Research Journal Assignment #7

RJA #7a: Internet Research Tools-

wikipedia.org

Generally when I begin doing any kind of internet research I start with wikipedia just to get an overall sense of the subject as well as any sub-topics contained within. I always keep in mind that the information on wikipedia is not necessarily accurate. you can usually tell if something is fairly biased. The nice thing about some wikipedia articles is that they will include sources at the bottom of the pages. This helps if you are having a hard time finding sources on your own. At least you can peruse the list and then look up a selection of them to see if they are worth using later.

http://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en

Google scholar is also a good place to start as there are usually credible articles/blogs that can give you more ideas/viewpoints on your topic. For this reason I also like technorati (technorati.com)

Skyline, prospector, and (now) gale virtual reference library are helpful to me in regards to finding scholarly articles and essays.


RJA #7b: Internet Research Tool Test–

My internet research tool is Metacca
Keywords: internet piracy music industry torrents
strategies: under "advanced web search" I searched my keywords sorted by relevance with the maximum "results per page" displaying "sources" and with each source that metacca searches being used.
date of search: 10/17/09
# of hits: 195
Relevance: oddly enough the first few sites listed were pretty irrelevant but as i looked further through the list i found some decent sources hidden in there. I'd say the overall relevance is 3.


RJA #7c: Field Research Plan

I will be interviewing my uncle. He has extensive music industry experience including over 10 years working in A&R at a major record label and his current job working for iTunes. He will be an invaluable resource as he has not only experience at a record label who's mission is to sell physical music/video formats (records cds dvds etc) but also experience working with iTunes (5 years now) which sells digital/downloadable music/video formats. He has experience as a musician working with several bands (some with moderate success such as the Wallflowers) over the years as a producer/studio musician and as a solo artist currently. It is because he has such a well rounded background in the music industry that I think his insight will be quite relevant. Some questions I might ask are:

1.) Do you think internet piracy affects major lables or independent labels more?
2.) Does this piracy help some artists or does it tend to hurt most of them?
3.) In what ways does the record industry determine the impacts of this kind of behavior? How reliable are the figures?
4.) iTunes tends to sell mp3s at 128kbps resolution. People are able to illegally download mp3s by artists at much higher resolutions than that online. Why does iTunes choose to give illegal music sources this advantage?
5.) how effective do you think digital copyright protection is and how can it be improved?
6.) although larger artists might lose sales it seems that smaller artists gain more exposure through illegal file sharing. Do you think this helps or hurts the music industry?
7.) what incentives can the music industry provide to lure more buyers?

As he is my Uncle I will be able to interview him over the phone at any time.