Caitlin Cassell Professor Mahaffey ENGL 1102-100 28 January 2013 Proposal

Exigence
The future of the usage and production of music affects the rights and creativity of musicians. The current copyright laws make it difficult for cover bands to find gigs because the venue has to pay a fee to let them play the songs that are not originals. One of the other issues that is very important is the honesty of musicians when they alter their voices with software such as ProTools to the point where its not even their voice anymore. It is the same concept as performing plastic surgery; its still the same person underneath but the face that you see is the new and improved version. The production side of this comes in with the artists who have their music written for them by a panel of executives so that they can make the most money. If you really listen to the most popular songs, you can hear the formula that makes a high grossing song. There is no soul, no passion, no emotion. It is all about making money. The music created for clubs has poisoned the popular music scene with music that is meaningless. I am also interested in the future of the use of music as far as a relaxation technique and possibly exploring different ways to use music as a therapy for medical patients. This could be the missing link for patients that are struggling to be motivated to fight their sickness. The patients state of mind is very important when they are fighting prolonged diseases such as cancer. If we were to

learn more about how music affects the brain, we could help these people feel calm during painful procedures.

Inquiry

What is the future of the usage and production rights of music? Are the copyright laws sufficient for the music that is going to be produced in the future? What will the laws have to be changed to? How do we keep musical artists honest with their talents? How does a standard guitar amp used in rock and metal differ from the ways you can set up devices to make beats for dubstep and rap? How does music affect the brain? Does a certain type of music or certain chords make music more relaxing than others? My biases on this subject are that there is no passion behind music that is created just to make money. There is no personal connection with songs that are made for the pure purpose of selling a look and a face and creating music by a formula. I need to learn more about current copyright laws and how software such as Pro Tools works so that I can figure out how much of the computer is creating the voice.

Method

I plan to do research through articles and the web to get information on what current copyright laws are and if there are any loopholes in the system as well as scientific research about what parts of the brain are affected by different types of music. In addition, I will conduct a survey about what the opinions of college age students are concerning the use of software like ProTools and Autotune in comparison to their

favorite genre of music. The survey will also include questions pertaining to what type of music the participants listen to to relax. I feel with these methods I will get lots of different opinions and good data to base a solid expectation for where the music industry is heading in the next decade. I want to get my surveys written and sent out by February 3rd so participants have plenty of time to complete it and I want to get my other articles and web based research done by February 13th so that I can have enough time to get a good Annotated Bibliography written.

Caitlin Cassell Mrs. Mahaffey ENGL1102-100 18 February 2013

Puay, Tang. "Digital Copyright And The New Controversy: Is The Law Moulding Technology And Innovation?." Research Policy 34.(n.d.): 852-871. ScienceDirect. Web. 17 Feb. 2013.

Dr. Puay Tang is a lecturer at University of Sussex and teaches a master courses on managing IP and managing intellectual assets. Her research includes digital copyright and academic entrepreneurship.

Peer to peer sharing is an internet innovation that may compromise the rights of musicians in the future. They say that these innovations have required the music industry to come up with new business models to cope with this peer to peer sharing phenomenon. The lack of coverage for people that create digital art is overwhelming. The law makers need to put new laws into place that will protect musicians from the loss of material that the internet has caused in the past decade.

"Digitization And Copyright: Some Recent Evidence From Music." Communications Of The ACM 55.5 (2012): 35-37. Business Source Complete. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.

Joel Waldfogel, the author of this article, teaches at the Carlson School of Management and has a PhD in Economics from Stanford. He does research in piracy, pricing and revenue sharing as well as industrial organization.

The music industry is facing a problem that most other industries are not experiencing which is loss of revenue due to piracy. However, piracy on the whole is not necessarily a bad thing. Granted the whole stealing part isnt great but the exposure that an artist gets is great. The music pirate downloads music that he/she would not have bought in the first place but decides to try out. This means that this person is more likely to buy band merchandise or go to a concert than a person who has not heard the music. The only problem is when the die hard fans that would buy the music pirate the CD.

Sheelagh Rogan, et al. "Music In Mind, A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Music Therapy For Young People With Behavioural And Emotional Problems: Study Protocol." Journal Of Advanced Nursing 68.10 (2012): 2349-2358. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 17 Feb. 2013.

