Digital Media Management for the Entertainment Industries - Essay Example

?Digital Media Management for the Entertainment Industries Executive Summary Most of the music companies around the globe are operating their business over the internet via one or the other new digital media services. There are several new media services available for companies. The research paper takes into account the development of new digital media services for music industry. The provision of a music application over social networking site such as Facebook has been suggested. Social networking sites have been chosen since they are gaining huge popularity in the present era. It becomes easier to target and promote a product on such websites. In order to build the application, technological requirement is needed that would provide base to the application to run on the Facebook. Various software as well as hardware requirements have been acknowledged. New strategies have been suggested to attract the mass towards the song application. Significant requirement of budget for such project has been identified. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Overview 4 Service Description 6 Business Model 7 Profile of Targeted Consumers’ Group 9 Marketing Strategy 10 Risk 12 Budget 12 References 14 Bibliography 18 Overview Digital media are increasingly used by marketers as a means to promote, distribute and perform several marketing activities. It can be depicted that in such scenario, technology has always been at the background by creating necessary conditions for demonstrating the creativity through digital media. It can be revealed that it is the new media that provides an opportunity to extend hands towards the emerging digital data sea. It is because of the proliferation of internet that most of the users have become advanced. The modern business houses not only require an audience. Instead, it is quite essential for the audience to participate by providing their valuable feedbacks and turning themselves into players. The creation of ideal latest media assets needs to be exposed on a case-to-case basis (SEO Trends, 2007). Various new digital media such as online video, social media and mobile advertisement have transformed the way companies market their products. The major thing to notice in this regard is that after several years of change in an evolutionary manner, it is the emerging digital media that has brought marketing related communications towards a breakpoint. It has further been noted that the new watchwords for the marketers are considered to be engagement, transparency and authenticity (Busby & Et. Al., 2010). It has been apparent that the media companies as well as the entertainment industries both have experienced extraordinary level of fragmentation. It is worth noticing that the main force behind this trend has been the development of digital technology and the internet. The social networking sites have attracted the people from every nook and corner of the world. Social networking sites have not just become the tool for messaging, or making friends, it has also permitted the users to play online games via its applications where the users can download online games. Similarly, it has been noticed by two websites such as Imeen and Bebo that music is a social phenomenon and the internet can be considered as the platform to conduct business and other activities. With the gaining popularity of the Facebook, the music industry can aim at developing new digital media services which will assist them at increasing the revenue and enhance the competitive position of the company. An application similar to the games at Facebook can be developed where the users shall be able to download the new songs as well as the old songs of their choice (Shannon, 2009). The social networking sites have been chosen since it acts as a powerful medium for both the companies as well as the advertisers through which they can reach to a huge group of people in a cost effective manner. It can further be considered as the best platform from which the companies can promote their products and thus create brand awareness (Greynium, 2008). The new digital media service will assist the music companies to promote new songs as well as videos on the Facebook. The users will be aware of new upcoming music. They can even share their favourite links of the particular songs or videos with their friends. Service Description Social networking sites’ applications can be defined as software programs which are built for the networking platforms permitting the users to learn, interact, entertain as well as share it among their friends. The users of social networking sites have great affinity of sharing the information as well as tools that they consider to be useful or fun (Greynium, 2008). In order to provide service, technology plays a vital role. The first requirement is to set aside the big chunk of storage space for music files. Then there will be requirement of the music player that will assist the listeners to listen the music. This can be possible with the help of MP3 which is a well known format for the music to be encoded. In addition to this one of the main benefits of the MP3 is that they can be played in most of the players of the world. The other option that remains with the music companies is to have FLAC files which are quite compact by nature and the sound quality is quite better. However, they require huge storage space. Therefore, the choice between the two needs to be made depending upon the needs. After that there will be requirement of Squeeze Center software on the music server. It can be demonstrated that Apple Airport Express can be used to plug the stereo on since it has an audio jack. It is quite complicated to serve the music over the internet because it might require tweaking the broadband router a little. Further, there might be requirement to install Apache and PHP and installation of Jinzora, which is a free application indexing all the music and making it available over the web browser. It has been further noted that there might be requirement of PVR software which is an application handling the TV displays, recording of the video files as well as compressing the files to a compact DivX standard in order to make them ready for streaming. ShowShifter can be used which can be considered as the ‘third party media front-end’. It has been designed to control and monitor the playback of various types of media files with the help of simple control (Staff