Key Areas of study - Mainstream - Kassia la Cour

Key Areas of Study

the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice

Point

 The problem is mainly with copyright issues and law, as there is so much music out there, there is a very fine line between copyright and creative license. 

Evidence

1. Ariana Grande is rarely involved with the writing of her songs. The majority of her songs have been written by her team of writers, often the same for more than one of her songs, such as Max Martin who has co-written ‘Into You’ and much more.  Tommy brown has also helped to write many of her other songs. However, although Ariana is not present when writing most of her many songs, it is evident that she has co-written 14 of them. She also receives help from other artists like Harry Styles and Chris Brown during collaboration.
2. She has collaborated with other Vivendi artists - Iggy Azalea (Def Jam) on the track “Kingdom Come” from her fifth studio album “Confident.” 
3. Kanye West’s latest album Life Of Pablo has been illegally downloaded over 500,000 times since its release. 
4. Kanye's new album ‘Life of Pablo’, many songs were leaked but not whole songs they were only parts of songs, for example, the beginning or the end or just the chorus of the song. This included various collaborations he had done, for example with Kendrick Lamar, Bon Iver, Justin Vernon, Paul McCartney. Also, there were several alternate versions of many of his songs featuring other artists - Vic Mensa/Sia/Frank Ocean. Kanye's songs were being leaked on different websites in all different countries so he decided that he had to release his album ‘ Life of Pablo’ unfinished but many people say it offers some on-going insight into Kanye’s creative process of his album.
5. Kanye has been sued for copyright infringement by a Hungarian composer, Gabor Presser, over ‘Yeezus’ single ‘ New Slaves’ (2013). He was sued for alleged song theft. The Hungarian composer accused Kanye of sampling one of his best-known compositions without permission. Gabor Presser said one-third of 'New slaves', which appeared on the No.1 album ' Yeezus', is the unauthorised copy of " Gyongyhaju Lany", a 1969 song he wrote when he was in the band called Omega. He was seeking at least 2.5 million dollars for copyright infringement.
6. Cheryl Cole doesn't write the majority of her songs. However, when she did write her own songs it's with help from famous rapper Will.i.am including the song 'Live Tonight' which was released in 2010. Andre Merritt, Steve Kipper and Wayne Wilkins wrote one of Cheryl’s most famous songs ‘Fight For This Love’. 
1. Taylor Swift has trademarked many of her key phrases to prevent them appearing on unauthorised merchandise. She has trademarked her phrases: "this sick beat",  "nice to meet you, where you been?", "party like it's 1989", "cause we never go out of style” and  "could show you incredible things".  Taylor Swift has also copyrighted her name, signature and initial as well as her album names "Fearless" and "Speak Now 
2. She has called for the laws on copyright to be reformed.  Along with more than 180 artists, she signed an open letter criticising the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in America. These artists and songwriters are essentially calling for a redrawing of the ‘safe harbour’ protections within the DMCA, which allow platforms such as YouTube to avoid legal liability for copyright infringement taking place on its platform.
1. Ellie has recorded a lot of demos and other music that were released officially to the public. Some of these songs were leaked 2 years ahead of any official release, for example, "Closed for Love" was released in 2010 but was leaked somewhere from 2008-2010 The list of some of Ellie Goulding songs which were leaked are: Are You Happy Now (leaked in 2010), Beautifully Numb (leaked around 2008-2010), Castles (leaked around 2008-2010), Closed for Love (leaked in 2008). 

Analysis

There are two types of copyright laws, one that protects the production of a track and one that protects the distribution of the track. On of the main problems faced by artists today is that due to the internet songs are illegally distributed for free on black market websites, meaning that control of sales and distribution is impossible because songs are leaked and therefore the artists/ company and production are left with no money. 

Artists that try and rectify the situation such as Taylor swift who trademarked her phrases and song often do not get results as it is really difficult to track distribution infringement. 

Copyright within production is hard to control because the line between creative license and copyright is so fine also artist claim that they are influenced by others and didn’t intently claim to copy them. 


