Convergence has transformed almost every cultural industry in some regard. This transformation has not been instantaneous one. As new technologies gradually emerge and media converges across them, cultural industries have gradually transformed with their converging media. While all cultural industries have been affected by convergence, the most obvious transformations have occurred within the entertainment industry. I have chosen to chronicle the furthest stages of evolution that have transpired within the entertainment industry, particularly the music industry.
The music industry has become notorious for fighting against many aspects of the vast changes that have occurred due to convergence. Yet at the same time they have also transformed their industry entirely around these new technologies and practices. The current epitome of this convergence is Last.fm, an internet radio social network music database. By building a profile on Last.fm, a user is able to create a library of tracks they enjoy. This track list is built by either manually by looking at band profiles and adding them to the library, 'loving' a track or importing your iTunes, Mog, and Windows Media Player libraries using the Last.fm Scrobbler application that you download to your computer. Each time a song starts playing on the 'radio', pictures of the band play in a slideshow, an artist biography along with the genres and descriptions it is tagged with, similar artists, user comments, discography, upcoming local concerts and events, and most notably the options to share the track link through social networking sites and email, tag the track with your own description, purchase the track through various online retailers in both digital and CD formats, and even send the song as a ringtone to a phone. Speaking of phones, Last.fm also has an app for Android and the iPhone so you can stream your personal customized internet radio on the go, so long as you have internet access through your mobile device. Recently Last.fm has also launched an Xbox Live version to stream internet radio through the video game console.
Last.fm is not done converging media yet, mentioned earlier, it is also a social network where users can find one another based on similar musical interests and then discuss the music they mutually enjoy. Users can also form groups, which function like a shared profile and a private forum combined. It actively adapts the group’s library based on the interests of everyone in the group, and allows for members to write messages to other members within the group. Last.fm also acknowledges the existence of other social networking sites, and thusly incorporated them into its infrastructure. Users can share songs and band links through e-mail, tweets, Facebook status updates, Myspace posts, and Diggs.
The sheer amount of convergence occurring in this one website is astounding, and perfectly exemplifies how cultural industries have transformed due to convergence. A major complaint of the music industry was how they would determine what music would be popular, forcing less mainstream genres into obscurity, making it difficult to find similar bands and hear about local shows. Last.fm has completely destroyed this concept, allowing all music to be treated equally, linked together, and shared by user created content tags, forums, and suggestions. It has also met the demand of the ‘black boxes’ on both ends of the market spectrum by offering app versions of their service to various entertainment devices as well as linking every song to various digital and hard copy retail websites. Throughout band biographies users can find links not only to these retail sites, but also Myspace profiles, Facebook fan pages, Wikipedia pages, and official band websites, making Last.fm a central hub for band information. Last.fm incorporation other social networking sites also allows for free promotion of music between people through the internet. By converging user generated content, social networking, online retail services, multi-platform dynamics, and collective intelligence, the music industry has transformed itself around convergence culture in the form of Last.fm.
No comments:
Post a Comment