Terminology Continued

Independent record label- A record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels.
Niche audience- Relatively small audience with specialized interests, tastes and backgrounds. Many important forms of social creativity are of direct interest only to niche audiences.
Mainstream audience- People, activities, or ideas that are part of the mainstream are regarded as the most typical, normal and conventional because they belong to the same group or system as most others of their kind
Fans- People with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team.
Active audience theory- A theory that people receive and interpret media messages in different ways, usually according to factors such as age, ethnicity, social class, etc.
Audiophile- A person who has a great interest in high-fidelity sound reproduction. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the recorded musical performance, or even more important
Early adopter- An early customer of a given company, product, or technology, this person would be referred to as a trendsetter.
Consumption- The amount used in a certain period of time.
Web 2.0- Associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community.
Meta-tags-Meta tags are HTML codes that are inserted into the header on a web page, after the title tag.
Download- Copy (data) from one computer system to another or to a disk.
Streaming- Streaming is a technique for transferring data so that it can be processed as a steady and continuous stream.
P2P or Peer-to-peer file sharing- allows users to download media files such as music, movies, and games using a P2P software client that searches for other connected computers. The "peers" are computer systems connected to each other through the Internet.
Media piracy- more frequently referred to by more specific terms such as software piracy, music piracy, and movie piracy, refers both to:
The practice of illegally copying a source work (software, music, movie, or other)
The idea that such copying is morally equivalent to (traditional) piracy, which is presumed to refer both mass theft of valuables and tangible harm to the copyright holder
Miniaturisation-is the creation of ever-smaller scales for mechanical, optical, and electronic products and devices. Miniaturization is a continuing trend in the production of such devices.Items which take up less space are more desired than items which are bigger and bulkier because they are easier to carry, easier to store, and much more convenient to use.
Multi-Track- Multitrack recording, the process of mixing individual sound sources to a single recording.
Sampling- In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece.
DAW- A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio.
Artists and repertoire- (A&R) is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.
Record Deal- A recording contract (commonly called a record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists under contract are normally only allowed to record for that label exclusively; guest appearances on other artists' records will carry a notice "By courtesy of (the name of the label)", and that label may receive a percentage of sales.
Pugging/marketing- The transmission of information about a media text to target an audience in such a way to maximise its appeal to that audience.Marketing in a process designed to ensure the commercial and financial success of a product and a healthy return on money invested.

Key Terms

Convergence- the coming together of multimedia digital data technologies allowing words, audio, video, graphics and animation to be linked and routed together via broadband to create two-way communications. The idea being to produce, distribute and sgare.

Synergy- Similar to convergence but used to describe how companies can pool their resources and exploit products in different markets.

Institution- refers to the companies and organisations that provide media content and involves an understanding of media and business.

Audience- This refers to the way in which people engage with the media. The new digital media: convergence, user-created content and social networking have transformed the audience from a traditional 'mass' into a fragmented' definition.

Production- Recording music.

Distribution- Promoting music and getting it into shops, on the radio and downloaded for music.

Consumption- People buying C.D's, downloading music, paying for live concert tickets and purchasing related products.

Vertical Integration- Where a media company profits from all aspects of production, distribution and consumption.

Cross Media Ownership- The record company for your case study can be a mainstream major company, a multinational or an independant company.
There are the 'big three'- Sony/BMG, Warner Bros. Universal. But you need to compare and contrast these with smaller independant labels and music organisations, the music industry is much more open in this respect, with many small labels that contribute to around 20% of the market.