Week Four 12/15-12/17

"Universal Music Group"

     Universal Music Group otherwise known as UMG is the leader in recorded music, publishing, and merchandising worldwide. They are known for discovering and developing new recording artists and later on marketing and promoting their music across a diverse platform, as well as having more music sales than any other record label.  

"Representing some of the most influential and legendary recording artists of the last 100 years, UMG has the most extensive catalog of music in the industry."

"The company works closely with new & established entertainment clients, creating innovative products carefully tailored to each artist or brand. "

     To be honest, I had no idea of just how big and successful this corporation was. It is crazy because it is multinational and also owns the second largest publishing company in the world, Universal Music Publishing Group. UMG also has the most extensive catalog of music in the industry including a variety of artists from many different genres. 

Source:
Universal Music Company 

Citation:

"Universal Music Company Overview." Universalmusic.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.

Week Three 12/8-12/12

"Music and Personality" 

     Psychology experts say that music choice can actually reveal information about your personality. Research suggests that someone could make an accurate prediction of somebody else's personality based off of listening to about 10 of their preferred music tracks. For example, one's level of extroversion, creativity and open-mindedness can all be revealed after listening to a couple of their favorite songs. 

"In spite of the stereotype that rap lovers are more aggressive or violent, researchers have actually found no such link. Rap fans do tend to have high self-esteem and are usually outgoing."

"While pop music lovers are hard-working and have high self-esteem, researchers suggests that they tend to be less creative and more uneasy."

     I liked that this article explained a variety of different musical genres in relation to an individual's personality and their characteristics. I mostly agree with what the research in this article has found, based off of my personal relationships with others who listen to different genres of music, I know that it's  mostly true and their personality sounds like what is being described in the article. 

Source:
Music and Personality

Citation:
 Cherry, Kendra. "Music and Personality." Psychology.about.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

 

Week Two 12/1-12/5

"How The Role of Genres Has Changed In Music Culture"

     In today's music world, listeners seem to not give much importance to genres as they once did in the past. In terms of categorizing music, people are now speaking in a much broader manner. Music used to be a defining cultural reference point in the way that you would be able to look at someone's wardrobe style, and immediately have an idea of their musical preferences. Music fans back in the day were more engaged than most of the music fans today. 

"A school of thought that is gaining traction is that genres matter much less than they did and that they are no longer so useful for categorizing music."

"Throughout prior decades it had been possible to identify people’s music affinity by the clothes they wore and the style of their hair. Because music was the core cultural reference point the average ‘music IQ’ was high."

"Now though, music competes with a fierce array of alternative cultural identifiers such as branded clothing, extreme sports, networked gaming etc. The result is that the average mass market music fan is less engaged than in the analogue era and the overall average ‘music IQ’ has dropped."

     This article is very spot-on in terms of explaining the relationship today between music genres and audiences. I see it every day: in school, on social media, etc. When people are asked what they enjoy listening to the usual comment is "I like a little bit of everything" . As seen in the picture above, the mainstream music fan identifies themselves with listening to rock, dance, urban or pop. Whereas the real music fans would classify them in more specific genres such as under dance music they wold categorize house, techno and trance. Many people these days, especially teenagers my age, go to music events music such as Ultra Music Festival. These events are supposed to be for the real music fans who can talk about more than that one song that always plays on the radio. But even these events that were originated for music fanatics, have become mainstream and many people now attend without even knowing half of the performers.  

Source:
How The Role of Genres Has Changed In Music Culture

Citation:
"How The Role of Genres Has Changed In Music Culture." Musicindustryblog.wordpress.com. N.p., 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

Week One- 11/24-11/28

•"Why Musicians Make Little While Music Services and Distributors Make Billions."

     In today's music industry world, artists are finding it hard to make money by selling their music thanks to peer-to-peer file sharing, download stores, and on-demand streams while the big industries are doing just fine, and are actually profiting. It is not necessary for digital music stores and distributors to make sure they sell or stream all of their music in stock for them to make money, which affects the artist who's work isn't selling. Instead, companies are using music for their own profit, by selling their own products and services. 

"Now it is only the artist who must sell their music in order to 'stay in business.' And artists are fending for themselves against a tidal wave in a sea of technology companies and venture capitalists."

"Instead, music is used to sell smart phones, tablets, computers, recurring monthly subscription fees, operating systems and to generate market share. Or it's being used as a loss-leader in order to attract a buyer; making all the investors and shareholders rich while the songwriters, publishers, artists and music creators get little to nothing. The artist is a commodity being aggregated to provide the impression of breadth in a music catalog."

     After reading this article, I have to say I'm not surprised at all with this new way the music industry is working in. I guess it was pretty obvious that companies have found other ways to make money besides selling artists' music since there are now streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora, etc. But with all of this going on, it makes you think: where do the musicians fall into this equation? How will they earn their money? There are those that have been earning very little, and those that have gotten nothing at all as a result of distributors not making the effort of promoting their music as they once did in the past. Come to think of it, when was the last time I bought a CD or a song on iTunes... I honestly cannot remember. I am an every day Pandora and SoundCloud user, so I don't find the need to purchase music anymore just as most music listeners these days. 

Source: 
Why Musicians Make Little While Music Services and Distributors Make Billions

Citation:
Price, Jeff. "Why Musicians Make Little While Music Services and Distributors Make Billions." Hypebot.com. N.p., 03 Oct. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

•"Do We Consume Music More, Enjoy It Less?"

     Studies show that "our brain reacts to great music similar to way it reacts to sex." In both situations the brain releases a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers. This is why many times we get goose bumps when listening to a favorite song, because it stirs something deep inside of us. But after playing it too much, we don't experience the same reaction because of less dopamine being released. 

"During these listening sessions, a 6-9% relative increase in their dopamine levels was detected in participates when compared to a control condition in which participants had listened to each other’s music selections.  While eating a pleasurable meal, a relative increase of 6% was experienced by participants. So, in other words, listening to your favorite song is a lot like eating a cheese and Portobello-stuffed burger."

"We assume that overweight people are gluttons – that they’re unable to resist temptation. However, the opposite is true. They overeat because they don’t enjoy their food enough. They keep consuming the milkshake because it isn’t satisfying. Maybe this is also why we listen to music constantly.

We find it less pleasurable."

     I really enjoyed reading this article because it is not the first time I have heard of dopamine being released when listening to music we enjoy. When I took an AP Psychology course in school, I learned about neurotransmitters such as dopamine and how similar levels can be released as a result of very different situations. This article states that in prior studies with cocaine, dopamine increases in the brain had been above 22 percent. But when eating a tasty meal, participants experienced an increase of around  6 percent, the same increase amount as to when participants listened to the music of their choice. I found it very interesting how this article brings up the idea that because music has become so available to us anytime, anywhere, we have gone from experiencing crazy goose bumps to passively hearing not listening to it in the background. 

Source:
Do We Consume Music More, Enjoy It Less?

Citation:
Bylin, Kyle. "Do We Consume Music More, Enjoy It Less?" Musicthinktank.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.