The purpose of my research is to examine the music industry from both the perspective of a musician and a lawyer, and draw real conclusions regarding where the music industry is heading in the 21st century. Digital technologies are overhauling the way in which musicians, record labels, and other industry professionals make a living, and my goal is to decipher what these changes mean in the long term. In light of this transformation, my research investigates whether musicians still need record labels in the digital era, and what role copyright law will continue to have in this new model.<p> The method of research for my thesis was slightly atypical. While I utilized any textbook and scholarly journal that was available on the topic, much of my most valuable research came in the form of personal interviews with some of the biggest players in the music industry, as well as various articles and studies found online.<p> My thesis argues that the roles played by artists and record labels have completely changed in the last five years, and the parties that will find success on either side of the bargaining table will be those most appreciative of and adaptive to this change. Directly related to this is the changing face of copyright in the music industry. My thesis argues that while copyright used to provide massive value from a single source in the short term, it now generates smaller amounts of value from an infinite array of sources, in the long term. The significance of this finding cannot be understated, for both artists and their investors. In this way, my research aims to be equally significant and accessible to musicians, industry professionals, and academics.

<p><strong>Purpose:</strong>The purpose of this study is to investigate the most important factors for creating customer loyalty, which contribute to competitive advantage in the DMP industry.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Background: </strong>The emergence of the digital music industry in recent years has resulted in a competitive situation with new digital music portals (DMPs) entering the market. A DMP can be defined as ‘<em>an e-business whose core service is to legally offer digital music by means of stream and/or download’.</em> The industry has experienced rapid developmental changes on the online platform with an outcome of a steady growth in online sales. Customers can choose from a large music assortment and DMPs function as intermediaries between right holders and end-consumers, and customers can easily switch between rivals at low costs. <em> </em></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The research strategy used in this thesis was a qualitative research strategy. Data was collected from eleven interviews, from people working within the DMP industry, using semi-structured questions. The sample was selected through a combination of convenience and snowball sampling. The collected data was later interpreted and analysed. Coding was used as an analysis method, where the authors selected relevant data and created groups of themes related to the purpose and the research questions.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The analysis results show that DMPs have to focus on performance, explicitly performance competing strategies for creation of customer loyalty, which overlaps value and trust creation activities. The most important factors for creating customer loyalty contributing to competitive advantage in this industry are gathered under three concepts: developing innovative new transaction structures, increasing customer affiliation through usability and editorials and to engage the customer in the portal’s service.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Music." Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-176).

This study examines the possibility of creating original video-based content for the video-enabled iPod that was released in October 2005. Current trends show that existing content created for conventional media like television, cinema and computers are simply being ported over to this new medium. However, when this project began, none of the production studios are concentrating on creating content specifically for this medium, which has its own unique properties like portability, screen size and the ability to easily start and pause content as required. The purpose of this project is to prove that such medium-specific content can be created and made financially viable for the creators. Further, this hypothesis is put to the test by presenting it to a group of Ball State University students and their responses are examined in detail. / Department of Telecommunications

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Record companies are suffering due to a downturn in recorded music sales. Innovative firms have developed digital music services that offer recorded music products to customers in new ways, yet sales are not what they used to be. Web 2.0 technologies have changed the customer’s tastes, expectations, and desires. Thus, a deeper understanding of the new “digital customer” is needed in order to better offer services in a way that he or she prefers most.

<p>Record companies are suffering due to a downturn in recorded music sales. Innovative firms have developed digital music services that offer recorded music products to customers in new ways, yet sales are not what they used to be. Web 2.0 technologies have changed the customer’s tastes, expectations, and desires. Thus, a deeper understanding of the new “digital customer” is needed in order to better offer services in a way that he or she prefers most.</p>

Thesis(Ph.D. (Communication Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Digital technologies are increasingly revolutionising music consumption patterns globally. Consequently, there is an emerging culture in which online tools have become primary platforms for music consumption. In this postmodern era, digital technologies make music easily accessed, consumed and shared, thereby providing a seemingly global recognition to artistes beyond their immediate geographical market. As a result, artistes sometimes distribute their music for free with the intention to reach potential consumers. Equally, these technologies also allow consumers to illegally access and share music freely without financial compensation to the artistes. At the same time artistes also sell their music through different online stores to generate revenue. Alongside these developments, there are challenges with access to the Internet in South Africa with older adults and those in rural areas being disadvantaged, and the cost of Internet curtailing what youths can afford to do online. This then prompts critical questions: How do older adults and youth listen to music? Where and how do they access music? How does the new digitalised music affect their music consumption? What are the implications of all these to the social capital and social lifestyles of youth and older South African adults? Also, how has the digitalisation of music impacted on the political economy of the music industry in South Africa? In what ways do the illegal and legal downloads of music benefit or disadvantage local artistes? From a critical theorisation of an emerging ‘download culture’ and a discussion of the postmodern technological turn, this study examined a case study of South African youth and older adults’ music consumption pattern. Through a survey of 202 university students in a rural South African university and 100 older adults from semi rural areas of Limpopo Province in South Africa, the study examined the ways youth and older adults access and consume music. It explored music sharing habits and opinions about piracy in a culture where music has become instantaneously shareable. Apart from findings from this study, new knowledge and a contribution to communication scholarship is presented here with a proposal of new theory of ‘download culture’. Fundamental to this study is the implications of download culture for the creative industry, predominantly, its impact on the South African music industry. The data show that this cohort of South African youth are not different from youths globally, where music is accessed through mobile cell phones. This study also reflects that many older adults do not access digitalised music due to socio economic conditions and challenges of technology access. Nevertheless, the social cultural impact of this has repercussions on the cultural well-being of this vital group in society. Although internet access challenges persist, a critical concern is the blurring distinctions about the legal and illegal download of music. / National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), in collaboration with the South African Humanities Deans Association (SAHUDA)

