How digital technology has changed the recording industry.

Pro Tools:  DIY recording and the end of analog studios.

         In the past, recording, editing and mixing an album was a very costly endeavor.  The picture above is of a Neve 8028  mixing board.  When Sound City studios purchased it new in 1973 it cost $76,000.  This was double what a house sold for in the San Fernando Valley where the studio was located at the time.  Today, you can purchase Pro Tools digital mixing software for $300-$600.  Anyone with a computer and music equipment can record and mix their own album.  You can purchase a complete package that has everything you need to record an album minus the instruments and computer from Musicians' Friend now for $3,700.  The low cost of modern digital recording equipment is enabling aspiring musicians to create music without the support of a record company. 

          Modern digital recording equipment is not only helpful to amateur musicians looking to record their music.  The recording industry has benefitted from this technology as well.  It used to take countless hours of mixing and cutting and re-recording tracks to make an album.  All of this was done on tape.  You were limited to the number of sounds you could incorporate to the number of channels on the mixing board.    You had to literally cut and splice tape together to make any changes to the recording. 

All of this had to be done with the assistance of professional engineers that would cost you around a hundred dollars an hour.  Today, there is no limit to the number of sounds you can add to your recording.  You can cut and add new material with the click of a mouse. 

          In 2011, Sound City closed it's doors. A documentary by the same name was released this year. Some of the most influential rock n' roll albums in history were recorded at this studio. The move away from analog recording to digital technology made it impossible for them to compete. The film chronicles the story of how the business went from state of the art to antiquated and no longer financially viable in the music industry  It also tells the story of the people who worked there that no longer have a job.     -J.Ishman

References:         
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_City_(film)

     
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/08/173823162/dave-grohl-finds-musics-human-element-in-a-machine

http://www.billboard.com/articles/photos/features/1507485/sound-city-review-dave-grohl-shines-his-light-on-a-dumpy-mecca

 



Will Work for Food

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42183592/ns/business-careers/t/nine-jobs-humans-may-lose-robots/#.UTPOKzA4vy0

Can we keep our jobs?  That is the question on many people’s minds today.  Information technology has been increasing productivity in many industries.  Good news for employers, bad news for employees.  An article on nbcnews.com entitled, Nine jobs that humans may lose to robots, informs us why jobseekers should be concerned.  Judith Aquino exclaims, “By 2013 there will be 1.2 million industrial robots working world wide.”

 Pharmacies are one place where you will see robots sooner than later.  Information technology will make the process of getting a prescription much easier.  Computers will fill your prescription electronically and a robot will do the rest; retrieve the pills, bottling, and then dispensing them.  According to this article, one such system has prepared 350,000 prescriptions without an error. 

Lawyers are not safe from information technology either.  People can now use software instead of paying for an expensive lawyer.  This will help consumers save money if they need basic legal services.  This transition may be slower depending on the confidence level of the public.  But the savings are dramatic.  “Blackstone Discovery of Palo Alto, CA provided software that helped analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000.”

Drivers should proceed with caution if they think they have job security.  The automated car is coming and companies like Google are speeding up the process.  Google has already tested seven cars on the road.  The results may surprise you.  Those cars drove 1,000 miles without human intervention and over 140,000 miles with minor human intervention.  One day “driving” will be possible without touching the wheel.  Imagine sitting in the driver’s seat and waking up from a nap, as you look outside your window you see a semi-truck driving 60 mph with no one in the front seat.

Remember that summer job working as a store clerk?  Well, thanks to information technology, your children or grandchildren might not have that memory.  When was the last time you talked to a bank teller?  If you are like most Americans you do the majority of your banking online or through the ATM.  Store clerks will eventually have the same fate.  According to this article, Los Angeles Times reported $740 billion was transacted through self-service machines in 2010 and by 2014 that number is projected to be $1.1 trillion.

If you pay attention to the news you are aware of drones.  Drones are one reason why human soldiers will not be needed in the future.  Drones will know who to shoot and not shoot; they will know the difference between fire and no-fire zones.  A GPS signal will give them an accurate location of targets.  This will have some ethical dilemmas, and more than likely will be a highly debated topic.

Aeon Co. has developed a robot for the purpose of babysitting, yes babysitting.  This Japanese retailer made a four foot robot that babysits children while the parents shop at a store.  The age of the children was not in this article but my first thought was, how does a robot change diapers?