Point

the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing
Use of media convergence and synergy to create multiple opportunities and create more investment opportunities. 

Evidence

1. She plays Smurfette in the animated movie “Smurfs: The Lost Village”  - due for release on April 7th, 2017.
2. Kanye and Jay Z in both of their latest albums featured on each other’s and they both used the technique of brand dropping and product placement in their new albums. Kanye in his lyrics also mention the brand Sonos ( a wifi music system).  These speakers are also being used in Kanye’s temporary Pablo retail stores, where you can buy the speakers, as well as Kanye designed t-shirts and jeans. (http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/kanye-west-the-life-of-pablo-pop-up-sonos)
3. Likewise, her songs were also featured in movies such as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (Bittersweet), The Hunger Games (Mirror) and Fifty Shades of Grey (Love Me Like You Do). 

Analysis

Cross-media convergence can be a really smart way to promote an artist. Usually, it is done to help an artist become more popular and break out of their already established audience. Using two popular artists on a track could help bring two audiences together and by having the music feature on a movie people who would not normally be influenced by the sound or have access to it, will be able to experience it.  

Point

the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange
The development of technologies can both help and hinder the distribution and marketing.

Evidence

1. Ariana Grande's fans are mainly teenagers who are usually familiar with technology and social media, so Ariana uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to connect with her audience
2. Demi also has 3,009,227,172 views on her YouTube channel.
3. “Life of Pablo” was released on GOOD  (Getting Out Our Dreams) Records, a record label owned and founded by Kanye.  Since 2011 all GOOD records are distributed through DEF Jam.
4. Kanye west helped Jay-z get his Tidal streaming service to number one on the app store by saying to his fans that it would be the only streaming service he would use to release his album ‘Life Of Pablo’. This made more than half of Kanye Wests fans download the app just to listen to his music on.

Analysis

One of the main technological impacts of the industry has been the internet. Through the use of YouTube and social media, artists have been able to branch out and promote themselves. Through videos becoming more popular and earning more money. 

However, the internet has also hindered the industry such that it is almost impossible to control illegal distribution of a track due to its quick nature and the constant multiplying of sources. 


Apps such a ‘tidal’ have catered to a niece audience and therefore meant that distribution has not been illegal but still limited due to only being for a limited audience. 

Point

the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences

Evidence

1. Ariana Grande pre-released 2 tracks on YouTube within the week of the album Dangerous Woman's release day (20th March 2016).  'Dangerous Woman' (the song) was released on YouTube on the 11th of March 2016 then followed by another track on her album called 'Be alright' which was released on the 18th of March,2 days before she released her album. Finally, on the 20th of March (album release day), she uploaded 'Dangerous Woman A Capella'.

Point

the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions

This can limit audiences and therefore sales prices, the product only becomes available for a niece audience however it also creates oppunitunies for a community of people. 

Evidence

1. Tidal at the time was the only source Kanye’s fans could listen to his music on so it was exclusive but Kanye promised his fans that were the only way they could listen to his music until months later he released his album on Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple Music and more streaming websites. He also then released his new app which had his music on it as well. Kanye pre-released all of his albums before putting them on any app.
2. Kanye was doing a live stream and playing his new album and in the live stream, he showed his fans for the first time the trailer for his new app.
3. Ariana has appeared on the cover of women’s magazines as an inspirational woman, for example, "Women Health" magazine, which suggests that her target audience is women. Furthermore, her album cover has shades of pink and colours such as "pink " are represented as typical girly colours, which also suggests that her target audience could be girls.

Analysis

By only targeting certain audience distribution can be limited and sales smaller however it does create a trusted fanbase that could then expand and grow.

However, by targeting a larger audience you can be fighting against a larger competition and target the wrong people. 