Writers, 2005). There might be further requirement of convergent software that will work across the converging delivery platform (England & Finney, 2002). Business Model It can be said that whatever new things happen at the online social network, it has always been quite famous among the mass group of people and this has expanded all over the world since many years. The phenomenon started with friends wanting to chat and search for their buddies as well as create a new one. However, in the recent times most of the businesses as well as the organisations are relying upon the ‘social’ power of the social networking sites through which they can promote their products and services. With various features and functions offering a means of interaction with the people on the net, the method is used as a means through which online business on the web can be marketed. The online availability of the music over the Facebook will provide the companies an opportunity to grab the attention of the masses. It will also reduce the overall cost (Indusa Technical, 2011). However, it is to be noted that there will be authorisation policies for downloading the songs from the applications. Copyright act will be implemented so that illegal downloads can be stopped (Ohio State Bar Association, 2011). Facebook itself presents multifarious opportunities to the music industry since this site has amplified as well as simplified interconnection among the people who are online. It further aims at developing successful ecosystem of small program that can permit the friends to interact through games, video clips, greeting cards and now the songs which shall be made available over the net (Swartz, 2008). The opportunity that lies with the development of the new media is that the companies will be able to increase their sales, communicate with the customers well and obtain feedback as well as complaint. The feedback serves as the means of improving the product so that competition can be wiped out. It can be said that with the social networking media there is quite less distance between the business world as well as the social world. In addition to this, it can be revealed that advertisement on Facebook can be cost effective in comparison to other media (Network Conference, 2011). In the recent days, embracing social media networking can be considered as the major component for the success of the strategy. It is worth noticing that if there are around 300 million people on Facebook then there seems to be huge business opportunities (McCorvey, 2010). However, MySpace allows the users to fiddle with themes, music as well as HTML code that are generally targeted towards the youth as well as the teens (McCorvey, 2010). If this new media service of providing music application on the Facebook wants to survive in the market, then it is important for this application to differentiate itself from MySpace. For this, the music companies need to permit the users to store the songs as well as the videos over the Facebook. In addition to the facility of storing the songs as well as the videos, the application will also permit to rate the songs that is preferred by the users. Certain rating systems will be employed for such a thing (McCorvey, 2010). Profile of Targeted Consumers’ Group At the outset it can be revealed that the social networking sites such as the Facebook, YouTube are the most visited websites and its popularity is enhancing day-by-day. The information can be propagated virally via the social networking sites which can be considered as the benefit for the companies. However, the social networking sites may not be advantageous in certain situations and need to be handled with great care. The users of these sites are mainly the teens as well as the young adults who have adequate knowledge on the web (Webnox, 2008). Targeting the younger generation such as 18-35 years old can be considered as the best target group for the new digital media service. It can be further revealed that all the music listeners as well as the digital consumers may not be the same. According to the data that has been made known by the Emap Advertising, UK a survey conducted in the year 2003 under Project Phoenix takes into account the attitude of the people towards the music between the age of 15 and 39. Four degrees of interest were identified in music. They were savants, enthusiasts, casuals as well as those indifferent. Here savants represent the group of people for whom music is everything. Enthusiasts represent the group of people for whom music is a key part of the life, though it is balanced with other interests. Casuals represent the group where music plays a welcome role, but there are also other things that can be considered as more important. The indifferent represents the group who might not loose much of their sleep if music stops to exist. In the context of this individual plan, it is worth mentioning that savants can be targeted (DJ Alchemi, 2006). Marketing Strategy In the competitive era when most of the companies have embraced the digital media, it is quite important for the music companies to adopt various marketing strategies. Distribution can be considered as a weak association in the chain of independent music. While setting up a jukebox on the internet, one needs to spend considerable amount of time over the internet promoting the company at the right places. It will assist the companies at attracting the potential international audience. The people wanting anything will order it directly via conventional mail or over the internet. It can be noted that the internet provides immense opportunities as well as services to both the musician as well as music fan. Since the newly launched application will encompass songs on the Facebook, the promotion of this can be done via emails. There are also two other styles of on-line communication such as real-time chatting and bulletin-board posting (Spellman, 2002). The application can also be promoted over the other social networking sites such as Orkut and MySpace. In addition to this, music companies can promote the product in Google itself. In order to attract the audience towards the sites, it is important that the sites for promotional messages provide value to the consumers of the low-involvement purchases. It can be noted that with the increased consumer accessibility, the users are now able to control the information when and where available. It is because of the proliferation of the internet as well as the wireless technology, the