All of the physicians that are part of this study are well educated (University of Belfast) and each of them has produced several articles in medical journals. The study was also conducted at the University of Belfast and the ethics and all the sciency stuff seems legitimate.

The largest study of its kind, it aims to study mentally diseased children and see if the music therapy has any effect on their self esteem, depression and social functioning as opposed to traditional treatments. Not only are the effects of the therapy being tested but also its cost effectiveness. The parents of the participants saw growth in their childrens social awareness as well as their self esteem. The participants themselves felt less depressed as the treatments progressed.

Strong, Jeff. Pro Tools All In One Desk Reference For Dummies. n.p.: Wiley Pub, 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 17 Feb. 2013.

There is no doubt in my mind that this source is credible, however it doesnt seem to offer as much to my argument as I had hoped. It does go into the different types of editing which could be helpful in understanding some of the copyright laws.

Protools makes editing your musical recording very easy. The majority of the editing that you do to your recording is nondestructive which allows you to undo anything that youve done if you dont like it. It also allows you to preserve the original recording. You can also do these nondestructive edits while the recording is playing back which is a convenient feature because you can change things right as you hear them.

Tilson Thomas, Michael. Music and emotion through time. 2012. Web Video. 17 Feb 2013.

Ted talks are always done by credible people because they are asked to speak at the conventions. Also, Michael Tilson Thomas is the director of the San Francisco Orchestra and the artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.

Music is the all encompassing net that allows us to communicate across generations and centuries. The music of classical composers has evolved and transformed and stood the test of time. We have become accustomed to certain progressions of chords as this evolution has occurred. But what sticks with us is not how the music sounds or the technical way that it is produced but the feelings and experiences that we associate with those chord progressions. The most important thing about music is the way we remember it. All of my sources seem to agree that the future of music is uncertain as long as the copyright laws stay the same. Piracy will still cause problems for the security of the music industry. However, there are some promising advancements in music such as music therapy, that I think are going to make a huge impact on the way we think about music. Some of the questions that I havent been able to find answers to are still bothering me. Do the people who do the music therapy have to pay fees in order to use the music of these artists in their study because of the current usage laws? Should these artists allow the medical industry to use their songs? Are there going to be whole new artists that only produce music for use in therapy? Who will pay them? How will they be

copyrighted? Joel Wadfogel says Broadly, what we know about music piracy is this: the rate of sales displacement is probably far less than 1:1. Supporting this view is corroborating evidence that consumers steal music that, on average, they do not value very highly and would not otherwise purchase. It is widely understood that most artists make their money from ticket sales and merchandise. The people buying this merchandise and attending concerts probably first downloaded the CD from the internet illegally and upon hearing the music, became a fan. This exposure is not a bad thing. This is taking someone who wouldnt have bought the CD in the first place and making them buy other products. This is a win-win for the artist. The only issue economically for the artist arises when someone who would have paid for the CD, but now because of pirating they are not paying for it. This makes the artist lose revenue. Ultimately, music is about the experience. It is about the most wonderful of memories that is associated with a certain chord progression. The sounds that we are so accustomed to hearing have evolved over time from classical songs. The most important thing is the way that we remember music. This is why music therapy is so effective. The children are brought back to memories that they experienced long ago and forced to go back to their classical roots that are the primal musical and emotional sounds.

For those of us who are looking for the truly personalized musical experience, the current range of music streaming alternatives is just not cutting it. Lets face it: Pandora only plays the same songs over and over again and never plays anything new and Spotify doesnt give the artists enough credit for their work. So what are our alternatives? Napster bit the dust and now all we have left is iTunes and Spotify. These outlets are great for people who listen to more mainstream music but for those of us that swim against the current there is not as much variety. And what about the local bands? The ones that really need support and a bigger fan base?