The marketing for both these areas are also different and therefore cost different things. Above the line, marketing promotes to a wider audience through adverts on tv or billboards however it can cost a lot. Below the line, marketing is used for target audiences and this is achieved through sou

Point

the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour 
The tracking of audience reactions is important for the industry as it means that the companies can tailor their product to the needs of the audience.

Evidence

1. In the UK Kanye has achieved 3 number 1 singles and 2 number 1 albums. In the US, Kanye made the US chart history with his newest album ‘Life Of Pablo’. This album went to the top of the US album charts very fast as he had many streaming services going at the same time in America which helped it get it to the top faster. This made it number 1 album in the US market.
2. Her album “Confident” had total sales of 211,000, with a format of CD and digital download. And for her album “Demi” she had 426,000, which was again in the format of a CD and digital download.
3. Demi also has 3,009,227,172 views on her YouTube channel.
4. Taylor Swift’s latest album '1989' got 5.8 million US sales, making it the fastest selling album in over 10 years and 9.5 million worldwide sales breaking her last album 'Red' s record which got 4.2 million US sales and 6.5 million worldwide sales.
5. Her song 'Shake it Off' was the most downloaded song off the album with 881,000 copies sold. The song also got the most streams out of the album with 10.78 million audio streams
6. Taylor swifts new album '1989' sold 2,890,000 physical copies and 2,067,000 digital copies in the US and was 2015's biggest vinyl seller with 34,000 units.
7. Her song "Burn", which has hit 53.8 millions streams on Spotify, is estimated to have earned around $323,000 – $452,000.

Hardware and content

1.       How long did it take to record their latest album?

It took Lil Wayne 5 years to record Tha Carter V. Through the process of recording, he told his audience that the album was all about growth, and also that this may be his final album. This may lead to his audience recommending his album to other friends and family who may consider his music. This expands his music because of the curiosity that is audience feel as the album is released to the public. As they wait, it increases the albums value as they aren’t able to get more of Lil Wayne’s music as he proclaims that it is the last one that he is going to release.

2.       Where was their last album recorded (studio/ bedroom/ on tour etc)?

Lil Wayne recorded Tha Carter V in a studio, with the majority of his albums recorded in a studio.

3.       How many tracks on each of their last two album releases?

Free Weezy was one of the two albums that Lil Wayne recently recorded, it contents 16 tracks within the album. Also I am not a human being ii is another recent album that Lil Wayne released. It contains 15 tracks within the album, which is almost similar to the other album.

4.       How many singles were released from each if their last two albums?

One of Lil Wayne’s latest albums is Free Weezy, which has a track list of 15 songs, among them there are 8 singles. These singles all have a different purpose to the album, some are similar but most of them tell a different story. Lil Wayne’s other album that he also released recently is Tha Carter V, which has a track list of 16, among these tracks there are 6 singles.

5.       What formats were their last two albums released on? (CD, digital download, vinyl, deluxe album)

Both his recent album was released on CD but today, everything is commonly released online through either iTunes or other applications. The way the market distribute their music today is gradually changing throughout the years. This changes the way the music industry markets their product to their audience.

6.       Have your artist ever enabled user generated content?

The hit show on HBO “Ballers” had featured a track from Lil Wayne’s 2010 hit “right above it” this was considered an efficient way of marketing his music by using cross media convergence. Releasing their music across different platforms allows his target audience to widen, thus expanding his revenue.

7.       Has their music ever been used to promote a new piece of hardware?

Lil Wayne released “Go Dj” on the play station 2 game Midnight Club 3. This song was well recognised because of how it was marketed, Lil Wayne’s music featuring on a video game is an example of cross media convergence.

8.       Have they used a new piece of hardware in the production of their music?

Lil Wayne hasn’t promoted any new piece of hardware at all.

9.       Have tacks been pre-released or exclusively available on artist’s apps?

Lil Wayne released an app called Squvd Up, which features under the album The Carter iii, this is an efficient way of promoting his product by releasing it onto another platform.

10.   Has any of their music ever been repackaged because of the new piece of hardware?

None of Lil Wayne’s music has ever been repackaged due to the new release of hardware that could potentially affect the way he distributes music.

