Online Age questions

1. According to this video, what was the music industry like in the 90s and how has it changed more recently?
In the 90s the music industry had big labels the drove the industry forward, television and radio were a very big part of that as they showed consumers what was out there. There were so many people getting signed in the 90s to all these mainstream labels, and there was such a wide range of the mainstream labels for them. This made it competitive, but it was and era that made it possible to discover an act before anyone else did. Now there is an even greater influx or talent and acts within the music industry, so this makes it harder to actually have mainstream acts. More recently many smaller and independent labels have been able to be successful because of they way they are able to compete with the bigger labels has somewhat equalised. Also the acts themselves are able to be in control of their career within music.

2. What are curators, such as Pitchfork and Hypermachine? What is their role? Why are they important?
Curators are essentially music guides for the consumers, to help them know what is good and what is not, also keep them up to date with what is going on in the music industry itself and the various musicians themselves. Pitchfork media is a online company who are dedicated to music criticism, commentry, music news and artist interviews. Hypermachine is also a website which brings together a cluster of information on the music industry from other blogs, and posts the most recent news from different sources all in one place for the consumers. Their role is too inform consumers about what is happening in the music industry and keep the up to date with the latest news, it also allows them to get involved more with the industry as these sites tell them what they can do and they best way of doing it. They are so important because there is so much music out there, so the curators are important as they essentially filter the music for us as consumers.

3. How can you link what this video says about creativity, video making in particular, to David Gauntlett's ideas and to the theory of the long tail?
The creativity in music videos is changing, therefore these new creations are what Gauntlett would say are 'niche' products. This is because there aren't a lot of these products, so people are viewing more of less in relation to the long tail, and as there is a wider variety of music videos these days, people tend to view less of more. This means that consumers are now looking for these 'niche' products more, as technology and ideas have developed further in the production of music videos, and your 'average' music video is viewed less even though there are more of them for the consumers to view.