What Does the Future of the Music Industry Hold for Us?

What is happening to music? Will we be renting music from everyone instead of owning it? Will we be free to play it on anything we want or anywhere we want? I think that the future of music remains unclear. Many are challenging the idea of DRM for very legitamate reasons such as they can't play music on other music players becuase of the DRM. Many argue the rights of DRM to be reasonable, becuase they think music should be paid for and they're trying to put some control on it. I feel the pain of both sides. Understanding that anyone can try to justify their illegal and/or wrong behaviors such as stealing music. Anyone can say,"well I only need one stick of gum so I have a right to steal a piece out of this package. They are obviously wrong for stealing, but they can justify the'r actions until they're blue in the face and the silly ness continues. One side says it's okay to download illegally, "we have the right", and the other side says it's wrong, "music artists aren't getting their well deserved profit anymore". I don't feel we have the right to free music. We never have been able to get music free before unless on the radio, so why should we be able to download it for free? However, the problem lies deeper than just the downloading dilema. It is more of a need to answer the question, "what should a person be allowed to do with the music once they have paid for the download?", and "how much will it cost a person to download and how much will they charge for a person to do what ever they want with it, playing it anywhere on anything?". When we had tapes, they weren't handed out for free. You had to buy it, and if you felt you had the right to have it for free, you could steal it and risk getting caught for shoplifting. If you knew someone who had purchased the tape you could dub the whole tape on a blank tape and pass up the expensive costs of the original, or you could wait for the song to come on the radio and record it from their. Then the CD came, and the decision became, "do I buy the single tape with the one popular song I like?, or should I buy the new hip CD that I can play in the car cd player and the new stereos and at all my friends houses with their new cd players? Then burning CD's became intelligently affordable and popular, and everyone had all these anonymous discs with all kinds of illegally downloaded and burned music to share freely. Then, the popular and sheek ipod came. Now, you can take your music with you everywhere without scratching, skipping, tape eating, burning discs or stealing, and all the other ancient annoyances like dropping your walkman while rollerblading or carrying a boombox with you where ever you go to hang out. Either way you look at it, the game is all about the internet now. Figuring out how to control the consumers who download music and find a way to make money without having the music given away for free. Everything on the internet is free, so now the game is how can we create the coolest products to acces the best music. The only way to control the illegal downloading is to continue to have products for consumers to desire, and designing the products to only be capable to download from particluar stores and played on particluar music players. Even the cell phone music players are the best creations so far becuase everyone has a cell phone and now the game is who has one with music and how are they going to get their musc? It seems that the game of music retail and consumption is getting so difficult that the easiest way to have music is to download it illegally. The myth "it's simple, and not everyone gets caught", can be tricky to believe. I don't know about all that, but I think that it is possible for the government to get involved and regulate it and just come down hard on the internet. It's possible, but I didn't say I agreed that it'll be fare or not and people will definately not like it. Some people don't agree with the legal age of alcohol consumption either, but just because their is a legal age to drink doesn't stop people from drinking under the legal age limit. They risk getting caught, and some do get caught and pay the consequences. If they can't figure out how to control the online music industry their might not be a music industry. Still, between record labels' new ideas and computer companies' new ideas something has got to form a pattern for consumers to easily conform to a mutual, modern way of getting music while the music artist still gets a revenue. The future of music lies in the hands of the computer/internet industry now.

A New Look For Books!

Torn pages, lost covers, no biding and using bookmarks as place holders. All these things are so 1999, it’s the 2000’s and the new millennium and with that comes new technology whether it’s with television, newspapers, radio or film things are changing every day.

As my fellow P.O.P.(Power Of Print) Stars and I presented the wonderful world of books, so much has gone down in the world of print and books are catching up with the times and becoming more exciting than just 340 pages bound together telling a story of a boy who has lost his dog and must travel back in time to change his past to fix the present. Now maybe that example was a little farfetched, but any story someone can write with proper mechanics and grammar have the potential of having a book published and being on the New York Times Best seller list. So I digressed a little bit away from the topic at hand, but as I’ve said before when most people read about books whether it’s a book report or a research paper on the history of them, society or our class rather lose focus quickly.