11.   Have any of their videos or other promotional material featured product placement of hardware?

Lil Wayne also featured in an advert which promotes the new piece of hardware that Samsung released (Samsung Galaxy S7), this video was sponsored by Samsung by allowing Lil Wayne to feature on the video to market their new piece of hardware to the public.

Audience behaviour and consumption

1.       What were the total sales of their last two albums?

The total sales for “free Weezy” was estimated at 10 million dollars.

2.       How did they chart in

3.        A) The UK: Lil Wayne’s “Free Weezy” charted top 10 in the UK as it was first released on July 4^th.

4.       B) the US: Lil Wayne charted 28^th in the US for his free Weezy album, when it was released on July 4^th

5.       What percentage of sales for their last two albums were:

A) CD sales: 40%

B) Vinyl sales: 3%

C) streamed/e.g. Spotify: 25%

D) Downloaded: 32%

4. What is the estimated number of illegal downloads in their last two albums?

Free Weezy was estimated at 10 million downloads online. Tha Carter V also received 14 million downloads and streams online. This shows the change in the way people access their music in many different ways, one of them being the most common (online downloads). There are some downloads that were taken online from pirated websites. These websites break the copyright law. It is very difficult to prevent the artist’s audience to access free music online where they can easily find it. 

Frank Ocean

Copyright 

On Oceans debut album ‘Channel Orange’ released on February, Ocean would write lyrics that complimented Malay’s keyboard and guitar playing, Malay is not only credited as a songwriter but also a producer. Ocean collaborated with Odd Future Collective for Channel Orange and Tyler the creator, Pharrell Williams and danger mouse for Blondie however he had creative freedom on both of his albums. Mo a Danish singer in collaboration with Major Lazer covered Frank Ocean’s song ‘lost’ from Channel Orange. 

Although no charges were pressed Frank Oceans newest album ‘Blondie’ was said to have been leaked onto goggle drive soon after it was made available to buy, however  universal did not press charges instead using scare tactics to shut the file down. Although Ocean has never released a statement about copyright he has been accused by musician Joel McDonald that alleged the Watch the Throne track "Made in America" by Jay Z and West and featuring Ocean had ripped off one of his songs however the court ruled that it was not a copyright violation and therefore ocean didn’t have to pay. 

Blonde Frank’s second album, was initially an Apple Music streaming exclusive when it was released on August 20. However, it later was released on Spotify on September 9th.However after a week the album had been removed from Spotify, with fans unable to play the record through Spotify. The album however was released again after Spotify explained that there was a small tech error.

Ownership 

Frank Ocean was originally signed to Def Jams which is under Universal however his new album Blondie was released on the artists own label called ‘Boys don’t cry’. The controversy over this album was that it was released under Franks own label ‘Boys don ’t cry’ which goes against his contract negotiations with ‘Def Jam’ (Which is under Universal studios) however Ocean got around his contract by releasing ‘Endless’ under their name, the company threatened to sue but found they had no legal ground considering Ocean paid back all the production fee’s. Boys dont cry is an independent label which mean that is owned by Frank Ocean and is relatively new meaning that no artist are yet signed with the label. The label has only released Oceans new album along with a zine, ocean is Known for his idiosyncratic musical style, however this is likely to change over time as Frank states he would like to work with a more experimental sound. His “Boys Don’t Cry” magazine credits David Bowie, Kanye West, Jamie xx, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, the Beatles, André 3000, Brian Eno, Pharrell, Elliott Smith only his Visual album Ocean credits Wolfgang tillmans, Jonny greenwood, Om’mas keith, James blake, Sampha, Jazmine sullivan, Arca, Christophe chassol, Buddy ross, Troy noka, Joe thornalley, Ben reed, Rita zebdi, Alex g, Sebastian, Michael uzowuru, Austin hollows. On Blondie Ocean credits Pharrell, Tyler the Creator, Lil B, Danger Mouse, Tame Impala, King Krule, Bit-Boy, Rodney Jerkins, Happy Perez, Charlie Gambetta, Kevin Ristro, Jay Z ( signed to universal showing convergence) , Kanye West (also signed to universal which shows synergy) , Martin Gore, Malay. The new album is only being distributed online and frank is yet to realise a physical copy of the album and is searching for a distribution deal. 