[pt] Esta dissertação tem como objetivo avaliar qual a tendência da indústria fonográfica nos próximos anos, tendo em vista as mudanças estruturais que ela vêm passando em conseqüência das alterações ocorridas no ambiente. O setor vem sendo drasticamente abalado por uma oferta ilegal de produtos, além de inovações tecnológicas que podem ser utilizadas de forma benéfica, mas também possibilitam um acesso incontrolável à principal matéria prima das gravadoras. A metodologia utilizada para buscar esta tendência foi o método Delfos de previsão. Este método foi o escolhido por se tratar de um setor desprovido de um histórico confiável, devido às constantes mudanças tecnológicas e de padrão de consumo, e dos eventos atuais que provocam a insegurança sobre o futuro da indústria proporcionarem alterações inesperadas. O método permite a elaboração de uma previsão com base na opinião de especialistas, e tem como resultado uma avaliação do futuro da indústria com base na percepção de pessoas diretamente ligadas a ela. Através deste estudo foi possível verificar que existe uma expectativa de que o governo vá se posicionar mais fortemente com relação à repressão da pirataria musical e que as gravadoras eventualmente passem a tratar como negócio não só a produção de CDs, mas também outros produtos e serviços diretamente ligados à música. Também foi possível concluir que a música digital, de forma geral, não é percebida como uma ameaça à indústria de música tradicional, e pode ser vista como uma oportunidade de negócio. Assim, foi possível diagnosticar o futuro mais provável para as empresas e a estrutura do setor fonográfico brasileiro, além de verificar as variáveis que indicarão a formação deste cenário. / [en] The present work intends to evaluate the most probable scenario for the Brazilian phonographic industry in the next few years, taking in account the structural changes that have been going on in the environment. This industry has been suffering from the continuous increase on the illegal products offering, in addition to new technological solutions, which may have positive implications, but may also allow innovative and uncontrollable ways of obtaining the recording companies main asset without paying for it. The Delfos technique has been the methodology chosen for this study. The method was the best choice bearing in mind that the industry does not have a trustworthy historical data, partially because of the technological innovation and chances on the consumption pattern, and the current events on the sector had resulted on unexpected turn a rounds on the industrys development. Trough this work it has become possible to identify that it is expected from the government to take stronger measures to reprehend the music piracy and also that the recording organizations will eventually make their ways not only with CDs themselves but also with everything music related. Besides, digital music is not perceived as a threat, but in fact is expected to become a business and distribution opportunity for the music industry. Therefore, it has been possible to forecast the most likely future for the companies on the Brazilian music business, along with defining the variables that will indicate the structuring of this scenario.

The development of tools and services for the realisation of the Semantic Web has been a very active field of research in recent years, with a strong focus on linking existing data. In the field of music information management, Semantic Web technologies may facilitate searching and browsing, and help to reveal relationships with data from other domains. At the same time, many algorithms have been developed to extract low and high-level features, which enable the user to analyse music and audio in detail. The use of semantics in the process of music production however is still a relatively new field of research. With computer systems and music processing applications becoming increasingly powerful and complex in their underlying structure, semantics can help musicians and producers in decision processes, and provide more natural interactions with the systems. Audio effects represent an integral part in modern music production. They modify an input signal and may be applied in order to enhance the perceived quality of a sound or to make more artistic changes to it in the composition process. Employing music information retrieval (MIR) and Semantic Web technologies specifically for the control of audio effects has the potential to be a significant step in their evolution. Detailed descriptions of the use of audio effects in a music production project can additionally facilitate the description of work flows and the reproducibility of production procedures, adding an additional layer of depth to MIR. We substantiate the hypothesis that the collection of audio related metadata during the production process is beneficial, by comparing the results of various feature extraction techniques on audio material before and after the application of audio effects. We develop a formal Semantic Web ontology for the domain of Audio Effects in the context of music production. The ontology enables the creation of detailed metadata about audio effects implementations within the Studio Ontology framework for use in music production projects. The ontology contains inter-linkable classification systems based on different criteria constituting an interdisciplinary classification. Finally, we evaluate the ontology and present several use cases and applications, such as adaptive audio effects using and creating semantic metadata.