Though I am aware that people that really read and appreciate books are the type of people that will never let go of a real book just because there is something about holding it, and turning pages and all that and not just reading it off a screen, the future of books is inside the Sony E-Reader is the next big thing in the world of books. As the video shows, the ereader allows nontraditional readers to have a on the go electronic folder of essentially 350 ebooks. The model shown in the video features the book light for dim light reading and also a stylus pen which allows users to search for books out of their database. To say the ereader will make more people read would be a false theory, because though the technology is update and allows users to page through a digital version of books that we page through every day at libraries these ereaders take a good chunk out of your pocket. They’re saying this model in the video is about 400 dollars, unless you have a lot of money and 400 is pocket change for you, not many people are going to add this to their bookshelf. Which brings up an interesting thought is there going to be ereader bookshelves probably not seeing as the ereader holds thousand s upon thousand pages, but I had to mention it. I to this point read books very rarely, unless it’s related to pro wrestlers or tips of making it big in Hollywood and there is many classic novels I’d read again and again, but books are not my favorite past time, but until they adapt them with ereader I don’t plan on making a purchasing on one, but that doesn’t mean if someone from class gets one I won’t want to check it out. Thanks for reading everyone, can’t wait to read the rest of my P.O.P. Star’s blogs and everyone else’s of course.

iPod touch Ad –Nick Haley


Advertisements are used to show what the product is and how you would use it. There trying to cell there product as best has they can so as many people will want to by it. In my case I picked the iPod touch Ad and it is showing you all the features it has and offers to you.
The ad starst with a hit song that’s catchy and makes you want to get up and dance. Then pops up the iPod touch; showing you a 360 image of the Product. This way you can get the full feature on what it looks like. All of this kind of gives the setting of the commercial of the iPod touch. All you see in this is some ones hand touching the screen to show you what all is offers. It shows you that you can listen to music, watch videos, download photos, safari and you can download music right onto your iPod from it. You wouldn’t need your computer or I tunes because everything is already on this iPod touch that you would need.
I wouldn’t say this commercial has a lot of conflict in it. It pretty much is just showing what it has to offer to us and how it is better then the all the other ipods before. I think that would be the biggest conflict in this commercial. It acts as a hero through all the things it can do. I think this iPod touch is the only one that has the internet on it so you can download music right from the iPod itself. I think that’s huge and makes people want to buy it. They don’t have to buy the song on the I tunes on the computer anymore. They do it straight from the iPod. I think high school and college kids are usually the ones to buy and use ipods. A lot of adults also do have iPods but you usually see teenagers with them. These commercials apple puts together are always catchy and make people want to buy there product.

"Bugs want in, Orkin keeps them out"

Everyone enjoys a clean house, this includes keeping insects outside and not all over your home. In the Orkin commercial for pest control they make it clear that they are the people to call if one needs to get rid of and keep insects out. The characters are an adult female, an insect that talks and is life size, and the Orkin man who is the hero. It is set in a rural neighborhood in the middle of the day at the front door, inside the kitchen of the home, in the street in front of the home and in the yard.
The woman is in the kitchen getting a meal ready when she hears the doorbell ring. Confused, she makes her way to the door to find a life size insect holding a pizza in her door way. While eerie music is playing in the background, the insect says “Hi, here are your pizzas.” Still confused the woman tells the insect that she did not order any pizzas. Disregarding the response the insect continues by saying that he will just set the pizzas on the table. It then cuts to a voice saying “bugs want in, Orkin keeps them out.” They explain that they are pest control and it shows an Orkin worker inspecting the house for signs of other insects. It then goes to the Orkin man putting a sign in the lawn and looking up to see the life size insect in a car slowly driving by, then quickly speeding up. It ends by showing the Orkin sign and saying “Orkin, keeping pests in their place.”
The problem is that bugs will find any way to get inside of a home. With our societies obsession with cleanliness and the fact that bugs are definitely not clean, there needed to be a product or company to help us get rid of these pests and keep them out. In the commercial the conflict is served in a humorous way making the bug almost seem creepy like a criminal in real life, Orkin then comes along to investigate and ensure that the house will not be infested by bugs. They are the hero because they pin point the problem and take care of the issue themselves, providing a service.