Promotion and Target audiences 

Ocean had a large growing fan base that built of his first album and due to his association with Tyler the Creator and Kanye West he has adopted their audience, Ocean mainly used tumblr and his website to promote his new album which is very below the line as the audience had to actively search for the music. He used very little above the line promotion such that he didn't used posters or appear on tv, his new album was very sort after and he built anticipation by giving very little information to the audience meaning that you had to actively search for very little information such as release dates, tracks and collaborations. Ocean used several different types of media during the release, through this he was able promote and build on the album.Such as during the album release he also set up several pop-up shops which sold both the album, the magazine and different merchandise.   A day before Ocean released his 45 minutes visual album which also shows examples of using two forms of media for both promotion and distribution, the album is available both online and physically showing different forms of distribution.

Some advantages of cross-media convergence in this case is that Ocean was able to promote his album across several forms of media, by selling merchandise he is able to both increase profit but also promote the album.  The audience also gets lots of access and extra material, therefore creating a buzz and more social media coverage. Some disadvantages to cross-media is that the message or product could become distorted, therefore the audience could get confused or misinterpret the product.

SHINee

SHINee

SHINee is a South Korean contemporary boy band formed under the label S.M. Entertainment in the year 2008. The group consists of five members: Lee Jinki (Onew), Kim Jonghyun (Jonghyun), Kim Kibum (Key), Choi Minho (Minho) and Lee Taemin (Taemin). The group was introduced as a R&B boy group by their company with the goal to become trendsetters in all areas of dance, music, fashion, etc. They first made their debut with the single “Replay” on May 25^th 2008, on SBS’s Inkigayo (a popular music show in South Korea).

The group’s songs are mostly written and composed by the member Jonghyun but on some occasions, all the members take part in writing the lyrics to most of the songs in their album. As each of them have a different role in the group e.g. Jonghyun being the main vocalist composes their songs, and rappers Key and Minho write the raps in their songs. However during their early stages, the company that they were under were the ones who wrote the songs and composed them for the group. As they are now considered as one of the senior groups in the K-pop industry with 8 years of experience, they are also one of the most respected groups around. This makes them to be Sunbae-nims (a term in Korean which means a person who is more experienced in a field of industry longer than you) and with this comes the fact that groups that are younger than you would cover your songs. EXO are hugely known Internationally and in Asia, they are also under the same label as SHINee and are 4 years younger than SHINee in the music industry. They once covered “Why So Serious?” by SHINee in 2013 as well as having the opportunity to perform a SHINee song on stage with them during their debut era, the song they covered was called “Lucifer.” Furthermore a group that have recently debuted called NCT127 (also under the same label as SHINee) covered SHINee’s debut song – “Replay.”

Since they are under a highly protected company, the chances of having any of their music leaked online is very unlikely. S.M Entertainment is one of, if not the most popular and well known company in K-pop who hold great power, and it is always their duty to keep safe all the music that their artists are working on, until they are deemed to release it for the public. Their music can be found on Spotify if it were to be searched, pretty much all their songs and albums can be found here. It is not clear exactly how much SHINee make through Spotify as their record label are not the ones who upload the albums, and because of this, this information is hard to find.

SHINee are under the label S.M. Entertainment since 2008 and still currently are, and in addition to this, they made their Japanese debut in 2011 under EMI Records Japan which is linked in with Universal Music. S.M. Entertainment is home to many of South Korea’s legendary bands that have formed over many years. These include boy groups such as: H.O.T, SHINWHA, TVXQ/DBSK, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, BoA, F(X), EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, NCT127 and NCT Dream. All of these groups as very well known in the general public in Korea as well as being known internationally over the years in which K-pop has bloomed.

