Abstract

Objective: An empirical research is presented that focuses on music acquisition patterns among students in a major urban centre (Thessaloniki, Greece). Main objective of this study is to test whether there is any relation between the use of various music distribution channels on the one hand, and music preferences, social values, and demographic factors, on the other.

Methods: 456 students from the three institutes for higher education in the city were asked to indicate the frequency of use of various music distribution channels. Respondents were also asked to indicate their preferences for 24 musical genres and the importance of 24 values in their personal lives. Standard demographic data were also collected (gender, education and occupations of parents, geographical origin, annual family income) and a scale of socioeconomic status was constructed. The ratio of the use of each channel to the total use of all music distribution channels by each respondent was then calculated to obtain the music acquisition patterns. In addition, channels were grouped in formal and informal as well as in free and pay channels.

To explore the relation between the patterns of distribution channel use on the one hand, and the education of parents, the geographical origin, the socioeconomic status and the annual family income, on the other, one-way analyses of variance were conducted. Independent-samples T-tests were also employed to detect differences between males and females on the patterns of music acquisition. Finally, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were carried out to explore whether music preferences and social values may predict the patterns of music acquisition.

Findings: Music preferences, gender, and cultural background, are better predictors for the patterns of music acquisition compared to social values, geographical origin, family income and socioeconomic status. Findings contradict the rhetoric of the (major) recording industry that employs a simplistic representation of the users of informal and free distribution channels, ascribing exclusively negative instrumental values to them.

The literature review revealed that the major paradigms used in the sociology of music and in sociology of the arts to interpret patterns of cultural consumption (homology theory, omnivorousness hypothesis, the scenes perspective) do not get into the details and particularities of the ways in which the various forms of cultural capital are objectified. A theoretically significant outcome of this research is the indication that in the case of music - unlike preferences - the acquisition patterns do not correlate with the lifestyles of any particular strata. This finding - if confirmed by further research - might contribute to the improvement and refinement of the theory and to a better understanding of the functions of the arts in contemporary societies.

One conclusion is that further research needs to be done to understand better the ways in which music acquisition patterns are constructed and examine whether they constitute forms of symbolic resistance or conformity, disdain of the artistic activities or awareness of their speculative uses in the market. A better understanding of these patterns may shed some light to cultural practices in everyday life and finally to contribute to a more efficient and productive policy than repression.

The findings rather support the argument that perhaps it would be more fruitful and beneficial for the recording industry (and its audiences) to invest in serious research for alternative policies rather than in litigation of questionable efficiency in defense of an outdated policy that ignores the complexities of cultural consumption. This might improve its public image as well, as it is the only industry fighting its own consumers.

Last Updated: 07 November 2016

Abstract

The article presents a sample research on the radio station websites in the cases of Hungary, Greece, and the singular ARTEradio.com site. The website analysis took into account the textual information, the website layouts, the navigation schemes, the audio contents and the existence or absence of accessible archiving systems. The samples studied include commercial, public, and community radio stations, both with aired and Internet-only programs.

Based on this analysis - which is part of a project still in progress - the paper discusses the multifaceted impact that the Internet has and might have on the radio both as a medium and as a form of mass communication. In order to understand the functions of the radio station websites, the purposes for which they are produced and how they are used, the paper discusses their possible classification scheme. Several methodological questions are discussed in this context. The comparative analysis and the typology derive from and are based on the attempt to understand the extent to which the radio stations use the Internet:

1. in an innovative way, i.e. the extent to which they consider it as a new medium and produce new types of content applying new forms, models and patterns of production;
2. in terms of a way to reach new target audiences using already known and well tested patterns of content presentation.

The article describes the theoretical background, the methods and the models used for the analysis of the websites. In the case of Hungary, the sample included 36 radio websites, while in the Greek case it included 44 radio websites and it was representative in terms of the radio stations distribution in the 51 prefectures of the country (there are more than 1,000 radio stations in the country). The typology of the radio websites spotlights the main functions of the radio websites which are further clarified through the analysis.

The results from the Greek sample indicate that there is a dominant view about the internet as an additional medium to reach the audiences in known and well established ways rather than a new form of communication that might enrich the content produced and/or distributed by the radio stations.

However, several issues concerning the impact of the radio websites on the listening habits and the musical culture of the audiences in general, remain open for future research.

Last Updated: 07 November 2016

Abstract

This chapter discusses from a sociological perspective several of the issues raised by the proliferation of the peer-to-peer networks and their impact on the artistic communication. Based upon an account of previous conflicts generated by the response of the recording industry to new channels and media for the dissemination of music, it outlines the industry's permanent strategic goal.

In this context this chapter argues that the peer-to-peer networks signify a new phase in the pursuit of the industry's strategic goal. This phase is marked by the contradiction between the new context and the established corporate policy.

The paper gives special emphasis to the cultural and political consequences and ramifications of this contradiction, as well as to the paradoxes and contradictions generated by the inconsiderable pursuit to control the dissemination and the uses of cultural goods and finally the access to them. It underlines also that the outlined corporate strategy affect the artistic creativity, the everyday culture of the audiences, as well as the cultural field in general. As a final point, this chapter argues that the attitude of the (major) recording industry in the case of the P2P networks indicates that the corporate culture might prove culturally and politically one-sided and reckless, unless it is counterbalanced by other forces.

Last Updated: 07 November 2016

Abstract

The Introduction - apart from making explicit the rationale for the structure of the volume - it reviews the broader context of the developments in mass communication and the mass media. It focuses particularly on the differentiation, the reservations and the diversity of attitudes towards European Union and EU institutions, expressed politically through the variety of attitudes toward the Constitutional Treaty by the citizens in different EU countries.

The Introduction underlines that the ambivalence of the European citizens cannot be explained and should not be interpreted in a univocal and simplifying manner, since the data from the various countries show that there is a variety of motives and factors with seemingly similar results. Civilization and culture should also be considered since they are of particular importance for the European identity, which - in its turn - is a condition for the construction of Europe.

Finally, the chapter raises several questions concerning the functions of the mass media considering the change of the "techno-economic" as well as of the cultural paradigm of the European Union and in view of the European integration.

Last Updated: 07 November 2016