Name: Aleksei

Perspective: Economical

Definition of perspective: The economy of music in the current digital era

PART ONE: RESEARCH

Research One

Name of Research: Spotify's Year in Music shows just how little we pay artists for their music

Author: Lizzie Plaugic

Type of Research: Book/Journal Article/Online Newspaper/Gov’t Website/Other: Online Newspaper

Full reference: Plaugic, L. (7/12/15). Spotify’s Year in Music shows just how little we pay artists for their music. The Verge. http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/7/9861372/spotify-year-in-review-artist-payment-royalties

Book: Surname, Initial. (date). Title of Book. City: Publisher

Journal Article: Surname, Initial. (date). Name of Article. Name of Journal Volume(Issue) pp. Pages

Online Newspaper: Surname , Initial. (date). Name of Article. Name of Newspaper. Retrieved URL

Gov’t Website: Government Department. (date). Name of Article. Retrieved from URL

In text reference:

(Plaugic, 7/12/15)

Evidence from your research

What are three main ideas in this research?

One: That spotify’s year in music feature shows how little artists are paid. Spotify’s year in music may be a fun, exciting feature, but after closer inspection, it really reveals how little artists are paid for each stream on spotify. It advertises how many times users have played their favourite tracks and albums, and what their most played artists are, which can then be used to calculate how much money each person has paid their favourite artists by taking the amount of money an artist makes per stream (from 0.006 to 0.0084 cents), and multiplying it by the amount of times you played your favourite artist.

Two: Spotify does not properly pay their artists. Instead it pays record labels the majority of the money made. The record labels then filter that money and pay everyone involved except for the actual musicians themselves. The artists are then left with the miniscule amount that is left. “Earlier this year when The Verge obtained a copy of Sony’s Spotify contract, we noted that Spotify uses a complex formula to determine the royalties artists earn from streams. Major labels likely receive a sizable sum from Spotify, but not all of that money is going to artists. And not all artists get the same cut of Spotify revenue either: depending on their contracts with the label, some musicians might only recoup 15 to 20 percent of the streaming revenue they brought in. Other factors also come into play, like the country in which a song was streamed and the currency value in that country. Still, Spotify admits the average "per stream" payout to rights holders lands somewhere between $0.006 and $0.0084.”

Three: Listeners should be more conscious and pay for music by artists they enjoy. Spotify does not properly pay their artists, and if someone enjoys an artist’s music, they should support them by purchasing their music, buying merchandise, or going to live shows.

Linking your research

Explain how this research links to your overall topic:

My overall topic is on money in the music industry, and this article talks about how the most popular streaming service, Spotify, pays their artists. It is clear that Spotify, and many other streaming services do not properly pay their artists, as this article illustrates.

Annotating the Research

How do you know this research is credible?

The article is from a reputable source, “The Verge” is a website that has been around for many years, and is widely trusted. The article itself uses many personal examples, and facts that are from a reputable source (Spotify itself).

Research Two

Name of Research: How piracy is changing the music industry landscape

Author: Steven Caldwell Brown

Type of Research: Book/Journal Article/Online Newspaper/Gov’t Website/Other:

Online Newspaper

Full reference:

Brown, S. (23/9/14). How piracy is changing the music industry landscape. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/how-piracy-is-changing-the-music-industry-landscape-31919

Book: Surname, Initial. (date). Title of Book. City: Publisher

Journal Article: Surname, Initial. (date). Name of Article. Name of Journal Volume(Issue) pp. Pages

Online Newspaper: Surname , Initial. (date). Name of Article. Name of Newspaper. Retrieved URL

Gov’t Website: Government Department. (date). Name of Article. Retrieved from URL

In text reference:

(Brown, 23/9/14)

Evidence from your research

What are three main ideas in this research?

One: The main source of income for musicians nowadays is live shows. Since pirating music has become so common, and streaming services pay artists so little, album sales do not provide nearly as much money as they used to. Instead money made from ticket sales and such for playing live shows has become the primary source of revenue.

Two: Piracy has had a positive effect on live music. Studies suggest that the increase is music listening from piracy has increased people’s motivation to want to see artists perform live. “In another recent book, Online File Sharing: Innovations in Media Consumption, Jonas Andersson Shwarz acknowledged that it is now uncontroversial to suggest that individuals engaging in music piracy are greater consumers of culture overall, noting that music piracy motivates live music attendance. A substantial volume of research (some of which is cited in Shwarz’s book) demonstrates that those who download music illegally also spend more money on music purchased legally, including concert tickets.”