To be specific, there is no certain genre that the label produces music in, this is due to the fact that there are many artists signed to their company, all who have a different style musically. The genres that the label produces are k-pop, electropop, dance – pop, pop, R&B, hip hop, EDM and trot.

The member Taemin collaborated with his best friend and label mate Kai from EXO in his solo debut for his mini album that was released in 2014 with the track “Pretty Boy,” the lyrics for it were written by Taemin’s band member Jonghyun and was a huge hit as the two – referred to as “Taekai” by fans are known to be amazing dancers, and with Taemin’s vocals and Kai’s rap in the upbeat song, it was hugely famous. Another collaboration would be Jonghyun and Chen of EXO, who released a single trach called “A Day Without You,” as one of S.M. Ballads. In addition to this, there was a time when SHINee collaborated with their label girl group mate F(X) for a single that was called “Lollipop” with a funky and upbeat tune. There has also been instances where Key collaborated with many of the Girls’ Generation members for their solo debuts.

SHINee’s records are distributed by KT Music and Naver (a social media website that is used in South Korea to view new music releases. They also have a Vevo channel on Youtube which is called SHINeeVevo - https://m.youtube.com/user/SHINeeVEVO?

They have not been promoted or collaborated with any other company within the Vivendi group. However they have appeared on many adverts for different brands to promote the product. These include “Nature Republic” which is a very famous brand in South Korea known for their amazing skin products. “The Saem” is a popular cosmetics store that is both affordable and good quality for the public. Another one would be “Shilla Duty Free,” which sells the widest range of cosmetics and perfumes, mostly in Asia – Pacific airports. Moschino is an Italian luxury fashion house who specialize in ready-to-wear, fashion accessories, leather, shoes, luggage, perfume etc. One of their all time famous brands was “Ppusyeo Ppusyeo,” which is a noodle brand that quickly became well known after SHINee filmed an advert for it in 2010 and have recently filmed another one in 2016. Not to mention that member Key is one of Jill Stuart’s model and has helped modelling for their bags. SHINee have been filming CFs since their debut and are still doing so.

When they first debuted, their target audience were girls that were older than them (during 2008 all the members were teenagers) this quickly attracted a lot of people’s attention as the culture in Korea is different, and older women being fans of younger boys is viewed as something odd, in fact it is the total opposite. It also helped that their debut song’s Korean name was “Noona Neomu Yeppeo.” “Noona” refers to an older girl, “neomu” means very and “yeppeo” means pretty, so the phrase translates to “Girl, you are very pretty.” The fact the SHINee are a contemporary band means that they change their music style each time they have a comeback, this would result in them targeting many different types of audiences of various music styles and ages.

Their last two albums were called “Odd” which came out in 2014 and “1 of 1” that was just recently released – October 5^th 2016. Ways in which they promoted their albums was very wide ranged. These included things such as TV show appearances, interviews during music shows and photoshoots, live performances on many music shows such as Inkigayo, Music Bank, Music Core, MCount Down, Mnet, Melon etc. They also made appearances in live and viewable radios. In fact Jonghyun himself hosts a radio show called “Blue Night” that airs at midnight and goes for a hour. The whole team have come to Jonghyun’s radio show 4 times now, as well as Sukira, ShimShimtapa and KBS World. Their photoshoots were to help promote their albums more as they were released as magazines with little snips of their interview. S.M. Entertainment has established billboards for SHINee as this is a compulsory way for promoting.

Other ways in which they promoted SHINee’s albums was through S.M. Entertainment’s Official website : http://m.smtown.com  They also have an official Twitter page that allows fans to follow in on the new updates that the group would be having. In addition to this, Onew, Jonghyun and Key have social media accounts that include Instagram and Twitter which allows them to post or tweet about their new album.