Human safety is important to everyone breathing.  For that reason it only makes sense that information technology would be used as rescuers.  Robots can do many things that are humanely impossible.  A snakelike robot is used to enter small spaces, using a camera it will record everything that it comes across.  This has the potential to save countless lives in an event of a building collapse.

Will information technology deliver media content in an entertaining way?  Northwestern University has developed software that specializes in machine-generated stories.  This is a simple and cheap process.  For instance, a scorekeeper emails game data, the software then spits out the game story on the computer in minutes.

Information technology has the potential to touch every job we know today.  When my parents were kids they dreamed of having flying cars.  Now that I have a child I dream that he will have a job.

By James Todd

References
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42183592/ns/business-careers/t/nine-jobs-humans-may-lose-robots/#.UTPOKzA4vy0

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA

The city of Pittsburgh has seen an 80% drop in its workforce from its peak and has been a city forced to reinvent itself. I think as technology developed the steel industry in Pittsburgh declined as well.   As Technology broke down barriers of competition to the beast that was Pittsburgh steal. Pittsburgh has taken a huge hit as have many other of the heavy manufacturing  cities located in what is now referred to  as the rust belt located in the north eastern part of the united states .  

As many of the other Rustbelt cities have been struggling to reinvent themselves in the absence of the abundant heavy manufacturing jobs of the past that acted as a sort of jet fuel to the local economy, Pittsburgh is handling the change relatively well. The story with Pittsburgh I think is not just another sob story of a dead manufacturing town or of a has been city like Detroit where there are city blocks of real estate left vacant for squatters and riddled with crime. Pittsburgh has taken a proactive lead in such areas of green technology as education, robotics, financial services, and health care. It is possible that we may even live to see day where the two words Pittsburgh and steel are not so readily connected.

 I think Pittsburgh is a great example of a city that has seen the negative side of disruptive technology  and then was able to use technology to dig itself back out to be one of the more promising and technologically advanced cities on the east coast. The new economic boom in Pittsburgh’s medical technology I think is systemic to having schools such as University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University cranking out tech savvy graduates into the local workforce, calling the city home. The Medical technology sector in Pittsburgh spans from cancer research to synthetic human plasma.

Jeremy R. Squires

References   

http://www.keystoneedge.com/features/medicaldevices0303.aspx

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-09-21-us-steel-pittsburgh_N.htm

JcPenney Closings

Google Images

JcPenney is an example of a big retail store that is having to close more and more stores due to an increase in online shopping. Shoppers can now go online and have their items shipped right to their front door. As opposed to wasting gas to go to a store that might not even be close to them and have the item they are looking for. Online shopping offers a bigger selection of items because, the items are coming directly from warehouse so customers are no longer limited by only what a certain store's selection is. They are also guaranteed to find their size, because they are ordering it and not having to choose from what is left over after other shoppers. Working in retail I see this problem occur very often.

According to Business Insider JcPenney is forecasting to close 300 to 350 stores in 2013. This will create many job losses. Jobs from the highest ranking senior manager to the lowest ranking sales associate could be lost.  Their current number of US stores is 1,100. Their on year stock performance was a -53.6%, which is the measure of the returns of shares over the past year. If JcPenney is wanting to continue their success in their stores then they are going to have to implement new stratageis.      M. Gilliam 


 Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/8-retailers-closing-the-most-stores-2013-2013-1#jcpenney-4

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fpat/3571934408/

 

 

Redbox vs. Blockbuster.

The entertainment powerhouse that was once Blockbuster is a perfect example of an industry that has fallen victim to disruptive technology in our economy.  Many of us can remember having a blockbuster in virtually every town.  Not to say that disruptive technology is a bad thing, it just changes the current marketplace to more efficiently meet consumer demands and standards of quality.  I think that we live in an age where consumers expect everything to be like Burger King, you have it your way.  Businesses and industries that can adapt to consumer expectations the fastest are the survivors.  Information technology has leveled the playing field while Blockbuster for whatever reason may have thought they were safe behind the walls of the of brick and mortar stores they built in every single town.  Now, Blockbuster is copying Redbox’s technology with Blockbuster Express.  The idea is almost identical to Redbox movie kiosks.  This is reminiscent of the narrative in our textbook of Citibank’s ATM.  Once they introduced the ATM to the industry, every other bank copied their technology.  It is obvious that Blockbuster has gone into survival mode.  One must wonder, did they move too slowly to try and catch up with new technology, or has the damage already been done?   J. Ishman