A Response to PressPausePlay Documentary

PressPausePlay talks about the democratization of digital technologies, bringing new challenges to artists and creatives as well as unlimited freedom. It is an informative documentary, interviewing all kinds of important artists of our time such as Moby, Sean Parker, Lena Dunham, Robyn, almost as an impetus for all creators to take action. There are 5 different main titles in the documentary. How technology blends into the music industry are explained from the perspectives of musicians with different views in those 5 main titles which are technology is great, the industry is dead, artists have the power, the craft is gone and time, space, and occasion. From the beginning to the end of the movie, we see artists with different views coming face to face and expressing their ideas. Moby explains how the digital revolution over the past decade has impacted the film industry. 30–40 years ago, we go to exhibitions to watch any film or to see photographs, but now the situation is quite different. Moby adds that in today’s world, everybody is a filmmaker, a photographer, an artist. All you need is software. Because in the past, you were expected to go to school to become an artist. Now, with digitalization, this necessity has disappeared. Everyone who knew the program started making and producing films. Because in the past, you were expected to go to school to become an artist. Now, with digitalization, this necessity has disappeared. Everyone who knew the program started making and producing films. The music industry is among the industries most affected by digitalization. With the introduction of digital technologies used in music production and online music platforms into our lives, the gap between amateurs and professionals is narrowing. Amateur artists and professional artists can have almost the same opportunities with digitalization.

The recent digital revolution has unlocked unlimited creative opportunity, unlocking in the unprecedented manner people’s creativity and talent. The industry has undergone a great transformation as the music product, which is the product marketed in the music industry, can be completely transferred to digital media. Artists who say that with democratized culture comes better art, film, music, and literature, and artists who criticize the making of great music in this digital ocean come together in that documentary. On the one hand, it is said that technology is unbelievably beautiful and perfect, on the other hand, it is said that the industry is dead. Because they think that there is a price to pay in terms of making music. After digitalization, there have been quite a few changes in the distribution of music, books, and films. In the documentary, interesting issues related to the distribution of the book written by Seth Godin were mentioned. According to what the man mentioned, he started to publish it online as an e-book and in a fleeting time, it had 5 million views. When people started asking what you get from it, he started selling it to amazon for $40. Technology is particularly good, but also not good at all because it has destroyed the industry.

Music took on another revolutionary feature when Sony launched the “walkman” in 1979. Portability. Thus, the activity of listening to music gained a place-independent feature. With the development of digital technology, music tracks were compressed, and hundreds of songs were recorded on a single vehicle, CD, or DVD. The creation of digital music players facilitated interpersonal exchanges, while the access to music became much easier with the download of music from the internet, and the link between music and youth subcultures became stronger. On the one hand, while all this was happening, on the other hand, music was democratized. In the third part, he talks about the power of the artist. In this digital era, there are artists but they don’t want to be stuck with an agency. They wanna work on their ways. Artists can develop their work. They don’t have to be work with an agency. They can grow their own brands. He mentions that the artist’s strength does not come from a school education and that he has strength in himself. It is also genuinely nice to give an example of the producer identity of Tarantino. “Look at all the artists who have won awards. How many of them went to film school? Tarantino comes out and makes a movie and becomes famous,” he says. The sentence said by a teacher at a music school is particularly important and meaningful. As he says that, our students should be comfortable with the pace at which things change. We cannot teach today’s tech because, in 5 years, there would be gone. We need to teach them is how to tell a fact of stories, using images, to be comfortable with how the technology is changing in a single year. It is necessary to track how much technology has changed and shaped the music industry. Only in this way can modern artists be trained. Because with the new digitalization era, you do not have to play an instrument and make music to be a good musician. If you have a computer, you have the power to do anything.

Craft is no longer necessary and essential. The craft of musicians has gone. Moby says the sensitivity of music is gone now. He mentions that this is the most frustrating part of digitization. With digitalization, perfect music has entered our lives. There is no weakness or tenderness anywhere in this excellent music. Craft vanished and disconnected from creativity. For example, a person may want to be a great photographer; however, that person does not have to know the development and printing of films, camera use, etc. We have entered the age of editing, you can fix almost anything, it is no longer necessary in this digital world, and it is progressing rapidly. Art has become perfect in this digital revolution. Fragility, humanity, and beauty used to exist in art. Back in the days when things were more honest and interesting, we let technology take over. Arnold, on the other hand, is an artist who is very middle of this story. Neither classical music nor pop culture is close to the way Arnold works. He even said, “I am too classical for the pop radio stations. And I am too pop for the classical radio stations. I am nowhere”.

In the last part, Anne Hilde Nest talked about going out and buying vinyl when she was young and silently watching how it spins. She talked about the development process of the music industry, starting with vinyl, which is one of the first distribution stages of music. It has emerged as modern technology in the CD, record, and cassette music industry, which has digital reading and writing features. CD has become widespread in a brief time thanks to its new quality sound technology. Vinyl companies have re-released music albums, which were previously released in vinyl format, in CD format. This re-release has been a financially rewarding affair for vinyl companies.

Thanks to the internet, digitalized music has become available online directly from the producer to the consumer without the need to use an intermediary. The need for production companies, wholesalers, and retailers, who act as intermediaries in the delivery of music products to consumers, has disappeared. The production of physical copies also eliminated the time and cost required for duplication and coordination. It also provided a great advantage for radio broadcasters. With the invention of the mp3 format, it became possible to store thousands of digital music files on personal computers. With the transfer of this revolutionary technology to mobile devices, the listener has great freedom compared to the physical period.

This documentary was really motivating and had a significant impact on my artistic approach. The artists in this documentary who have different views reminded me of the speed of our digital revolution and increased my awareness. We have become so technologically dependent that things are changing so fast that we cannot predict what will happen in the music industry 50 years from now. Pop culture is also changing with technology. As we covered in the lesson, we are faced with different pop music every day. Because these songs are spreading amazingly fast. In ancient times, it took a long time for a song to become popular. Because the distribution was slow, but now in seconds a pop culture can be born, and a piece of contemporary music might come out. In short, people are trying to create perfect music; however, the music industry drowning in this digital ocean.