Since SHINee are a group that mostly promote in either South Korea or Japan, their way of promoting is very similar. They usually release a music video teaser in Korea, this is a short clip that consists of maybe 15 seconds of the actual music video which would be released probably in the following day or two on the company’s Youtube page. Soon after that, they perform in music shows which allows the fans to vote for their favourite band, and at the end of each day, there would be a winner, this would carry on for a maximum of 5 weeks. However in Japan, it’s a bit different. This is because even though they release a teaser video, the full music video would never be released on Youtube for fans to view. The reason for this is to make sure that the fans buy the physical album. There are many concerts that take part in both South Korea and Japan that SHINee get to perform for 3-5 days each year, either in the Tokyo Dome, or in Seoul.

50 Cent

Copyright

50 Cent’s career has spanned over 16 years, he has released over 100 songs in this timeline. 50 Cent’s songs are mainly wrote by himself because usually puts them on mix tapes or albums. He also writes for other people ranging from Ciara to Eminem, who is his artist.50 Cent’s songs are very popular; on average getting over 1 million views on ‘VEVO’; because of his fame on YouTube, there are many covers of his by random people but by signed artist there is only one that is shown which is Post Malone’s cover of ‘window shopper’.50 Cent has kept a tight ship when it comes to albums and what is released, this may also be the reason for why there isn’t a case of 50 Cent’s songs being leaked. Although many artist do not like copyright infringement on their music, it seems they are happy to do it to others; 50 Cent is one of these artists. Rapper 50 Cent stole some of the lyrics for his 2003 hit "In Da Club" from a song by former 2 Live Crew frontman Luther Campbell, an attorney claims in a lawsuit. Richard C. Wolfe filed the copyright infringement lawsuit against Curtis James Jackson, aka 50 Cent, in Miami federal court last week on behalf of Lil' Joe Wein Music. 50 Cent is a very important and popular artists, to keep his status he has to release music on many platforms; Spotify is one these platforms.  Spotify admits the average "per stream" pay-out to rights holders lands somewhere between $0.006 and $0.0084.

Ownership

50 Cent was signed to Interscope for most of his careers until he left in 2014 and later signed to Capitol Records. Feud over albums and money forced him to leave. Interscope have many artists, ranging from Tory Lanez to Kendrick Lamar. Their focus genre is mainly hip-hop and pop. Capitol Records artist’s range from Jimi Hendrix to Rod Stewart, because of their wide range of artists it is no surprise that their    main genre is varied. In Interscope 50 Cent collaborated with most artists but the most famous collaboration was with the game, this is probably the most famous because this later turned into a viscous ‘beef’. In Capitol however, he hasn’t had any problems with artist butt mainly collaborates with his group ‘G-Unit’.

Convergence and Synergy

50 Cent’s music career is only a fraction for why 50 Cent is still in the top 10 earners of the music business, his many features in films and TV shows has accumulated great wealth. He regularly does soundtracks for films and TV shows but mainly his shows. He not only is in entertainment; he has his own headphone ‘SMS audio invests in platinum and has his own alcohol ‘EFFEN’.

Promotion and Targeting audience

50 Cent’s mogul platform has widened his range of audience on a global scale but started out with teenagers as the main audience. 50 Cent is very smart in the way he promotes his music and his products, he uses both under and over the line promotion. He is a household name and voice because if regular appearance on radio and talk shows showing his quirky personality and likeable attitude, and he also uses Twitter and Instagram to view his opinion on things while slyly promoting his products or songs in a hashtag or in the final clips of the video.
Hardware and content

50 Cent's most recent latest ep/mixtape had many delays in its release date but it was promoted and released within a month. His busy schedule meant that he had to record it in his spare time, he was mainly working on promoting and starring in his TV show;Power. In this short ep/Mixtape only seven tracks were featured in this. Although there were only seven tracks they were all used in background music for his TV show, but also available for digital download via datpiff and thisis50 which is his website.For the production of these songs, Laptops and electronic platforms were used for this mixtape; this is usually used for hip-hop beats. Mainly this mixtape was for his TV show from clear indicators in the lyrics and the title.

