“Show Me the Money”
Intro
As many know and understand, the Internet has changed not only how we communicate, but how we conduct business. This has become increasingly apparent in the music, film and entertainment industries. The impact of the Internet on these industries has created many “controversial issues surrounding the distribution and consumption of online music”. (Web Studies, 203) Other forms of on-line entertainment, such as computer games, have also changed e-commerce and the video game market forever.
“You’re on Candid Camera”
That’s right. Thanks to sites like YouTube.com you could be an aspiring actress or creative film producer in the making. YouTube is described as “on-line video streaming service.” (YouTube.com) The best part is it’s free to its members and you can not only create videos but share them with your family and friends. The videos are easy to view and you can search for subjects and/or categories that interest you. The only equipment required is “a device that can capture digital movies—this could be a camcorder, digital camera, or even your cell phone”, (YouTube.com) it’s that easy. You can also upload a video from Windows MovieMaker.
Even power house search engines like Google are banking on success of companies like YouTube. In fact, Google recently purchased the company from founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen for $1.65 billion. The founders apparently have hit the jackpot, but what about Google? Google is looking ahead at the possibility of “evolving community-powered broadband world” (AdWeek). This venture is destined to have an impact on video ads. Some analysts say this may develop into a new advertising form that will enable more watches of an ad by viewers, versus the ad spots that often times interrupt a viewer online. Google would utilize the matching system, or “tagging” technique of YouTube. If you are viewing a video about real estate property you would have a video advertising option such as mortgage financing or realtors.
All this sounds great, but what are the downsides, if any? Experts say, that “YouTube's tags are haphazardly used and personalization could be deemed a privacy intrusion by users” (AdWeek). Is this a violation of privacy? Others feel that Google has bumped their heads, and that the risk of a lawsuit is way too high.
According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt says it’s "the beginning of the Internet video revolution." Only time will tell.
With a little patience, I too learned how to create a video. If I can learn how, anyone can. Trust me and create your own video. (Please note that you can keep your video private and only accessible by family and/or friends. Be mindful, it can take a long time to load and lots of patience.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REAx62el34w
See how Redbull is making great use YouTube for advertising. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-HGLA6SvfQ
“Music Maestro”
According to Castells in the Internet Galaxy, “the Internet is transforming business practice…and proving to be a key source of productivity and competitiveness for all kinds of business.” This is evident in the online music industry. In the early 1990’s consumers that were “plugged in” began to share and disseminated music via the Internet. MP3.com, a site that allows user to download music for free, helped to decentralize the “model of intellectual exchange”…”where a network of independent producers and consumers shared their own music and information on a non-monetary basis” which was not previously possible. (Gauntlett & Horsley, 205). For many music corporations this was a concern and it violated the corporation’s copyrights. Also, there was the concern of music being extracted “from copyrighted CDs into mp3 format for personal use and exchanged over the Internet Relay Chat or posting them up on websites” (Gauntlett & Horsley, 206).
According to Ian Dobie, fair use and copyright issues are more about “maintaining the status quo of the market-place”, and not protection for the rights holder’s. MP3.com has had its share of ups and downs, with lawsuits and acquisitions. Through it all they have created an established “legitimate market for independent music”, but can they maintain it?
Pac-man Days are Long Gone
Nowadays, creative abilities are mostly valued in the game industry. Specifically, businesses are seeking “creative design and scripting, software programming, project management and production, and systems development” (Flew, 105). Atari’s Pac-man is archaic and users today want “ongoing interactive dialogue” (Flew, 107). There is a game culture which feeds off of “collective intelligence”.
Popular online video games such as Planetside.com allow users to join a military outfit and fight off bad guys and alien creatures with rifles, chain guns, pistols and grenades. While you play you can chat on-line with your fellow comrades from around the globe and even beyond (Canada and England).
Other innovative and truly far out games our virtual games. For example, CNN Money.com talks about the future of video games where players use their bodies as controls and images are actually projected on the sides of skyscrapers. (Click here to read the article. http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/27/magazines/business2/realworld.biz2/index.htm)
Video games are definitely on the rise and are becoming mainstream. Handheld game devices like PSP and Ninetendo are growing like wildfire, while Microsofts’ XBOX Video System continues to sell millions of game consoles. According to analysts, “it’s all about the Benjamins” for Microsofts XBOX, as it produces newer models with costs ranging from $299 to $399. This doesn’t include all the additional items like a $50 game to play in the console. According, to USA Today, video games are "one of the fastest growing forms of media entertainment". Profits generated are so lucrative, that its possible that one day soon college students will be able to major in video games.