Snickers: "Do Something Manly"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zgvJ-dS_gM

Last year during, Super Bowl XLI, there was Snickers ad that featured two mechanics working on a car together. One of the mechanics pulls out a snickers bar and pts it in his mouth, while the other mechanic, who apparently either has a cocaine like addiction to snickers bars and couldn’t resist the sight of one, or skipped breakfast and was really hungry, starts to devour the other end of the candy bar. This leads to a homage of the famous Disney movie Lady and the tramp in which the two men accidentally kiss. Realizing the horrible, homoerotic mistake they just made, one of them declares that they must “do something manly” in order t atone to this great sin against the man code.

Now there are four versions of this commercial, three of the four end with them inflicting injury upon themselves or each other, ranging from striking each other with a large pipe wrench, drinking motor oil and windshield washer, or in the case of my example, tearing out their chest hair. The fourth version features a third mechanic showing up and asking the other two if there is "Room for three in this Love Boat."

While certainly hilarious, these commercials created a lot of controversy from gay and lesbian groups, with complaints lodged against Masterfoods (a division of Mars, the makers of Snickers,) that the ads were homophobic. Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese citing; "This type of jeering from professional sports figures at the sight of two men kissing fuels the kind of anti-gay bullying that haunts countless gay and lesbian school children on playgrounds all across the country." Masterfoods has since pulled the ads and the website and Youtube is essentially the only place left to watch them.

I remember watching these ads during the Superbowl and thinking that this wouldn’t end well for Mars. While the ads got a good laugh out of me, I can certainly see why many people were offended by them. The homophobic nature of these ads might just isn’t something that these companies can get away with given the current political environment. While these banned ads are certainly entertaining, they just aren’t right for the times.

McDonald's McCafe - The Intellectuals

McDonald’s recently began selling cappuccinos and lattes under their new McCafe brand. This new line of caffeinated beverages intends to put them in direct competition with the likes of Starbucks and Caribou Coffee. The ad campaign currently in progress, dubbed "The Intellectuals", definitely reflects that desire to steal some revenue from coffee shops. The ad opens in a typical coffee shop setting, with some soft piano music playing in the background. Two 30-something males are seated by a window, each holding their caffeinated beverage of choice. Both men are well dressed and wearing glasses. Let’s call them Guy #1 and Guy #2 for the dialogue.

Guy #1: So did you hear McDonald’s has cappuccinos now? [in a snobby tone]
Guy #2: McDonalds? [He scoffs, while swirling his coffee mug]
[His attitude suddenly changes from elitism to excitement]
Guy #2: That’s awesome!
Guy #1: Yeah!
Guy #2: I can shave this thing off my face [referring to the “soul patch” on his chin]
Guy #1: We don’t have to call movies “films” anymore.
[He hurriedly pulls his sweater off over his head]
Guy #2: We can talk about football.
Guy #1: I like football. I like sitting and watching football.
Guy #2: I don’t need these glasses, these are fake. [while removing glasses]
Guy #1: I do need mine, they’re very real.

The advertisement then chimes in to tell us that for a limited time, one can try a McCafe beverage for free on Mondays before 2pm. The final two lines of the ad are missing from the YouTube clip, but it goes something like this.

Guy #2: I almost bought a beret.
Guy #1: Don’t!