Music Your Way is (hopefully) going to change this. It will start with a quiz that will consist of questions that will figure out where you are located (to help you find local bands that you will like) and find out what kinds of music you like and what parts of those pieces really make it for you. The following are the questions that you would be asked: 1. What is your favorite genre of music? 2. What are your top 3 favorite songs? 3. When you are looking for new music, what do you value most? 4. When listening to a song, do you focus more on the music or the lyrics? 5. List what songs have the most plays in your music library right now? 6. Have you ever been to see a local band play? If so, what was the name of the band? 7. Do you know about the local music scene in your area? 8. What concerts have you been to in the past 3 years? 9. When do you listen to music? 10. What kind of music do your friends like? 11. What is your zip code? 12. How far would you be willing to drive to see a band? 13. Is there anything else about your musical taste that we need to know?

Each of these questions will be answered by the users and will help us figure out where to point them on their journey to musical exploration. This is the fundamental core of the Music Your Way philosophy. Our main goal is to help musical connoisseurs to find something new and exciting to munch on.

The system used to sort through songs will be similar to Pandora's Music Genome Project, which uses over 450 parameters to analyze the songs and find compatible matches. I would use the same concept. The search would include local artists. To solve the problems that Spotify and iTunes face, Music Your Way would allow you to listen to a song the whole way through 10 times before you would have to pay $1 per song and $10 per album. This way, if you are actively seeking out a song, you will be showing the artists that produced it how much you enjoy it. For artists to get their music onto Music Your Way, they would use the same companies that currently allow you to post on Spotify, iTunes and other music streaming sites (aka CD Baby,

etc.) MYW would also have links to the websites of every band. This would allow you to find out when your favorite band is playing and buy their merch. You would be able to access MYW from your mobile device and it would connect with all the major social networking sites so you can share your new favorite song with all your friends.

A major departure from Spotify and iTunes, Music Your Way would not have a top 10 for the week list or anything like that. The music that would be on your homepage when you log into the website would be music that is specifically suited to what you have outlined as your top musical attributes. Unfortunately there is no way that we could get it right every time. Every system has problems. Just like Pandora, there would be a vote up and vote down button that tell us if you like what we picked for you or not. Once you click, a comment box will pop up so you can tell us what you liked or didnt like about the song. Keep in mind, the more specific you are with your comment, the better we are able to serve you music that is appetizing.

In reality, Music Your Way would cost a good deal of money to set up. Not only would I have to set up the website, get all of the major musicians on board, and get a partnership with CD Baby, Reverbnation and other music hosting websites; I would have to get a list together of all the local bands in every city across America. This is not a small undertaking. I plan to accomplish this by sending e-mails and flyers to all the major venues in each city with instructions on how to get their shows on the website. By doing this, the venues would get more publicity and therefore more ticket sales (you have to make sure that there is something in it for them as well). Eventually the word would spread and bands would be able to post their shows and venues on their own by logging into their band page on Reverbnation. The Music Your Way website would automatically sync all of their tour dates, new music, album art, etc.

For local bands, a site like this would be invaluable. The hardest thing (in my opinion) is getting people to notice you once you have your sound down. I think a site like Music Your Way would really help some up and coming artists to branch out to people that wouldnt have been able to find their music before. Making connections is what makes or breaks you in the music industry and Music Your Way would be an excellent outlet for this. Production companies would be able to get all the information that they need about a new band from one convenient place. They could also use the site as a platform for communicating with bands as well.

Obviously, I wouldnt be able to do all of this organizing and data collecting by myself. In order to make money to pay my employees I would have advertisements available for the users clicking pleasure to the side of their screen (similar to facebooks setup). I would also setup a priority customer type deal where the people who pay a little to help out get first dibs on new music and tickets to the shows that they want to go to. Id say thats a pretty fair trade.

"How To Sell Music." Sell Your Music Online. CD Baby. Web. 21 Apr 2013. Layton, Julia. "How Pandora Radio Works." How Stuff Works. How Stuff Works?. Web. 21 Apr 2013. Letang, Shaun. "How To Sell Your Music On iTunes - The Important Facts Some Leave Out." Music Think Tank. hypebot.com, 13 Sept 2012. Web. 21 Apr 2013. Hartley, Adam. "Music Labels See Smartphone Streaming as the Future." Tech Radar. N.p., 16 Feb 2011. Web. 21 Apr 2013. Herr, Louie. "How Much are Next-Gen Music Services Really Paying Artists? ." Digital Trends. N.p.. Web. 21 Apr 2013.