Profits are soaring. Did you know...
- "Video game sales exceeded the movie industry's annual box office draw last year by $1 billion.
- The current video game hit, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, sold more than 1.4 million copies at an average $48 apiece in its first three days. That $70 million windfall easily puts it in the ranks of a blockbuster movie.
- The popularity of NFL video games has given longtime TV football announcer John Madden celebrity status among teens and young adults.
- Designers can make $50,000 a year right out of college and twice as much if they are part of a team that produces a hit video game." (Source: USA Today Money.com)
The Internet offers a wider audience view, and some businesses are banking on the future profits. Everywhere from music to the film industry, to video games, businesses are hoping to cash in, and start-up company founders like YouTube hope they’ll be the next Bill Gates. However, where is the line to be drawn?
Things to consider:
- Will Google be violating privacy rights by using YouTube's "tagging" technique?
- Will Google need to closely monitor their user’s videos? And, can it expand its community without pushing them away with all the advertising?
- As far as the music industry goes, is online piracy really harming the artist, the publisher and the consumer? As portrayed in the advertisements, are you stealing from another’s wallet?
- The video game industry appears wide open; however, how much is too much as far as violence for our youth? What responsibility does the creator have in marketing games to the appropriate age group?
Works Cited:
Articles/On-line Sources
Castells, Manuel (1998). “Information Technology, Globalization and Social Development”
http://www.komm.ruc.dk/mcmc/extdocs/castells.html (B)
Quah, Danny T. (1998). “The weightless economy”
http://www.unesco.org/courier/1998_12/uk/dossier/txt11.htm (B)
Wilson, Ralph F. (2000). “Web Marketing Today. The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing”. http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm (B)
Macklin, Ben. “The Broadband-iTV Blend.” eMarketer. April 3, 2001. Available from www.emarketer.com.
“Convergence.” Whatis?.com July 25, 2001. Available from http://whatis.techtarget.com
Monkey Bites http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites
“With YouTube, Google Takes Aim at Video Ads” AdWeek. October 16, 2006. Available from
http://adweek.com/aw/iq_interactive/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003255036&imw=Y
“Video game college is 'boot camp' for designers” USAToday.com http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2002-12-03-video_x.htm
Books
Flew, Terry (2002). New Media An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Castells, Manuel (2003). The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gauntlett, David (Ed.) (2000). Web Studies: Rewiring media studies for the digital age. 2nd Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hayles, N. Katherine (1999). How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. University of Chicago Press.
Jones, Steven G., (Ed.) (1995). Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Rheingold, Howard (2003). Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Basic Books.
References
Malonis, Jane A., (Ed.) (2002). Gala Encyclopedia of e-Commerce, Gale Group, Farmington Hills.
posted by Angelia @ 8:07 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
For starters, I enjoyed watching the your video, "The Many Faces of an African American Family". What a great idea! I just got a digital camera and I have thought about using it for something like that. In particular, putting together a video of pictures for my two best friends. We have known each other since the 3rd grade, so there's a lot of history there.
As far as your question, "Will Google be violating privacy rights by using YouTube's "tagging" technique?" If I read it correctly, my answer would be no. I don't think that it is violating my privacy if Google puts up a related ad option while I am viewing a video. As long as it remains an OPTION. I'm already a YouTube fan. I like the instant gratification I get when I click on a video. I don't want to watch an ad before I watch the video.
While on the subject of Google, I think the company will need to closely monitor the videos especially with the advertising aspect. I suspect most companies do not in any way want to be connected with tasteless video. Unless of course it's the porn industry.
Finally, I think online piracy hurts the musician more than anyone else. You can argue that they make too much money as it is, but I believe it has more to do with it than just that. It's stealing their ideas, copying them, distributing them and profiting from them without the artist's permission. As mentioned in Web Studies "it's called the Digital Dilemma according to the National Research Council because the Internet is all at once one of the world's largest libraries and surely the world's largest copying machine" (197). My question is, how can you enforce the laws on something that size? As mentioned in Web Studies, it's extremely difficult.
Angela, great stuff! I enjoyed reading your post. I don’t have the patience you have though in creating a movie spot. It may be easier than Myspace; however, I felt very uneasy about creating that space. Given what happened just recently to the man that sent his personal video to Wall Street in anticipation of a job interview, I don’t think I’ll be putting anymore information online.
