Dominator

The success and failure of online social interaction within social groups can be measured (similarly to other new inventions) by the efficiency of "The Dominant Response" as termed by behaviourist Kenneth Spence. These behaviours are extremely well learned responses and the most likely used in any given situation.

The Dominant responses are usually wrong when learning new tasks, hence the difficulties encountered when using chopsticks - if a knife and fork is the usual utensil of choice. Dominant responses work very well when used in familiar situations, from this we can draw the conclusion that the more intuitively familiar society is with a new concept/invention the more it will gravitate towards it. Confirmation of this is demonstrated by the huge success of the E-Mail (a response to letter writing and posting) and also the success of iTunes' (www.apple.com/itunes) digital downloading portal, whose user page (a list of song/artist/album) is a legal replication of the outlawed Sean Fanning's Napster page (www.napster.co.uk). Napster was the first file sharing site where many emerging communities shared illegal files, but more importantly acquired the skill set for downloading music.

Myspace was invented in 2003 and by 2006 it was the leading social networking site. It was highly interactive platform where you could make friends, post comments and leave personal messages. Myspace's effective audio-video upload system was used by artists as a great platform to show off their work and gain communal friends and fans. It soon became the place to hear new bands and discover new music online. However by 2008, based on the numbers of monthly unique visitors, statistics revealed it had been overtaken by Facebook (www.facebook.com) as the primary online social networking tool.

I would suggest Facebook usurped Myspace as the number 1 social networking site simply because it catered to some very familiar and acquired end user skill sets that Myspace failed to uptake, such as real time interaction and updates, but ultimately it was its superior functional interface with the inherent ease of accessibility for group interaction that dealt Myspace the deadly blow. Other factors cited were crash and privacy problems.

The downsizing trend in surveys with regards to MySpace is not the downfall of music consumption, but the downfall of social networking on MySpace as a social platform. Furthermore, MySpace fundamentally failed to address familiar and acquired end user skill sets, social patterns and group behaviors.

How will this effect the artist?

Myspace for now still remains a great business card for artists within the industry and its user decline is not as widespread in the USA (the largest music market). However now that its social networking status is in decline, Rupert Murdoch will no doubt focus his attention onto new solutions in order to salvage a return on his $1/2 biillon investment. I assume he will use Myspace data (gained over the years) and turn Myspace into a major music store with streaming capabilities. To achieve this and succeed he must incorporate user dominant responses, and acquired user skill sets from leading stores like iTunes and Last FM.

Please see information below from Wikepedia about the new features added in the redesign of the new Myspace music page

"MySpace has recently redesigned its music page adding new features for all musicians. These new features include the users' ability to create playlists, resembling the functions of Last.fm and other social music websites, along with the popular Project Playlist that popular on profiles. The new music features also archive songs from many popular artists, resembling the services of iTunes and Napster. Starting in March 2010, because of music licensing rights, MySpace Music has turned into a music store and only allows to play 30 second samples for signed artists".

Lively Up Your Self

Get out your instrument and practice!! Even if you make beats, learn methods of improvising, live, real time. It's said that one must get 10,000 practice hours under one's belt for greatness. And practice means practice - Jimi Hendrix took his guitar to the toilet, such was his obsession.

When the facade and gloss of studio production and gimmicks fall away, all that is left is the raw talent: the embryonic funkenstien of the soul. It's is not about fame or the manipulation of the media, it is about the first time you were moved by the undeniable force of music and you heard that calling from deep within saying "come join in". You looked in the mirror and you dreamed of turning yourself from air guitarist to star guitarist and for the first time life really stood still.

A true star is a light that shines for those to follow.

Back to work now, and create something true and new.

Lively up yourself!

Things Can Only Get Better

In 1997 when the Labour government entered power, they rolled in accompanied by the sweet of sound of a D-ream with Undertones conducted by the Prince of Darkness. A flash delirium, designed to put the nation into a deep sleep - even the King of 'Brit Pop' was seen sleepwalking into No.10.

Fast forward to 2010 and we finally wake from the nightmare. However the "Prince of darkness" and his new buddy, an "Undertone" so out of tune that he should be referred to as the a 'Undertaker' have produced a swan song. Who yelled "Encore"?

The 'wash up' process has been spun and is now hanging out to dry. Out of the speeding turbine hangs a twisted, non-thought-out, and unenforceable piece of legislation: The Digital Rights Bill.

The Bill has been attacked in many ways, but when viewed from a qualitative and quantitative perspective (in the case of music content), the stains that failed to come out in the wash really show up.

A four minute song file produced at a mastering house contains approximately 40MB of data. A four minute song (approx 79p) downloaded from itunes who compress this file to AAC file contains approx 8MB of data. One could argue that the original Copyright theft starts here. The Mp3 file (the most commonly shared file) contains about 4MB. Hence, the consumer is sold fifth (AAC) and one tenth (MP3) of the original file content by service providers.

The deterioration of the original file affects qualitative perspective and sounds very poor in comparison. Can either format be deemed an exact copy of the original recording or should they be viewed as "ghost" copies, and sold at 16p or 8p per track? Over to the those screaming that file sharing is tantamount to stealing.

The correct definition(s) of what is deemed copyright and format infringement (along with many others related issues) must be explored thoroughly before implementing a legislation that many consumers instinctively view is ill-judged, or don't even understand.

The Internet is still in its infancy and requires time to evolve and develop. It is a slow and clogged medium hence the effectiveness and efficiency of the (file sharing) bit torrent. In time, it may well be the development of this technology that revolves the service providers' issue with upload and download speeds and allow for the delivery of optimum quantitative and qualitative content.

This may prove to be the best way to entice consumers to buy content, while allowing this amazing communication technology the space and freedom to discover and grow out of its infancy.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself, because in the words of D-ream, all those years ago: Things can only get better.

Here Comes The Sun

There is huge change happening within our industry, rather like the beginning of Hollywood. New methods are being explored to galvanise new teams and systems that bring the artist directly in touch with the audience.

The artist must once again become an artist. Not for the want of fame, but a desire to resonate with its audience.

This audience now has more information, data, and choice than it has had throughout history and it is far wiser.

If you imagine what Henry Ford must have thought of the coach maker still revelling in the delights of his method of travel.

A new day is dawning "here comes the sun"