Part A: A word document that will include
1. Discuss what advantages such a system has over pre-electronic methods of organizing and previewing music?
Ease and Convince: It is easier for a customer to find songs through an electronic methods rather than pre-electronic methods. This is because all the customer has to do is type in what criteria they want to find in a search bar rather than scan through isles of CD’s trying to find the song they want. It is also more convenient for people living in remote areas as they can go on the internet and buy what song they want from their own home.
Availability: With a digital system a customer can effortlessly go onto the internet to see if they song/album they want to buy is available to be bought. Without an electronic system a customer would have to physical go into a music store and scan through the isles and if the song wasn’t available that would be a waste of time.
Better Organisation: A electronic database is much easier to organize in the way that a customer would prefer. By clicking on a few buttons a customer can organize the large variety of song into specific categories (artist, album, genre, etc.) and get rid of any unwanted data that they don’t want or need. In a pre-electronic method’s there are
Cheaper to buy: For a customer to buy music digitally it is must cheaper than from a store. This is because producers don’t have to spend as much money making the album covers, the case and the actual disc. This allows the selling price to be lower. Buying online can also be cheaper as a customer may only want to buy a single song and may not want get the whole album, but the song may not be available for single purchase and therefore have to buy the whole album even though they only want a single song, and therefore costing more money. Whereas a digital version is much cheaper as they can get an individual song without the whole album.
Variety to choose from: There is a greater range of songs to chose from online as songs that are well known, as well as the lesser know songs are most likely up for purchase. Whereas in a store, the likely hood of finding a song from a few years back is much harder to find as most store don’t keep large amounts of all CD’s in stock, but online you could most likely be able to find the older, less known songs.
Preview Songs: Online a marketer can provide links where a small section of the song has been edited out of the whole song so that the customer is able to hear exactly what it is that they are buying, while at a store a customer cant have the privilege of hearing what they are about to buy.
Publicity: Artists can more freely publicise there music to the greater population to online as almost all types of music is available on a digital music system. As customers find it easier to find all types of music, the artists benefit immensely as there is more chance of a person finding their song by coincidence if they were given a link grouping together all the artist groups that have similar styles of music.
What ethical / legal issues need to be considered when implementing this database? Explain
Copyright:
Copyright is a big issue with online music stores. Copyright insures that the properties of the artists (music and images) are protected and that they are always credited if their property is used. In order for online music stores to even be allowed to sell copies of musician’s songs they must first ask the musicians themselves if they are allowed. This is so that the musicians are able to get a percentage of all sales of their songs. For a customer to be able to legally download a song the music store that they are visiting my have a license that states that all music that is reproduced is with full consent from the artists. Also in order for a online store to use images, such as album covers, they must always credit the artists and state from where this image is coming from. It is also required that they have permission to distribute these images in order for this to be legal.
Fair Pricing:
How stores decide to price the music of artists is also something that needs to be considered. It is a stores ethical responsibility to give a fair price on the album that is both fair to the artist, the customer and the store itself. In order for pricing to be fair it should be a price that is affordable for the customer as well as insuring that a percentage can be given to the artist, while the store receives a small percentage of profit for being able to distribute these songs legally. It is also important the online stores have reasonable pricing, as many people can often resort to illegally downloading music online if they believe that they are being charged a price that is too high. Over pricing can also lead to the reputation of the artists being ruined as listeners can be lead to believe that the artists are taking advantage of them and making the pricing too high. Overall it is very important for online databases to keep pricing fair as many legal problems may arise due to unfair pricing.
As this database is only a prototype it does not included all the features that you may wish to have in an online system.
Outline 3 features that you think should be added to the system to make it more useful and safe for the customer. (it might help you to look at some existing systems for online purchasing to get ideas)
Some features I would have would be (based of already existing stores e.g. iTunes)
Top10 charts: This feature is very useful in online stores at it can show other customers what the most purchased songs and albums are. The feature also allows customers to keep up to date with what the latest songs are and what is the most popular songs. This feature can be applied to all songs in general or be specified into the top 10 songs /albums of a specific genre.
Accounts: I find that this idea is very beneficially to both the customer and the online store makers. By having a account it allows the makers of the database to see just how many people are using their store and also keep track of the certain demographics of the customers that use their store. This idea is also good for customers as having an account can enable a customer to get special discounts and promotions that would otherwise not be available to the customers that don’t have an account. This also enables added security to the data base as customers can be notified when they pay for music as well as making sure that all customer details are kept secure and no one else can view them.
Playlists: I think that this feature is very useful. This is because creating playlists allows customers to group only specific songs they would want to listen to while they are doing different things like going for a run, as opposed to studying.