As I was reading your information posted regarding the copyright of material, I recall the days when we purchased LPs and copied information to cassette. Was this the beginning of copyright? Now, with the click of the mouse, we don’t even have to purchase CD, we “download”. Of course, I’m not that web savvy yet. Working on it though! Simply because it is a legitimate market for business. MP3.com most likely will come up with a different marketing strategy that will make them bigger than Gates and begin referring to themselves as MP3PLUS.com; offering interactive capabilities such as the opportunity to put in your own lyrics and republish the song. What a concept huh? This is all part of the “collective intelligence” that Flew discusses.
What impact would this creativity have on copyright? “Copyright was originally understood to be a bargain that balanced the interests of the author, the publisher and the public; particularly in US copyright, the first consideration was that works should be created in order that the public might benefit through the exchange of ideas upon which future creators might build.” (Gauntlett & Horsley, 209) I wonder how so many lawsuits are avoided. Because of the increased utilization of the internet, it is difficult to determine original works; yet one more thing to consider.
And, consider this: Is the internet too accessible. Look at the recent bomb threats to football stadiums in the news. Although they aren’t given much merit, look at the amount of media attention. Anyone seems to be able to post whatever they want to incite violence. Where does it all end?
With the challenge to track down internet copyright theives and the mirage of autonomy, piracy will thrive. I feel that the music industry's lime light will soon be taken over by the cinema. The ability to download movies via broadband is more popular than ever.
video entertainment is increasingly becoming interactive. No longer are 2D board games acceptable. Now you must connect via the internet and play NFL football with someone in another country. Marketing has found this to be full of possibilities. Instead of playing a game such as Mortal Combat, the latest version is to by trading cards, scan the card, play the fighter on the card and then save the information about the scores and stats onto the card so that you can network your player when you go to the neighbors house.
I think you're right that the movie industry will be next to undergo the changes that online distribution brought to music. Already you can find just about any type of video file that you could be interested in online, and download it in a few hours.
In the Napster days on MP3 downloading I definitely pulled my share of music down from the inter-ether - but as it became more clear to me that I was essentially stealing from the musicians who I respected and admired, and also after I discovered that music that is purchased tends to have a consitently higher quality in sound and in the quality of the files themselves (album names, track names, artists names and album art all included, etc.) I decided that I was no longer interested in free music. I now try to buy music that I'm most interested in as directly from the artist as possible, and anything else comes directly from Apple through iTunes.
I think the movie industry has more to lose. In general, the impression I have of the movie industry is that it is a Hollywood world filled with filthy rich industry moguls and pompous talent who all take themselves a bit too seriously. I think that compared to the music world, individual people feel that they can relate more to musicians than they can to movie stars or film execs - for that reason I think that the collective conscience of our culture will actually be less bothered about stealing movies than they were about stealing music - and they were basically not bothered at all when it came to music theft.
Fortunately for the movie industry, the warning shots were fired in the form of the music industry implosion, and the industry has an opportunity to try to temper the blow of the coming download frenzy.
With all of the reporting about the effect of illegal dowloading, though, I have not seen a decline in the availability of quality music - and in fact I feel I've seen the opposite - that I could listen to new music exclusively, never hear the same song twice, and always be listening to fresh, new, incredible music. I hope that if the internet does effect the movie industry in the same way that it has effected the music industry, that the effect on the availability of great movies will follow that of great music.
Angelia, great post! The two pieces that struck a chord with me dealt with the tagging capability from YouTube and the music industry. While I visit YouTube frequently (haven't submitted my own video yet), I find the tagging a bit erroneous. You mentioned this in the quote from AdWeek. Some users may tag something inadvertently, and if this capability is carried to Google, the same could happen. Beyond that what if you are just viewing a video out of sheer entertainment and someone is trying to persuade you to get a mortgage at a certain company seems flawed. To me, it sounds like a more targeted form of pop up advertising which Flew points out as very much a deterrent for users.
The music industry piece also spoke to me. I used Napster quite a bit and didn't think twice about the fact that I was basically extracting money from the musicians pocket. I viewed it as a way to "stick it to the man" or the corporate world of the almighty music label like Sony or Geffen. However, when I saw one of my favorite bands, Metallica, testify before a Senate subcommittee about music piracy, I was taken aback. Thus my use of Napster ceased. I have not since used the service (even now in its pirate free form). I find the quality of some mp3 downloads to be quite poor and would much rather pay for the CD or turn to satellite radio for my tunes.
The possiblity of the movie industry moving towards the downloadable market seems staggering given the overblown salaries of some stars ($25 million a picture for making a potential flop seems ridiculous) that it would be a drain on the Hollywood machine. Then again, I could be wrong and it could be the best thing for the movie industry. I know I would rather download and view a new release for a lower fee than checking out the 8:00 for almost $10 a person.
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