Digital Media Convergence: Music Video Online
Jake Morcom
Digital
media convergence is a process that has ultimately redefined the contemporary
media environment. The swift circulation and development of digital media has
profoundly shaped the face of modern day technology and communication causing
severe social, cultural, industrial and media industry change. Such digital
media forms, specifically mobile phone technologies and the Internet, have
become embedded into the lifestyles of consumers in which ‘the new reality has
become a multimedia one’ (Dwyer 2010). Consumers are able to access content
across multiple media platforms with greater ease and further participate
within the online realms they visit (Jenkins 2006). In turn, the prospect of
music video has converged to online means where the phenomenon of YouTube has
networked online video users and participants unlike ever before.
Jenkins
(2006) defines convergence within a broad context of important factors, ‘the
flow of content across multiple media platforms; the cooperation between
multiple media industries; and the migratory behaviour of media audiences’. Digital
media convergence has allowed forms of traditional media to be incorporated
into a modern online community (Lawson-Borders 2003), where past information;
videos, images, music and music video’s are now accessible through the means of
multiple ‘search engines’ and programs assigned to their distribution.
Traditional forms of music were previously available to consumers through
either releases of vinyl, CDs and cassettes, to which music video only became viewable
and recognised through the emergence of televisual broadcasters such as MTV and
VH1 (Frith, Goodwin & Grossberg 1993).
Music
video initially had a disputable affect upon consumers where the prioritization
of image over music arose conflicting arguments regarding the meaning of the
music and the success of future musicians who were image deficient. The
radio-television convergence of music video had a great impact upon the music
industry as fan bases and audiences were divided in response to whom associated
more so with the music, and whom associated more so with the image and
representation of the musician (Frith, Goodwin & Grossberg 1993). However,
image in music video meant that culturally, consumers were becoming more aware
of their product and in turn able to participate and further appreciate their
music purchasing.
Jenkins
(2004) notes that convergence acts to shift the relationship between existing
technologies, markets, genres and audiences. He further discusses that
contemporary audiences are encouraged to seek out dispersed information through
the convergence of digital media forms. In this regard, YouTube has adapted
traditional forms of media to become the prevalent online distributor of music
video by providing a dynamic and wide range of easily accessible music and
music video. Modern audiences utilize YouTube as the ‘go-to website’ to find
streaming video clips (Hilderbrand 2007), in which side boxes, in the case of
music video, contain recommended videos comprising of other videos by the same or
similar artists. YouTube allows its users, through its user-friendly interface
and search options (Hilderbrand 2007), to access the culturally archived music
and video that would otherwise have been lost to media markets and audiences.
The
international epidemic of digital media convergence has influenced the way in
which consumers interact with each other, and the way in which consumers and
producers interact with each other in a cultural and industrial setting. Fredin
and David (1998 p. 94) note that ‘the process of convergence is not static, but
rather a continuum in which organizations must select the appropriate medium or
combination thereof to reach their goals’. YouTube predominantly serves as a
user-generated program, ‘Broadcast Yourself’, however, after Google’s purchase
of Youtube in 2006 (Hilderbrand 2007) and the introduction of VEVO, the
industrial input into YouTube’s content and distribution of music video
reflects the process of digital media convergence and its affect upon the
cultural and industrial aspects of digitized media.
VEVO was launched in 2009
as a video hosting service for music artists of which enabled easier searching
options for consumer listening as artists’ accounts were hyperlinked and
followed by the wording VEVO. It’s introduction is debatable, positive in
regards to its easy access and distribution of music video, but negative in
response to Google’s exploitation of artist music video for revenue. Not all
record companies and artists have diverged to VEVO accounts, some of which
include Fueled By Ramen and EMI Music artists. Other artists, in this case
noise pop duo Sleigh Bells, are signed both to VEVO and music webzine Pitchfork
TV, promoting live footage through their VEVO account and their music video through
Pitchfork.
In
regards to YouTube, we can see how modern forms of digital media are not
displacing old media forms, but more so shifting their functions and use onto
new technologies (Jenkins 2006).
Musicians are still making music, and from music, music videos are made.
From this it can be evaluated that old media forms may continue to diverge and
decrease, but the way in which we access such content through new media means,
is converging. Further, through the provision of new online technologies,
consumers are further able to participate in online realms, which in turn
shapes the face of the contemporary online culture. Digital media convergence,
however, is still an evolving practice that faces influence from industry
change and regulation. Such regulation requires media constituents to
continually ‘adapt, merge and transition’ emerging digital technologies to
appeal to and benefit consumers (Dwyer, 2010).
Digital
media convergence is a process that continues to revolutionize the contemporary
media environment. Such convergence has altered societal perception and
cultural practice in regards to the essentiality of new technological forms. The
process of digital media convergence, however, is still inextricably linked to
the industrial regulations that define it, of which is evidenced through the
online music video distributary YouTube, which offers consumers wide
accessibility to new and archived music and music video. As digital media
convergence continues to redefine the face of contemporary culture, the
multiplicity of media platforms we have today can only further magnify.
References
Unit
Readings
Dwyer,
T (2010) Media Convergence, McGraw
Hill, Berkshire, pp. 1-23.
Jenkins,
H (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old
and New media Collide, NY University Press, pp.1-24.
Recommended
Readings
http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DYSSsn1VneIC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=music+video+history&ots=CgvBH0QCYO&sig=UkkevNZQrlngLYFqHEcR_tqTlL4#v=onepage&q=music%20video%20history&f=false
[accessed 30 August 2012]
Lawson-Borders, G (2003) ‘Integrating New and Old
Media: Seven Observations of Convergence as a Strategy for Best Practices in
Media Organizations’, International Journal on Media Management, vol. 5, Issue
2, pp. 91-99.
Youtube (2012) Sleigh Bells, Demons [online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0_BlUbGBSo [accessed 30 August 2012]
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