Audience behaviour and consumption

50 Cent's record sales have declined dramtically over is decade in the music business,both his mixtapes didnt reach over 300,000 record sold, compared to his 2005 album which sold over 11 million records.in the US 50 Cent charted 38 but in the UK he didnt chart, 90% were downloaded while the other 10% were CD sales. It is very hard to get facts and figures for illegal downloading because of many ways to do it through different sites.

Coldplay has five band members, firstly the lead singer Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Johnny Buckland and Will champion which all came together in 1996- 1997. All five boys attended the Collage of London and were all music influenced as kids. Chris Martin who is the lead singer is also a songwriter necessary for creating all the groups singles. Their songs have been covered by many successful artist including Ellie Goulding who sang don’t panic, Alicia keys who covered clocks and Noah and the Whale who performed Paradise. Coldplay have previously been accused of copyright which they later admitted since then the allegation has been cleared up without any negativity from fans. They stated “We’ve so directly stolen off anyone before. We’ve never paid for our plagiarism” This emphasises that They have been using inspiration from artists to create all their songs and some are more noticeable than others, we can argue they believe its necessary s that is what they have grown up on and where they get all of their creativity from. Coldplay are also on Spotify and earn quite a lot of money from sites like ITunes. However, they decided not to distribute their album ghost stories onto Spotify.

When Coldplay first started out they got spotted in Camden by Fierce Panda Records who gave they a one of offer which they took. Later on they got signed by the Universal music group, Emi, Warner music group, Atlantic records, Capitol records and their main label Parlophone. Parlophones main genre is rock however Coldplay are more alternative rock. Parlophone has many artists including the Beatles, John Lenon, David Guetta, Radiohead, Queen, The verve, Iron maiden, Freddie Mercuary and the two door cinema club and many more. Coldplay have collaborated with Kylie Minogue who is also from Parlophone. Chris Martin has appeared in a number of her singles and also shared the stage for a duet in 2014 ‘Where the Wild roses grow’ and ‘can’t get you out of my head’. In addition, Avicci who I s also signed to Parlophone co-wrote and and produced the bands 2014 hit ‘A sky full of stars’ which is the precursor to the bands current single ‘adventure of a lifetime’ Chris Martin returned the favour by co-writing and appearing on ‘true believer’ from Avicci’s 2015 stories Album and turning up again on the track ‘Heaven’ In December 2013 Coldplay announced future releases will be distributed by Atlantic Records in the US due to complications. Coldplay has an official Vevo account, there YouTube has also got 7533994 subscribers and 4542022412 video views.  They are estimated to make £24.8K-£396.2K monthly and £297.1k-£4.8m On a yearly basis.

Coldplay has been in several movies and TV shows which has definitely helped promote their music, this includes The Hunger Games: catching fire, boyhood, the amazing Spiderman and unbroken these are all major movies and big hits. On top of this Apple has also helped Coldplay with the costs of Adventure of a lifetime. In return Coldplay promoted apply headphones by allowing apple TV to feature their music video of adventure of a life time but having the monkeys grabbing Beats headphones. However, Apple went further and included Coldplay on an electronic billboard in Times square, New York.

Coldplay has a large target audience which varies from about 14-48 they make their music modern and change it with the current time period. They vary their lyrics and often change topics. They have used above the line promotion including using Electronic billboards, Apple, and featured on Magic radio. Plus, they have also performed live at the superbowl, Brit awards and most recently Glastonbury. On the other hand they have also used below the line promotion such as Skype celebrating ‘A head full of dreams’ with exclusive Coldplay mojis, meaning they helped bring to life and create Coldplay’s animations. They have also used Twitter where they have huge amount of followers to announce albums, tours and dates and also to promote their new product- rainbow pencils. Lastly, they also tour all around the world gaining more popularity and followers. They use a variety of ways to promote themselves to other countries such as the radio, TV, YouTube Social media and definitely when they perform in a different country.