How I use the internet to consume music

There are two services which I use primarily when it comes to consuming music: YouTube and ITunes.

I use YouTube to stream music often. There are several channels, like the Piano guys, which regularly produce music that I like to listen to. YouTube, as a free service, means that I do not have to buy the songs to listen to and enjoy them.

ITunes, obviously, is a paid service. I use it to buy music, often tracks that I have come across on YouTube and would like to be able to listen to on the move (via mp3 player or car CD player). I have found that tracks on Itunes can sometimes be cheaper than on Amaxzon's digital music service; Tracks listed at 79p on ITunes can sometimes be 99p on Amazon. It also makes organisation of my music very easy, and allows be to burn CD's with little fuss.

Another online music streaming service is Spotify. I used to use spotify occasionally a few years ago, but I soon lost interest. This was, admittedly, more due to my lesser interest in music at the time than any issues with the service itself, though Itunes and youtube do seem easier to set up playlists and listen to.

Facebook Research

Origins

Facebook is a massive social media site based in California. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg on February 4^th 2004, while he was attending Harvard. Initially limited to Harvard students, the site quickly grew, first to other colleges, then universities and high-schools.  In 2006, the site was made open to anyone above 13 years of age. The site gained the interest of major companies like Microsoft, which purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million in 2007. The price implied that Facebook as a whole was worth around $15 billion.

Today

Now, Facebook has over a billion users worldwide, and is still owned by Zuckerberg. It has pages for businesses to promote themselves, online games, and news. It allows people to keep in touch with others on a global scale, and the chat function allows quick, free communication between individuals and groups. The company is buying new technologies and companies (such as Oculus Rift and its developer Oculus VR) to both improve the current Facebook format and to diversify the company.

Negatives

• Cyberbullying,
• Under-age children are ably to sign up easily,
•  Fake accounts,
• Radicalising groups can use it for propaganda,
• The systems behind blocking and reporting users can be abused for malicious purposes.

Controversies

Inevitably, Facebook has faced controversy over time. A policy to have registering users use their real names (in order to make finding friends’ profiles easier) backfired. The system implemented had no tolerance for adopted names or pseudonyms, resulting in legitimate users having their accounts suspended. Reporting of ‘fake names’ was abused, with one user using the system to target Drag Queens using their stage names on the site.

Their policies have also related issues. Although it is understandable for Facebook to not want certain types of images on the site, removed images have included naked mannequins and kisses between same-sex couples. Additionally, a policy to have the site be policed by its users has drawn complaints that it enables harassment, by empowering those with malicious intent to report innocuous posts and have the target account shut down for a period of time.

Changes to the site layout have not always been accepted either. In September 2011, Facebook announced a new feature called Timeline, which was meant to make profile navigation easier. However, a significant proportion of users disliked the change, an issue that worsened when Timeline became mandatory for all profiles.

Finally, Facebook has had some pretty serious technical issues over the years. Long downtimes and glitch-causing outages have attracted media attention several times. An outage in 2007 created a security bug that allowed users to read each other’s private messages. In September 2009, Facebook had catastrophic loading issues for a while, and a month later an unspecified amount of users were unable to log in for more than three weeks.

Opposition to Wesch's claim

Andrew Keen presents an opposing idea to Wesch's, seeing web 2.0 as a much more negative entity. He claims that it devalues true expertise and talented individuals in favor of the amateur, throwing culture into chaos.

I do not believe this is exactly true. Many prolific YouTube creators have built careers and businesses much like traditional media companies. Rhett and Link and the Fine Bros, for example, produce shows that use standard sets and a production crew. The latter have also produced a television show for Nickelodeon. Web 2.0 content producers are not degrading professionals. In many cases, they emulate them, and collaborate with professionals to ensure they produce quality content for their viewers.

It is the same with his claim that Internet Ogliarchs are replacing those of Old Media. No-one is deposing the controllers of standard media. For a start, there are no true Internet Ogliarchs; No-one truly rules the web, though several personalities do have considerable influence with their fans (as do more 'traditional' celebrities). What they are doing is giving old media ogliarchs huge competition.

However, the relationship isn't always antagonistic. Several YouTube channels, such as the Fine Bros and Epic Meal Time, have been invited to create television programmes. Others have written books, collaborated on music tracks, advertised products,etc.

