Feasibility

Photo sourced from here.

It is an interesting question when you ask someone from recent generations when the last time was that they bought a physical CD. ITunes has dominated the way music is now consumed, shaping the face of media and constantly developing how humanity absorbs art forms.

As technology has continued to evolve, so too has digital media and online sales. This project aims to develop a blog that will investigate how technological and cultural advances have shaped the retail market, diminishing physical CD sales and raising the digital music phenomenon to new heights.

Through investigation into this project’s concept, similar sites were found which simply provided users access to datasets relating to digital media sales. One blog was found which investigates iTunes sales statistics in limited detail. Also, an online publication displays comprehensive statistics about digital media sales and even details which songs in particular topped the most downloaded charts. However, an aspect which both lack is creativity by way of data presentation and targeted interest in the writing style of the articles.

Four communications students hope to map this phenomenon. We hope to be able to present data on online media sales in a new, innovative way – accessing the trends in digital media, and showcasing just exactly how music (and various other media) is evolving. We shall graph the top trending genres, artists, songs and movies so you know exactly what media is prevalent today. Sharing a common interest of culture and music in particular, the group will provide readers with firsthand and truthfully passionate writing about an interest that is shared by many people internationally.

The group has researched the topic in depth before deciding to progress further with the concept. Comparative studies have been undertaken to ensure that the project is unique and will appeal to the current market of 'music lovers'. In terms of skills, the blogging experience and writing abilities of each group member will positively compliment the aims of the project and hopefully appeal to readers.

As we are primarily communication students we hope to further develop our technical skills to ensure our blog has a searchable presence on the web through methods such as Meta Tagging. We hope to utilise programs such as IBM, Many Eyes, and Prezi, enabling us to present our data sets and statistics in a creative and clear format for you, providing you with an informative and entertaining blog rather than just plain, black and white numbers.