PROPOSAL FIRST DRAFT

 RESEARCH QUESTION

Since the advancement in technology, how can graphic designers adapt the user experience for people streaming music?

How has the relationship between graphic design for music and its audience, changed since the advancement of streaming services?

How have the advancement in streaming services challenged the relationship between graphic design and music?

Just figuring out the wording of my question. My aim is to look at how the audiences relationship with music and design has been affected by streaming services. There is less focus on the design of album art and music videos nowadays, since the arrival of streaming services such as Spotify, people hear a song and add it to a playlist. The design for the album being a small icon. 

People are rarely paying for full physical albums anymore. Or watching programmes such as Kerrang etc, at the music videos that designers have produced for a song.

RATIONALE

Why do you want to research this topic? What impact does this have on your practice?

I wanted to pick topics that I am interested in and would later benefit my practice. I have always been drawn to the world of music and the experience it gives us, however, like many people, I find streaming services convenient. I do not have to store thousands of CD’s or buy them if I might only like a few songs from an artist. It makes all music extremely accessible however, the nostalgia of buying an album by your favourite artist and getting to see the design was always something I enjoyed. 

I want to find out how graphic designers have had to change their approach to how we design for music and how we can once again make it an experience rather than just background sound. This would impact my practice because I problem solving is a key role of a graphic designer and something I want to work on more. Plus, with regards to the practical aspect of this project, I find when designing for music, it is not something I struggle to do because I engage with music as it is a passion of mine. 

CONTEXTS 

What are the immediate contexts in which your theoretical and practical research will be situated? Political? Social? Aesthetic? Technological? Cultural?

Social: I will be looking at how audiences have engaged with music and design before streaming services and how it has changed since their arrival. This links in with my theoretical approach because to analyse said audience, I will be looking at behaviour and how it makes them feel. This will also help determine the outcome for the practical side of the project. 

Technological: I want to research how and why we decided to move onto streaming services instead of discs etc. Have this caused a divide between music and design? Now we can just stream any song at anytime, what have we done to keep the identity of the music. It used to be an album cover, music video, posters for the arrival of a new song or album. Now it has been reduced to a small icon on a small screen. 

THEORETICAL APPROACH 

Identify no more than two potential theories that will help structure your research - Must be appropriate to the theme/ question

Psychoanalytical- Looking at how music with design used to make people feel and experience the music in the past  and how that has been changed due to streaming services. Has the lack of visual stimuli reduced the experience we feel when listening to music? Is this easy method of listening to thousands of different artists at once made it so people no longer get excited to hear their favourite band? 

Marxist- Criticising capitalism and the advancement of technology and the digital world. Using the Marxist approach to criticise the launch of streaming services to promote consumerism and take-away the engagement between music and design. The fact that people will pay monthly the cost of one CD for unlimited music, which

sounds like a bargain however, artists used to benefit from the sales of albums, now it is based on the amount of likes they recieve on a streaming service.

METHODS 

Primary: Surveys, interviews, focus groups, creative method and observations

Surveys- I think these will be beneficial for researching about the audience and how they engage with music. First a survey asking what they use to listen to music and how they pay for it, then a second asking how they feel when listening to music, is it just background noise, do they have a favourite artist etc.

Observations- I will be observing and taking quantitative data to evaluate the level of design in the music industry before streaming services and after to compare them. Also, looking at how the design may have adapted to accommodate this new technology. 

Interviews: It might be worth interviewing musicians and designers in that field to see if they have noticed a difference and how it may have affected their way of working. 

Secondary: Theorisation, semiotic analysis, textual/ content/ discourse analysis

Content analysis- This will not be a key research method however, it will go hand-in-hand with my surveys and interviews because I want to look for similar terminology used by participants. Like background noise etc. 

Thematic analysis- looking for similar texts and phrases within the surveys and interview transcripts to find themes within that could give an idea as to how people engage/engaged with music and design.

PRACTICAL OUTCOME 

What do you plan to produce/ develop?

I want my practical outcome to be almost an approach to how we can design for music to keep the audience engaging with the artist and the song.

My target audience will probably be young people, 18-25. I chose this audience because below 18 are less likely to be paying for streaming services themselves or the means to pay for them. Most people above the age of 25 still buy albums or already still own many. So, it seemed more appropriate to pick this group. 

I am not sure on how I want to go about this but, I think it will either have to be an experience or an add-on to streaming services. An experience was my first idea however, it would need to be accessible and reach a large number of people because that is the main benefit of streaming services. Hence, why I think an add-on would be more effective. 

There are a few things that have really stuck out to me with streaming services. Some songs have a gif playing when it comes to that song, it always catches my eyes and could be something I could ask about in my surveys. 

I also find that 8 bit music is far more engaging than regular music, it uses earphones/ headphones to create an atmospheric surround sound directly into your ear. Like the musician is walking around you singing etc. 

So, I am thinking my approach will have to utilise the technology the streaming services are platformed on to reach my target audience.

RESOURCES 

What resources will you need to access?

Preferably, I would like to have access to the library for texts on my subjects however, with Covid-19 being as unpredictable as it is, I will have to make the most out online open libraries. If there are any texts I cannot find on the online libraries, I will buy them from online.

Once again, with the current circumstances the interviews, focus groups and surveys, will all have to be online or over video call. This is to ensure I can still carry out my research but safely. The focus groups may  be affected by this but, I can put out invites to students houses also studying from home, to join a video call. Student homes tend to range in the age bracket I have decided my target audience is on and many are studying various different degrees from different areas. 

SUMMER READING LIST 

Find 5 books that you will endeavour to read in preparation to CoP3 related to either 3 or 4 above.

• Remembering Popular Music’s Past: Memory-Heritage-History

• The Design + Music Industries are BFFs—They Just Don’t Know it Yet. AIGA’s newest program will bridge the digital divide

• Design for music By Creative Bloq Staff (Computer Arts)

• Are Music Streaming Services Healthy for the Recorded Music Industry? Elizabeth W. Pittman University of Arkansas

• How to design a streaming music system-Published on October 11, 2016