It is true, on the other hand, that YouTube videos can have a 'shout loudest, seen most' sense to them. The more outrageous a video is, the more likely it is to be shared. But then, that isn't exactly a new trick in the book. Marketing campaigns have been doing impressive stunts to raise awareness for ages.

Additionally, more traditional media stars have been able to use YouTube to find huge success. the Korean music artist Psy, for example, released Gangnam Style on YouTube in December 2015, and the outrageously funny video spawned hundreds of imitations and parodies. The video became a viral sensation, becoming the most-viewed video on YouTube with over 2.5 billion views.

However, despite all this, it is clear that media is changing. YouTube is a huge, and growing, media platform, one which avoids many of the traditions of media. Anyone can pick up a camera, anyone can create a video. Anyone can, with enough effort and maybe some luck, become a star.

The Audience as Creators and Collaborators

Wesch views the audience as the centre of today's mediascape, and says that online media changes and mediates modern human relationships.

Vlogging is an interesting concept, which seems to support these views. The most prolific vloggers have turned little videos of their daily lives into online fame and huge careers. Joe Sugg, for example, has over 6 million subscribers, and recently released a graphic novel, 'Username: Evie', as well as starring in the 2015 film 'Joe and Casper Hit the Road'.

Jonny Benjamin vlogs to keep on top of suicidal thoughts, producing videos which touch and affect people the world over. The audience gives back to him, offering support, and he lets others know that they are not alone in their struggles.

Rhett and Link, a pair of comedy vloggers from America, entertain over 9 million subscribers with Good Mythical morning, a 15-minute show every weekday which covers a vast array of topics. Two extra channels extend this entertainment show, and give a look behind-the-scenes. Their business has grown to the point where they have a production crew, merchandise, prize contests, and a segment introduced by audience members.

Vloggers are ordinary people who film themselves. Everything that else that is attributed to them, all their fame and influence, is due solely to the force of their audience, the people who they connect with through vlogging. They can inspire others to pick up a camera as well. The audience becomes the creators, building upon each other and building a vast community focussed around numerous individuals.

YouTube Statistics and Facts

Youtube stats from mjwilcox

Looking at Michael Wesch

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

Wesch believes that YouTube is a perfect example of new forms of media and community. He uses the evolution of the Numa Numa viral video to illustrate this. Numa Numa is just a guy messing around in his bedroom, doing a silly dance that the whole world joined in.

• 'The Web is not Just about information, it's about linking people in new, unpredictable ways'

YouTube is at the centre of a user-based system. User-generated filtering, organisation and distribution are what makes videos popular. An analysis video he himself did whent viral due to the networks in place, reaching number one by noon and staying there through the next day. The Next day, in this case, being Superbowl Sunday, the day that tons of super-popular clips from the event flooded YouTube.

Wesch also says that media is not just context and tools of communication. It mediates human relationships; When media changes, so do human relationships.

Wesch identifies A 'Cultural Inversion' on the web. People express individualism, independence and commercialisation, but value community, relationships and authenticity. This links to a 'Cultural Tension', where the connection of people leads to constraint. On YouTube, he says that this tension is absent.

• The most private place becomes the most public with YouTube+webcams.

Youtube is also a source of drama. It can lead to identity crisis's, when people are discorvered to not be who they claimed, e.g. emokid and loneleygirl. People can rage over this. It has been pointed out by people, though, that this links to the idea of 'Masks', comparable to Goffman and Giddens' theories on self identity.

   -People are producers, producing themselves, re-taking identity (literally, redoing filming), editing      our own histories (e.g. deleting past videos), playing with identity.

As things spread about on YoutTube, there can be a collapse of context. some war vets joking around at a party becomes an official endorsement to bomb iran, complete with it's own theme tune.

The Resurgence of Creating Things

Gauntlett suggests that 'maybe we'reentering an era where the pleasure of making things is having a resurgence?'

There are many examples of this being true in the online world. Youtubers are one of the most well known examples. Videos can range fron original sketches, to parodies, to 'lets plays' of various video games, in which the main draw is the commentator's personality and reactions to a game.
 Some examples include the following:

  

  

Other examples include Webcomics, online stories like the well-known 'creepypastas' and indie games, which have constituted some of the biggest games in recent years, incuding titles like 'Undertale' and 'Five Nights at Freddies'.