Mock Exam 2

“Cross-media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences.” To what extent to you agree with this statement in relation to your chosen media area?

Re-phrasing the question: To what extent do you agree that synergy is a vital key for music   & marketing to be successful (does music need synergy to be successful?)

I disagree with this statement, the music industry does not need synergy as a vital process of marketing their music to audiences, even though in some areas it can help success, for example, X-factor, synergy is useful. 

Independent labels do not need synergy to be successful. Indie labels use new-media technology such as the internet to distribute and market their artists. This is because it is cheaper and still covers a global audience. They are able to distribute their music for free, using websites such as YouTube and Spotify. Indie labels tend to target a niche audience, therefore there is less need in having to use synergy to promote their artists to a wide audience. The audience for the film may not be the right ‘type’ of people that would be interested in the particular genre of music from the independent label, by using the internet they can directly target the niche audience they desire. 

However, in contrast to this, X-Factor, owned by the record label SYCO, of the conglomerate Sony, need synergy to enable the success of the show. Sony uses synergy on a regular basis, this is because it is a successful way for major labels to market their products to the audience, as music has become very visualized due to new-media technology. 

Prosumers and mash-ups can be successful without the use of synergy. For example, Madeon made a mash-up of mainstream music. He used YouTube and social networking sites to distribute his mash-up. By doing so he managed to gain millions of views and his mash-up became a success. Also mash-ups cannot necessarily be used in synergy because of music ownership issues. If songs in the mash-up are from a conglomerates back-catalogue this may exploit a copyright policy if the mash-up is then used in a film without permission. Similarly, prosumers can also be successful with out the use of synergy, new-media technology has enabled easy access to music from websites like youtube, and using software such as garageband has enabled the consumers to be prosumers. For example, my band ‘FVVE’, have produced a mash up on garageband from already existing music. We then distributed it on YouTube and marketed on social networking sites. We managed to gain over 1,500 likes for our mash-up and over 300 views on Youtube. Therefore being able produce, distribute and market our own track on the internet using YouTube and social networking sites can be successful without the process of synergy.

In conclusion to this, I disagree with the statement that cross-media convergence and synergy is a vital process in the music industry. Synergy can be useful to some areas in the industry, such as the conglomerate Sony. However, there are other areas that do not need it as a vital process to be successful. Indie labels do not use synergy and have control over 24% of the music industry, therefore have managed to have success without it. Prosumers and mash-ups use the internet to distribute and market their products, some have become successful and gained many views, a perfect example being Madeon.


(I timed myself 45 minutes for the essay, and ran out of time to write about the fourth case study D.I.Y - Beck.)