Media Production Is Dominated By Global Institution, Which Sell Their Products And Services To National Audiences. To What Extent Do You Agree With This Statement?

In this essay I will be engaging in the record company, Rough Trade Records. I will also be analysing the switch from analogue to digital (digitalization) and the lasting effects of this change. I will also be talking about the growth of digitalization and how this, compatibility and portability go hand in hand.
Prior to digitalization, media was distributed in a very physical form. If a CD was to be bought by a customer, a lorry would have to drive up to a shop, drop it off and have the customer buy it. This is in great contrast with now-a-days where you can go onto your laptop wherever you are and download it for free.

The music business used to be owned by the big four; EMI, Sony Music Entertainers, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. Then when digitalization came in anyone can go online and download a free recording program, record your own music, and put it up online for people to listen to it and download it. This is putting major record companies like EMI out of business. On the other hand it makes music much more accessible to the public and the audience can and have become the producer, artist and disrupter. Therefore you can go onto a website such as http://www.facebook.com/  and http://www.youtube.com/  etc. upload your own music for free and the audience can listen and download it within seconds. Popstars such as Justin Bieber have made worldwide success via this method. Arctic Monkeys have also made worldwide success solely over the internet.

In 1976 (when analogue was the only method of listening to music), Geoff Travis was travelling in North America and amassed a huge record collection as he moved from coast to coast. He then shipped these records back to the UK which became the basis of the Rough Trade Shop. This was a very independent thing to do, as if a record shop wanted some records they would order them, whereas Travis brought them back personally. In an interview with The Guardian, when asked how he felt about digitalization he replied "In whatever form it comes, music is still music, good and bad. These are the important distinctions for me. I buy CDs all the time so I am not against digital music, but I don't really love listening to music on the computer – I much prefer to hear the air in the room assaulted by the sound of some good speakers. I still have my record player and like playing vinyl – it has made a revival and it is important, especially for the independents. If you are starved of music, an old transistor will still work"

Despite Travis' relaxed view on digitalization, it's become a real problem for independent labels such as Rough Trade Records. In the analogue era the shops/companies would make the money directly, but in the digital era the companies are lucky if they're music is bought legally and downloaded for free. Compact Discs are now becoming inferior due to the audience feeling no need for them. For years, the CD industry has been suffering a major crisis because of its inability to adapt to changing times. Sales of recorded music continue to drop, not only because of piracy but also because the digital era has changed the way people consume music. The public do not want to buy a complete CD only to discover that they like only a couple of songs on it. It is more comfortable for them to download the music they want from the Internet, and listen to it on a small device that enables them to carry hundreds of songs wherever they go.

Technological convergence is also a reality, thanks to such products as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, which enables people to play games, watch DVD movies, view photos taken on a digital camera, carry out video conferences using internet-based chat, listen to music and navigate the web, all of this while comfortably seated in their living room. This is a major problem for record companies but the mobile phone operators will be one of the big winners. You always take your cell phone with you, and it knows a lot about you. For example, it can automatically find out if you want to listen to music, and what type of music. At a given moment, the music can become a regular part of the agenda that you carry around with you on your cell phone. There is an enormous business potential in combining mobility and connectivity to enable customers to access digital music and entertainment content from any location. http://www.musicstrands.com/  has developed a technology for mobile phones that will enable users to synchronize their mobile phones with their PCs, and transfer information between the two.

In conclusion, record companies such as Rough Trade Records have recently and will feel the weight of digitalization. This will create a vicious circle where record companies don't make the money back, will not be able to put the money back into the artists who will not be able to make more music and eventually if another way around is not found out record companies (including the big four) will grind to a halt with making music. For companies such as Sony, they will still make money off their other non-music related products but for independent such as Rough Trade Records this may mark an unfortunate end for the company.