Friday, August 31, 2012


MAS110 Convergence Essay
Digital Media Convergence: Music Video Online

It has been just over a decade that we live in a world constantly increasing its intangible connections. People is communicating with each other from all over the world, watching movies in their personal computers, downloading free contents in a matter of minutes. Convergence, for so long thought of as something about to arrive, is now very much with us (Intellect, 2009). This is, indeed, the era of digital media convergence “where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways” (Jenkins, 2006: 18).  
Evolution of Tenchology (2011)

Convergence offers freedom of choice. It allows new media and platforms to provide public service contents which grant interaction and engagement on the part of consumers. A new world is being created, where there is a discernible shift in people’s behavior away from consuming and viewing, towards using. The user is in fact actively involved, contributing to and interacting with products and services, rather than passively consuming them (Intellect, 2008). 
However, along with this come several questioned issues. For example, copyright infringement is causing movie and music industries to undergo drastic changes economically. Television is no longer a preferred media when it comes to watch movies or music videos, which in consequence brings up to the creation of different standards for mobile TV that have evolved into various technologies and forms (Shani Orgad, 2009). Or the fact that amateurism shared through the network is continually challenging professionalism. “Amid the explosive growth of internet services such as e-mail, music downloads and video streaming, along with the growth of the web itself, little thought has been given to recording information for posterity” (The Economist Newspaper, 2012).  
Therefore, is it fair to say that media digital convergence is positive in the process of society’s evolution?

Concerning music, throughout the digital revolution, the business today is not the business of selling CDs in plastic cases anymore, but the trade of selling songs digitally and producing attractive and memorable music videos, which are no longer watched on television. 

David Byrne (2007). Wired Magazine. Entertainment: Music. 


“But that's not bad news for music, and it is certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists” (David Byrne, 2007).  In effect, the negatively affected here are the music and video production industries. “Copyright law was developed to stimulate publication of new works for the edification of culture” (Hilderbrand L., 2007: 40). YouTube, for example, has been accused of violation of copyrights of texts, articles and music, and has received aggressive antipiracy campaigns and lawsuits.  Unofficial, fan-made music videos are made by synchronizing existing footage from other sources, such as television series, movies or even personal videos, with existing songs, and uploaded.

What is music? What should a music video be?

Thirty years ago, MTV launched, marking the dawn of what many consider the music video’s heyday (History Channel, 2011). Music videos were created to be short films integrating songs and imagery, and were produced for promotional or artistic purposes by label records (Dan Moller, 2011). And only some decades ago, music videos were still intentioned to advertise and illustrate a certain image of every artist. 
“Perhaps more than any other band before them, The Beatles harnessed the power of film to market their records and express themselves as artists” (History Channel, 2011). In addition to starring features such as 'Help' and 'A Hard Day’s Night,' the fabulous four recorded dozens of promotional clips that were broadcast in England and overseas. After that, several rock and roll bands followed their lead, releasing increasingly sophisticated promo films that shared the lineup with live performances on televised music variety shows. “In the past, music was something you heard and experienced — it was as much a social event as a purely musical one. Before recording technology existed, you could not separate music from its social context” (David Byrne, 2007).


Nevertheless, in December 2005, the internet saw the launch of the website YouTube, in which nowadays hundreds of millions of visitors daily use it to access television and music contents, and not only that, but to contribute with videos of their own (Hilderbrand L., 2007: 33). The Internet becomes video-friendly, and television starts being forgotten. Several video-sharing websites were born afterwards, and the industry of music videos radically changed.

It took Adam Young, former electronic musician from Owl City, only a high quality camera, some artist producers, a computer and a bunch of electronic toys to create the music video for ‘Fireflies’, a song which made itself famous in YouTube.



Suddenly home-made music videos were made and uploaded in the network, and any amateur citizen participating in the media could call himself artist. Online music videos started owning the idea of aesthetics originality and imaginative production techniques, without having expensive tools or complex equipment. Anyone possessing a camera and knowing the basics of audio editing could create a video clip acclaimed by the masses. As a result, everyone today can participate in the success of music industry. People can upload and download data, comment, and value music, as much as a professional critic.

Such is the case of YouTube video blogger Jayme Dee, who made herself famous around the web by posting home-made videos of her singing songs. The video from her original song called ‘Love Whiplash!’ which is presented in a still-image video, received 1146001 visits from users and got a positive attention on music consumers. Causing her to being listened all over the world by thousands of people that downloaded the song for free.


Amateurism is now a big owner of art in the web, inducing the discontent of famous critics and professional singers. “There's room for all of us. Some artists are the Coke and Pepsi of music, while others are the fine wine — or the funky home-brewed moonshine. And that's fine. What do we need music to do? How do we visit the land in our head and the place in our heart that music takes us to? Can I get a round-trip ticket? Really, isn't that what we want to buy, sell, trade, or download?” (David Byrne, 2007).

In conclusion, we can say that digital media convergence cannot be ignored. Digital revolution is in fact needed in the world today, and people is in its majority happy about the fact that communication is now worldwide and fame is likely to be achieved with only sitting in front of their computers. As I see it, this matter brings within lots of positive benefits for music consumers and music artists as well, although it is known that global economy is changing due to it. Nevertheless, as fast as technology evolves, mankind can never know what to expect of digital development. At this point digital media convergence seems endless.

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Unit Readings:

  • Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press. (Week 2).
  • Hilderbrand, L. (2007). Film Quarterly. Vol 61. (Week 3).

Recommended  Readings:

  • Shani Orgad (2009). Mobile TV: Old and New in the Construction of an Emergent Technology. London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

Additional Readings:


Digital Resources:

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