The Web and the Songlines of the Global Village
Date: 19.06.2013
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Speaker: Ronise Nepomuceno, Web Developer in iSolutions
Location: Building 44 / Room1057
DE Lunch-time seminar presented by Ronise Nepomuceno
‘The Web and the Songlines of the Global Village’
The latest report from the IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) on Digital Music, clearly states that Digital Music is driving the web economy. This new economy is now shifting the dominance of USA and UK on the music market, with artists from places such as Brazil and South Korea reaching the IFPI global charts of top selling singles. No wonder the music industry is now, more than ever going Global. World Music which was once seen as a niche category for ethnic and eccentric tastes, is now the new rock-in-roll.
News on the decline of the traditional music industry now sound naïve, as the same medium responsible for the biggest decline in the industry, since the late 90s, is now responsible for its recovery. In 2012, the music industry achieved its best year performance since 1998 with a growth of 81% in total. While sales on CDs fell by 10%, 27% of the sales were digital. Contrary to the tendency of getting everything for free, people are now paying for downloading music.
This new shift, together with the use of the web to distribute and promote new work, has been driving the web economy not only in terms of technology, but also in ways that independent musicians are organising themselves and using the medium. It is also changing the way we relate to music since the 80s, the decade in which commercial music from United States and UK had a high dominance in the world. Music on the web is creating new soundscapes in a way similar to the songlines of Aboriginal Australians. These new connections are reinforcing Marshall McLuhan’s theories about the Global Village, a concept that was explored 40 years before the birth of the World Wide Web.
This a very broad subject, and as a starting point, this talk will focus on highlighting locations with a strong dominance of Independent Music and their strategies on the use of the web for the production and distribution of music. We will also discuss the effect this has on other creative areas and the way the relationship of the public with music is changing.
Ronise is currently a Web Developer in iSolutions. She is originally from Minas Gerais, in Brazil, a place with strong roots in Independent Music. Ronise has been using the web since 1994, as an Environmental Journalist and while volunteering for Environmental Organisations such as Greenpeace Communications and Women’s Environmental Network. She also produced her first Online Magazine on Environmental and Development Education in 1995. She is currently carrying research under her own initiative into the dominance of music on the web – you can read more on her blog www.berimbaudrum.org
DE Lunch-time seminars are free to attend and lunch will be provided. All are welcome.
Next DE Lunch Seminar: Ben Mawson ‘walk inside a piece of music’ via the 3D Binaural Audio Rendering Engine, 22nd July 2013.