Research Freewrite

The rapid expansion and improvement of technology over the past couple decades has changed many aspects of our lives. This includes how we get our media. The internet has enabled the sharing of music files through torrents and other downloading services. This has affected the music industry in various ways, many of which are negative.  In this paper I will analyze the affects of online piracy on the music industry. Record sales have been declining recently due to the increased availability of free music. Having all this music available for free lessens the importance of owning the CD, therefore hurting the industry from the ground up. Stores sell less, which means less money for labels, which in turn gives them less money to promote current artist and to sign new ones. Torrenting and other forms of online piracy have negatively affected the music industry by decreasing record sales and lowering the revenue of the labels.

            I will use a multitude of sources in order to strengthen my argument against piracy. I want to use CD sales information for data so that I may interpret it myself. Also, I will be looking for commentary on the subject from people familiar with the industry. Studies relating to the matter will also be used to further refine my opinion. The music industry usually puts out a yearly report on how the year went; it typically covers the affect of piracy on their sales; so I will be using that as well. I will also look at what the Featured Artist Coalition has to say about the issue, because they are artist who are for having more freedom over how their music is distributed. This will be a good counter point because they are a group of experts who disagree with me on the issue.

            A potential issue that could arise is that very recent sales numbers may not be available yet. Since I do not download music illegally there will not be any interference with my own behavior. I will need to fully refine and flush out my opinion on the issue since it has many layers that interlace with each other.

The effects of the digital age on the Music Industry

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1145904 - A 4 year examination of data to analyze the monetary losses due to digital piracy.

suffolk - discussion of the positives and the negatives of having all digital music instantly available to us in our home for a small monthly fee, much like water or gas.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718705001682 - a counter point to my argument paper is trying to see benefits beyond the instant loss of funds. says record companies could possibly profit from free music.

gillespie - details growth of illegal activity and the proposal to decrease CD prices

poor sales - talking about how a #1 chart topper for nielson sold less then 50,000 copies in one week. which is extremely low.

Research Ideas

Demise of Hard Copy media and how it negatively affects the entertainment industry.

The rise of digitally downloading of music, movies, books, and other media has changed the way most of us get our entertainment. We are now able to get media instantly from our computer, often times it can be found for free. This wide availability has led to people, especially in my generation, to download music/movies illegally from various online services.  Without the revenue of physical and digital sales many record labels have seen a decrease in profits.  With less of a profit margin labels will tend to spend less money on signing new artist and promoting them.

Being a bi lingual person has multiple benefits related to business and personal life.

I would be looking into differences of people who speak only 1 language and those who speak multiple. The differences I would be looking to observe would be pay rate, position in company, how many times they have been fired/laid off, along with other aspects of their personal and professional life. I would argue that people who speak multiple languages are more valuable to companies then a person who can only speak 1 language.  Also, there are several benefits for mental health that come from being able to speak 2 languages.

Thesis

The visual elements of this photo make an effective appeal to every aspect of rhetoric, whether it is the official presence of the military, the emotion of mourning family members, or the way the photograph was taken.

Options for Paper

Blog #4 "Fat is an Advertising Issue"

In some cases, the title says it all. This article by Susie Orbach is certainly an example of that. In the paper titled “Fat is an Advertising Issue” she chronicles her journey to get the Dove campaign for real beauty put into action.  These ads were created with the tough job of changing how beauty is seen in our media reach culture.  Despite the success of this ad campaign, it has not majorly affected the way beauty is seen in our culture. This ad campaign was released about ten years ago and the vast majority of ads we see today still feature incredibly skinny girls and photoshopped images.

            The models seen in most of today’s ads still share the same basic characteristics of the models seen ten years ago; they’re tall, beautiful, and skinny. While some women are able to manipulate themselves to fit this contorted view of beauty, many are unable to reach this goal. This can leave them with low self-esteem and a poor body image. You can’t really blame them either, when you look at every magazine cover you either see a model or a celebrity who has been digitally altered in some way. On the rare occasion that someone is willing to do a photoshoot sans digital alteration, it becomes a huge story for whatever publication it involves. If our image of true beauty hade indeed changed, a pictorial of a woman without her make up would not be a front cover story.

            While Orbach did have the best intentions in mind, the ad campaign she helped create became nothing more then a small portion of the ads we are inundated with daily.  The ads that do portray beauty the way it should be are certainly a step in the right direction, but until these ads are able to have the same effectiveness of the now stereotypical clothing or beauty ad they will remain an oddity of the marketing world.