Illegal versus legal

Downloading the latest music, film and programme is something that is done by the masses. Originating in an illegal format those within the industry were quick to realise that they were losing money as a result of this and they would be wise to jump on this bandwagon and hopefully stabilise any future profit loses. Throughout the years the manner in which people listen to music has dramatically changed, gone are the days of a Walkman or a portable CD player, we are now living in a world when the MP3 and particularly the ipod is King. This therefore means that they way people discover and buy music has had to be approached in a different manner. Music sharing, as it is commonly referred, has become a phenomenon that has swept the globe and as a consequence of this there have been vast changes occurring within the music industry and has resulted in a general transformation of how music is sold. However, how much of this transformation has affected those using illegal downloading sites? An article from the Telegraph highlighted that despite the increase in legal sites around 39% of people that are downloading music are still doing so illegally.

The debate surrounding the illegal downloading of music has lead to many within the music industry speaking out against it, most notably the singer Lily Allen who developed a blog entitled “It’s Not Alright” to speak out publicly against the downloading of music and also acted as a forum for others, Gary Barlow and Mark Ronson to name a couple, who shared her views. However Lily Allen has subsequently taken down her blog as she felt the ‘abuse’ she was receiving as a result of her disgust towards illegal downloading was too much to take. As a result of celebrity endorsements, such as Lily Allen’s, the issue of illegal downloading has made itself a hot topic and has thus resulted in even greater media exposure for the industry that it is trying to oppose. Sites like Limewire are commonly used, acknowledged and suggested by the music buying public however how well publicised are the opposing legal sites? Have they used their PR to the best of its ability? According to PRweek a massive 85%, of a survey 2,000 people, could only name iTunes and Amazon as legal sites for downloading music despite there now being over 20.

Before investigating this topic any further I too questioned how many legal sites I could name and I was only able to come up with iTunes. I will freely admit I am not prone to downloading music legally or illegally but I have certainly heard of more of the illegal sites and question why those who do have legal sites and complain about those using illegal sites aren’t taking a more proactive approach and advertising their brand. Surely it would only be of benefit to them and the music industry?

Communication between the distributors of legal downloads and consumers need to increase. However, how can this be done to show that there are benefits from paying and getting the music legally to using a well known site that you have trusted and the music happens to be free? The role of PR certainly needs to be increased within this music bracket as I am certain that PR plays a pivotal role in the rest of the music industry. As Jill Johnstone states in PRweek, “The music industry is shooting itself in the foot by not promoting legal online music services.”

The message is out there that illegal downloading is bad, it would however seem that people are perhaps unaware of the alternatives and these must be made more apparent.

link removed

Hi so my link to PRweek seems to not be working and after much searching it seems the article has been removed or something like that so i will be attempting to fix this! sorry!

PR and Social Media

With technological advancements happening continuously throughout the world it is understandable that people may find it rather hard to keep up to date with such progression let alone be technologically aware of how to approach such developments. As the need to be socially and technologically aware increases I question whether those within PR and those applying for new roles within PR are capable of handling these technological pressures that surround them? How easy is it to tweet, do you ‘Like’ Facebook? It is terms like these that have made it into our every day vocabulary but does everyone know what you are talking about? Despite Facebook having over 500million users worldwide and Twitter being the new celebrity craze there are a vast majority of society who have no clue how this sort of cyber community works. Perhaps for the under 25s this cyber world and chat comes naturally however perhaps for an older member of the PR community this social networking idea is slightly alien. Do they fail to see the importance to their job or are they just of an era that have yet to become internet aware? Either way it is certainly an area that they must improve upon as social media envelopes the world.

In PRweek (13th January 2010) there is an article discussing the increased importance of PR agents expanding their knowledge with regards to social medias role in PR. It is highlighted within this article the lack of social media that is registered on CVs. Perhaps this is done because the applicant is really more used to using sites like Facebook and Twitter to talk about themselves and the antics that they get up to. They have failed to see how it can be of use to those in the PR world, can lead to debates and highlight general knowledge. As is highlighted within the PRweek article employers want to see a level of social media knowledge, they will not regard you as a slacker, someone playing on the computer in company time, but as proactive and driven in this new technologically advanced world.

A prime reason for my enrolment in my Digital Media class was that I was under the impression I was rather computer literate...this notion was rapidly altered after my first day. If it wasn’t for the information I have received in this class I too would be unaware of the importance of highlighting social media and blog use on my CV. If I was asked in an interview whether I used Facebook etc I would have previously been quick to state only recreationally, unbeknownst to me that that was the wrong kind of answer. For those working in PR who don’t realise the importance of social media perhaps they would benefit to undertake the same sort of media training course.

New Blog!

so this is my new blog, nothing to say yet! But just you wait for my absolute pearls of wisdom...aye rite!