information regarding the brand and the product can be accessed from all the location of the world. The new media service can also make use of the satellite tracking and the cell phones or the Wi-Fi technology in order to provide the consumers information regarding the location to purchase the product (Sharpe, 2005). Initially in order to gain the attention of the customers towards the new application, it can be linked to the most popular games over the Facebook such as Mafia and Farmville. The person who scores a certain stipulated points will be able to download 20 Mb of songs of their choice. This will help to draw the traffic towards the new application. It will also be beneficial for the game applications since people will be attracted to play more games. Moreover, Facebook itself is the best way to communicate regarding the product to the mass. This kind of strategies will enhance the profitability of the firm. It is now important to consider the pricing strategies for the new application. One of the sources of income will be from the game application since the users are able to download the songs. It is to be noted that only certain songs will be available for free. Certain slots of songs such as new songs will not be available for free. They will have to be purchased by the users. However, the users will benefit from time advantage. Time advantage here refers to making certain popular songs available for free for seven days. After that those songs will not be available for free and will have to be purchased. Risk There are various problems that can arise from the new service of the digital media that is presented in the online world. Sharing of the copyright music and video files illegally are one of the potential problems that can cause danger for the music industry (Pavlik, 2008). The other risk is related to the finance. The project of this kind requires huge investment. If the application doesn’t work well since there are other players in the markets as well, then it will lead to huge loss. If the popularity of the social networking sites decreases, then the new application is also likely to bear losses. Budget Budget is considered as the lifeblood for any organisation. This project is quite an expensive affair. It is important to estimate the overall expenses that the new application will have to bear. While building an application on the Facebook, it is important to get an approval from the Facebook higher authority. Certain amount of money is required to be paid to the Facebook authorities. Furthermore, technological equipments such as Squeeze Center software, Apples Airport Express, choice of encoding formats as MP3 or FLAC and hard disk will also cost a huge amount of money. Software such as Apache and PVR will cost huge amount of money as well. Furthermore, there is requirement to pay for the promotion of the application. Internet Service Providers will also be paid a certain amount of money. The overall budget has been represented in the table figured below: Expenses Amt (in Pounds) Social Networking sites(FaceBook) 2055 Internet Service Providers 400 Memory allocation 350 Squeeze Centre Software 130 Apple Airport 130 MP3 100 Apache and PVR software 200 Promotion 1500 Other miscellaneous expenses 280 Total 5145 It can be said that the overall project will cost the firm ?5145. References Busby, E. & Et. Al., 2010. The CMO’s Imperative Tackling New Digital Realities. The Boston Consulting Group. [Online] Available at: http://www.bcg.com/documents/file66995.pdf [Accessed May 09, 2011]. DJ Alchemi, 2006. Group and Behavior Patterns among Music Listeners. Archives. [Online] Available at: http://alchemi.co.uk/archives/mus/groups_and_beha.html [Accessed May 09, 2011]. England, E. & Finney, A., 2002. Managing Multimedia: Project Management for Web and Convergent Media: Technical Issues. Editorial Dunken. Greynium, 2008. Social Networking Sites. SNS Applications. [Online] Available at: http://www.greynium.com/services/sns-applications.html [Accessed May 08, 2011]. Indusa Technical, 2011. Social Networking Websites Development. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://www.indusa.com/socialnetworkingandentertainment.php [Accessed May 08, 2011]. McCorvey, J. J., 2010. How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business. Guides. [Online] Available at: http://www.inc.com/guides/using-social-networking-sites.html [Accessed May 09, 2011]. Network Conference, 2011. The Advantage Of Advertising on Social Networking Sites. Communities and Online Gaming. [Online] Available at: http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2011/04/the-advantage-of-advertising-on-social-networking-sites/ [Accessed May 08, 2011]. Ohio State Bar Association, 2011. Publications. Law That You Can Use. [Online] Available at: http://www.ohiobar.org/Pages/LawYouCanUseDetail.aspx?itemID=324 [Accessed May 10, 2011]. Pavlik, J. V., 2008. Media in the Digital Age. Columbia University Press. Swartz, J., 2008. Social-Networking Sites Work to Turn Users Into Profits. News. [Online] Available at: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2008-05-11-social-networking_N.htm [Accessed May 08, 2011]. Shannon, V., 2009. Could Social Networking Sites Save The Music Industry? The New York Times. [Online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/technology/30iht-PTEND31.3.9615553.html [Accessed May 08, 2011]. Staff Writers, 2005. How to Build Your Own Digital Media Server: Part 1. Media Centres. [Online] Available at: http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Media_Centres/Build_Your_Own_Media_Centre/M5X8Q2T3 [Accessed May 08, 2011]. Spellman, P., 2002. The Musician's Internet: On-Line Strategies For Success In The Music Industry. Hal Leonard Corporation. Sharpe, M. E., 2005. Advertising, Promotion, And New Media. M.E. Sharpe. SEO Trends, 2007. Evolution/Proliferation of Internet as A Mass Social Communication Media. Breaking News. [Online] Available at: http://www.seotrends.in/search-engine-marketing/internet-as-a-social-communication-media [Accessed May 08, 2011]. Webnox, 2008. Social Networks and Word Of Mouth. Create a Social Network Buzz. [Online] Available at: http://www.webnox.com/viral_marketing/social_networking/ [Accessed May 09, 2011]. Bibliography Eastman, S. T. & Et. Al., 2006. Media Promotion and Marketing for Broadcasting, Cable, and the Internet. Focal Press. Mason, R. & Rennie, F., 2008. E-Learning and Social Networking Handbook: Resources for Higher Education. Routledge Read More