Pick a topic and write

The next exercise for this week was to find three articles which will help formulate my essay topic. I have decided to write my essay on the highly contentious music debate whether downloading of music should be made legal or stay illegal. As an avid downloader of course I believe we should be allowed to access as much as we want but, the issue of ‘who are we taking money from?’ The artists? The music companies, or both? All article were accessed using the Griffith Library database. ProQuest was used.

The first article I found - MP3s Are Killing Home Taping: The rise of Internet distribution and its challenge to the major label music monopoly (Kembrew McLeod, 2005) discusses the arguments around the trading of copyrighted music and the way it is distributed which poses a real challenge to the major music labels. The online file-sharing has thrown the music industry into the highly accessible Internet world, but ironically it was the music labels who back in the 80s made the push for the production of CDs and introduced a policy to stop retailers carrying the LPs. This change to the digital disc lead to the digital music problem they are now in.

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1179538181&Fmt=3&clientId=13713&RQT=309&VName=PQD

New Challenges for the iPod Monopoly (Steve Knopper). Now that music is available online one major computer company was quick to jump on the band wagon. Apple Computer with its iPod players are the dominant in the market. To play an iTune you need an iPod as the files can not be accessed otherwise, well 99% of songs- “a strategy that has helped Apple account for about 80% of the digital-download market.”

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1033800671&Fmt=3&clientId=13713&RQT=309&VName=PQD


At the Edge (Antony Bruno)

Finally this article focus of the other players such as Yahoo, MTV, Napster etc attempting to make a dent in Apple Computer's dominance in the digital music market. The addition of online videos which enable everyone and anyone to post themselves or other artist's performances. This opens up a whole new type of FREE exposure.

The launching of Microsoft Zune will be a direct opponent to Apple. Zune will offer a wireless connection to other Zune devices enabling it to share songs. "The Zune model has generated mixed reactions for analysts, but has the direct support of the music industry, which is hungry to drive more digital sales."

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1179538181&Fmt=3&clientId=13713&RQT=309&VName=PQD
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Personally I find it easier to narrow the topics down that I was interested in and then search for articles related to what I was after. I think the hardest thing is, is sifting through the hundreds of articles that are available to find which ones are the most relevant or have the best information for your topic. I hate to think how students survived without the online facilities. How lucky we are!






LECTURE 5

We covered Virtual reality, virtual philosophy and the screen age.

That cyberspace is Platonism as a working product. Half of the lecture was a previous student talking about the PR industry.