From Los Angeles to The Cloud | Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Spring 2015 | Thesis adviser: Adam Saffer | Honors level: With Highest Honors
From Los Angeles to The Cloud: Driving Revenue and Exposure In The Contemporary Digital Soundscape
by Nicole Leonard '15
This study explores the innovations, controversies, and new strategies being employed in the contemporary digital soundscape. Focusing on the post-iTunes era, this study attempts to contextualize two paradigm shifts occurring in the music market today: (1) the new roles that revenue and exposure play in defining return on investment (ROI); (2) the ways that technology is empowering those who create and those who consume music (including online consumers, tech companies, record labels, and artists). In tracing the reoccurrence and evolution of these two themes, digital streaming, social media, live performances and brand integration are revealed as four major paths to monetize and/or market music in today’s hectic digital soundscape.
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The Hussman School Honors Program is available to students wishing to pursue an original and substantial research or creative project under direct supervision of a faculty adviser during their senior year. Learn more at mj.unc.edu/Honors.