Three: Ticket prices for concerts has risen a huge amount. While it may seem that piracy is the culprit, studies show that the true reason is ticket scalping, which is the act of reselling a ticket illegally, usually at an incredibly inflated price. This has increased the price of concert tickets immensely over the past decade by putting more demand on tickets, meaning that the original source raises their price.

Linking your research

Explain how this research links to your overall topic:

My overall topic is economics in art, and I am focusing on music. Piracy is a big part of the music industry nowadays, and this article focuses on its effect on it.

Annotating the Research

How do you know this research is credible?

The piece was written by a PHD student in music psychology, and it is from The Conversation, a site for academics to submit articles and analyses

Research Three

Name of Research: Did Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ Honesty Box Actually Damage The Music Industry?

Author: NME blog

Type of Research: Book/Journal Article/Online Newspaper/Gov’t Website/Other:

Online Newspaper

Full reference: NME blog. (15/10/12). Did Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ Honesty Box Actually Damage The Music Industry?. NME. http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/did-radioheads-in-rainbows-honesty-box-actually-damage-the-music-industry-765394

Book: Surname, Initial. (date). Title of Book. City: Publisher

Journal Article: Surname, Initial. (date). Name of Article. Name of Journal Volume(Issue) pp. Pages

Online Newspaper: Surname , Initial. (date). Name of Article. Name of Newspaper. Retrieved URL

Gov’t Website: Government Department. (date). Name of Article. Retrieved from URL

In text reference:

(NME blog, 15/10/12)

Evidence from your research

What are three main ideas in this research?

One: That the pay what you want method of releasing “In Rainbows” may have damaged the music industry by making music seem “worthless”, and destroying the careers of many smaller bands.

Two: The honesty box release damaged album sales, and actually lost Radiohead money. 62% of people who downloaded did not pay and got it for free, meaning that only 32% actually payed for it. The average amount of money spent on the album was $2.26. Over its first twenty four days of being released alone, the record was torrented up to 2.3 million times. Though it may seem as though Radiohead lost an incredible amount of money in doing this, the album had sold over 3 million copies by the time of its official release, and peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Three: The pay what you want method had a positive effect on the music industry, despite the heavy backlash it garnered when it was released. It made the band a large amount of money, it showed that many of Radiohead’s fans respected them, and it had no negative effects on the way people viewed music, as many people feared. The effect the controversial honesty box method has had on the music industry and music in general is undeniable. What seemed like an extremely risky and stupid experiment in 2007 is common place in 2016, and it opened the eyes for many on how big of an issue piracy was becoming.

Linking your research

Explain how this research links to your overall topic:

The immensely controversial pay what you want method had a huge effect on the music industry, which is what I am focusing on for my overall topic.

Annotating the Research

How do you know this research is credible?

The research is from the website “NME” a highly popular website focusing on pop culture and entertainment. This, however, does not guarantee credibility. There is also no author listed, meaning there is no way to background check the person who wrote it.  The article uses many real examples of sales, and many quotes from musicians and Radiohead themselves.

PART TWO: Research Comparisons

By investigating the three pieces of research you have summarised, explore the key similarities and differences between the research. (Have at least three each)

Similarities	Differences
-All articles focus on the scarcity of album sales in the music industry -All three articles discuss the way pirating and streaming services make selling music not nearly as profitable as it once was. -All of the articles advertise that you should spend money and support your favourite artists.	-The third article uses a much more personal example (Radiohead’s In Rainbows release) than the other two -The second article’s author has a phd in music psychology, meaning the article is much more reliable and credible than the other two -The third article also focuses on a much more specific event, rather than the other two articles, which are much more general in their scope.

Based on what you have learnt so far what is one question you have that you want to explore that is related to your research and topic.

• Explain how it is related to your topic and why it is an important question to answer.

Based on what i’ve learned so far, a question I have is, is a career in music still a viable career path, and was it ever?. All three articles talk about how little album sales mean anymore, and how live music is the only real source of income in the music industry anymore. This question is very broad in scope, and can apply to many different situations, but is a question that many aspiring musicians wonder, and would love some kind of answer to.