap... It is slightly cheaper if booked before Easter and can get you a qualification by the end of the course that credits you with UCAS points. Visit their home page for details and download the application form! Summer Day camp Summer Residential

David Dimbleby questions wisdom of televised party leader debates

Question Time host warns that people could 'come to regret' the advent of the electoral TV debates
Read it all here.

We have discussed this briefly... Are these televised debates a step towards more democratisation or just dumbing down and / or a reduced debate/personality contest?

What is multiculturalism? – video

What is multiculturalism? David Cameron and Angela Merkel have both announced the failure of multiculturalism. The Guardian's Jonathan Freedland and Matthias Matussek of Der Spiegel talk about the implications of their statements
Read and watch the video here.

Gaddafi-controlled media wages propaganda war

Libyan rebels portrayed as rats as Gaddafi regime uses blackout of alternative media to step up fight against opposition

Read full story here.

US spy operation that manipulates social media

Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media
Exclusive: Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda
Read the story here.

The 2011 Student Media awards have now launched!

Entries open for the Guardian Student Media awards 2011
The student protests that engulfed the streets of London during last year's Guardian Student Media Awards ceremony have since dissipated. But the sense of betrayal and anger that led to them has not.

For that reason, this year's Student Media Awards are likely to attract some of the most spiritedwriting since Andrew Rawnsley and Jonathan Freedland picked up gongs. "In the current climate of cuts to higher education and swathes of politically active students, now more than ever is a great time for student journalism," says Camilla Turner, a student at Oxford University and last year's reporter of the year. "It's really important for students to express their feelings about what's being enforced, do some great journalism and get across the sense of how students still feel." Turner won the award for her exposés of a college expenses scandal, and reports on a student who faked his way into Oxford University. She now edits Cherwell, Oxford's student newspaper, and her plans include applying for a work placement at News International and an internship at the Financial Times.

The annual awards open for their 33rd year today, and the landscape for young journalists has rarely looked more uncertain. Alan Rusbridger, the editor-in-chief of the Guardian and an awards judge, said in November it was a "great time to be a journalist", albeit at a "fantastically insecure moment".

"Journalism is there to be redefined," Rusbridger told last year's winners. "The whole ecosystem of information is there to be reimagined and I can't see any reason why you shouldn't do it."

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Year 12/13 Progress Checks by next week (starting 14.3.11)

If you haven't been working hard enough, you have a few days to catch up and try and improve your grade...

Clip joint: libraries (videos - classic scenes)

LIBRARIES
Sacred, spooky, sexy locations ... just three more reasons to save our libraries, which never do things by the book on screen

View article and film extracts here. Have you all seen the Breakfast Club? Classic!

4th BFI Film Festival - 12th 13th February!

For 15 - 25 year olds who love film

Catch the hottest new films from the next generation of UK filmmakers. Pick up essential skills from a range of workshops and masterclasses or just hang out with other film fans and film industry professionals. Follow this link.

Future Film is an exciting way for 15 - 25 year olds to get involved with the BFI through a regular programme of screenings, special events and an annual festival.