Video Killed the Radio Star

I always get annoyed when a radio station over kills on playing the same song over and over again. Before learning about the music industry in this class I wasn't able to understand why out of thousands of songs they would choose to play the same five. Before the age of music videos the focus was on a true musician with completely raw talent. It didn't matter if you were blind or ugly, if you could sing or play an instrument like no other than you were signed. Records were sold like crazy and people didn't care if the artist was old, out of shape or even had buck teeth. Musicians had to fight to work they’re way on a record deal based on there ability to write, sing and play.

From this..

to this...

People may wonder why there are so many instant pop stars now rather than hard working naturally talented artist. The answer is because the only thing record producers are focusing on is the income from radio advertising. The emphasis has been switched from talent to youth and beauty. It doesn't matter anymore if you can write your own songs or play an instrument like no one else all the producers are looking for is a made over voice and a look that draws people’s attention and takes their money. Today, you must have the whole package deal, there’s no exception for a pop star that isn't top of the line all around an attractive person to look at.

Today in the business if you are not interesting, you do not get signed. Advertising dollars own the radio industry. For example Clear Channel is a radio station that is in control over many stations and is in command of what gets played on the radio. The company will actually create a playlist of tops songs they know the majority of the mass will turn into hear and that is all that gets played. Repeatedly over and over again we have to listen to the same tunes, because producers figure if we hear something unfamiliar we will change it. A station can not risk loosing our attention so they play it safe and continue to repeat the same ten songs all day long. This means in order to be a successful musicians you either fall in or you fall out, bottom line.  

The extinction of the publishing industry

What once was a booming industry is now plummeting down the same path as the dinosaur. The issue of having to compete was the internet is what the publishing industry is facing today. Small publishers are no longer able to compete effectively and profitably. The biggest threat for advertising dollars comes from online sites. We are spending more time using the internet and advertisers have found a way to reach us more effectively.

For example notice when we log onto our Facebook accounts on the right side of the screen we are shown ads for all kinds of services and products. Advertisers now actually pull information based on what we click that we like and will use are data to pull the ads they think we would be interested in. This way they have our attention and they can try to persuade us into buying their product. Advertising is also done through supporting search engines. The published paper can only hold so much information but the internet pulls up exactly what we want in the click of a button. Instantly we updated on the latest news and entertainment, but we can also publish our own. Between 1999 and 2004 the time spent on the Internet escalated by 24 per cent and online advertising rose by 22 per cent, where as the traditional media spending declined. 

Publishers are not longer interested in the quality of writing anymore. What publishers want now is sale volume. Therefore authors now have to use services like Lulu or CafePress so that they can sell their books. Most only make about .75 cents a book. It is easier now to do so this way because they don't have to deal with an agent they are self publishing their books. Publishing has significantly changed and what we read the quality we once had is being taking away, because of the fact that we must compete now for the dollars instead of focusing on talent. One example that caught my attention was the story of a young author who changed the names and titles of a Jane Austen book. The author submitted the book to 18 publishers and out of those only one caught the plagiarism and the rest flat out rejected the book!!

 The sad reality is with the way times are changing there will no longer be printed paper. We won't buy the paper anymore and the future generation will be asking question like" What is a newspaper?” People in the future most only know of the search engine way to update themselves on the latest news.