In these ads McDonald’s is poking fun at a supposed elitism that takes place in a fancy coffee shop. McDonald’s is telling us that we can enjoy a fine caffeinated beverage without having to dress up and pretend to be an intellectual. The ad does a great job portraying the villain, in this case the fancy coffee shop. We can hear the smooth jazz playing in the background, and one of the men is reading a book at the beginning of the ad. Anyone who has been to a Starbucks or any other coffee shop will recognize the setting immediately. McDonald’s is the hero, and it is here to rescue you from your mundane existence of wearing sweaters and talking about “films”. The two men in the ad are transformed by the discovery that McDonald’s now sells cappuccinos. Instead of being coffee shop poseurs, they can be real men again and talk about football! The advertisement uses humor to poke fun at the competition, and it works pretty well.

This Nike ad first aired during the world cup of soccer in 1998 featuring world class players, famous at that time, from around the globe. The players chosen in this ad were heroes and idols in the soccer world that every kid, adult and soccer fan looked up to. Trying to reach its demographic customers, Nike decision to air that ad during the world cup proved to be an ingenious marketing strategy, since the world cup is the most watched event in the world. The ad revolves around the concept of Good vs. Evil embedded into two teams; where the all-star players represent Good and a bunch of monster like players symbolize Evil. Nike’s soccer shoes in this ad play the role of the ultimate weapon that aids Good to overcome Evil.
The ad takes place in soccer stadium in the middle of a dessert like environment. Capturing the evil spirit that rooms the field, an eclipse takes place changing the scene into a dark disturbing setting. As the ad progresses, a terror atmosphere dominates the stands reflecting a hostile environment and aggressive crowd that the Good team going to encounter. Fire and smoke are some of the elements used in the ad to bring out the sense of fear and evil dominating the setting. The field or the stadium shown in this ad further signifies the tremendous odds the Good team faces. The stadium is an ancient roman arena similar to the coliseum where gladiators used to fight. As for the characters of this ad, the good team is represented by well known players in the soccer world. Maldini, Ronaldo, Davids, Figo, Cantona, Klivert, Campos, Rui Costa and Wright form the team that symbolizes good in this ad. The players are chosen from all corners of the world making it easier to identify and relate to. On the other hand, the other team is represented by an evil demon creature that assembles a bunch of people wearing torture masks. The ad also features a blind referee that doesn’t follow the rules of the game. In addition, the hostile crowd also plays a role in this ad increasing the obstacles and hurdles the Good team should cover come to win. This particular add rooms around the idea of good vs. evil and the difficulties that good faces. Therefore, after giving the audience a sense of what the all-star team is up against, the game starts with Evil team dominating the game beating the all-star players in every possession using rough violent style of play. At the climax of the ad, Maldini comes up with a defensive play that turns the game around in to their favor. After few astonishing soccer players, the ball ends up in Eric Contona’s feet facing the demon creature preventing him from scoring. A quick snap shot to Contona’s feet reveals the Nike shoes he is wearing, giving the audience of what needed to overcome that situation. By the end of the ad and after scoring the goal, the opposite team and all elements of evil disappear leaving calm and quit scene where good prevails.
The social values embedded in this piece of advertisement are pretty evident. The conflict between good and evil could be seen and identified easily in this ad. It takes no effort to classify the demon creature and his team as the bad characters, while the famous soccer idols as the heroes. This conflict is considered a universal part of the human condition where we come across on a daily basis. Moreover, the myth incorporated in this ad set by the characters, the setting and the plot reassures the idea that good always prevails with the help of a certain tool in this case the shoes. The shoes or the product acts as the necessary tool needed to resolve this conflict. With overwhelming diffecults and the odds facing the Good team it took the shoes or the product to help the heroes overcome the situation on hand.
This commercial appeal to all soccer fans with different back grounds. I think Nike did a good job on playing on the conflict between good and evil and turning it into an advantage in this commercial.