Music Industry

As streaming becomes more widely available with more services coming into the scene, I believe streaming will continue to grow as the world’s top used service for music. Additionally, with the resurgence in popularity of vinyl records (thanks to social media), I believe physical media for music will stick around for a while longer than previously predicted. As the IFPI report states, physical media revenue has gone up for the third year in a row, after a steady decline starting in the early 2000s when downloads and streaming were first becoming relevant.  

I also believe international (non-USA) musical artists will be growing exponentially in popularity thanks to anime, video games, and other media exports of Asia. With games like Honkai: Star Rail and Love Live, and shows like Mashle (and other anime) and Spy Family, these are just some of the few media exports of Asia that have pushed international music into the western market, in part due to social media and thus the rise in popularity of these media forms. This is all without even touching the massive boom in popularity from K-Pop artists in the western world, with bands like BTS and Stray Kids being some of the most popular in the world. 

Based on the global music industry revenue chart from the IFPI report, I do also believe that the dip we saw in the early 2010’s could very much happen again with a fluctuation in trends. As I stated before, I believe that physical media is making a comeback primarily because of social media trends. Once that trend dies out, interest in physical media may slow down again and begin to fall. However, with streaming continuously going up in popularity, the overall revenue of the music industry may stay level, so long as more music is being produced and there are people to enjoy that music.   

APA Sources

 Harrison, H. H., & Mississippi Free Press. (2025, January 10). “embracing ai”: Mississippi governor mandates creating policies for using artificial intelligence. AP News. https://apnews.com/us-news/tate-reeves-artificial-intelligence-mississippi-general-news-d43d88dcd34de5f346919fe1f65c6b10 

Mississippi introducing policies surrounding the use of AI in both public and private sectors of state government under Govenor Tate Reeves. 

Parvini, S. (2025, February 12). Thomson Reuters scores early win in AI copyright battles in the US. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-reuters-4a127c5b7e8bb76c84499fe12ad643c8 

Article detailing the legal battle between copyright holders and AI systems using copyrighted material. Judge rules in favor of copyright holders, citing that AI systems using copyrighted material does not fall under "fair use."

Group Rules

Group 4 - Mari Fong, Evan Biggers, Sky Murphy, Parker Rasul, Ryeon Cook

1. Any more than 2 non-communicated absences will result in consequences (communication with Professor Meadows, potential removal from group). 
2. Meet at 3:30PM on Thursdays at the Library. Online is ok if needed. Alternative meeting location, Sky’s house. 
3. Be an active participant in discussions and decision making. I.e. be assertive when making ideas or taking on roles. 
4. If you are absent from the meeting, still make an effort to contribute work for that week and share it with the group. 
5. Group work should be shared with the group by 5PM of the due date to leave time to compile the work together and for any last-minute adjustments or additions. 

Kickstart Start

 I think Esports/Video Games would be a really cool topic to research for my Kickstart project. I was previously a Computer Animation Game Development major, and video games have always been a major part of my life in one way or another, either as a gamer (consumer) or developer/designer. I was also previously president of the on-campus Wildcat Gaming club, and currently staff multiple conventions as a part of the Gaming Hall division. While I have experience in esport associated organizations, I was never formally a part of any esports event or activities, so this would be a really fun area to explore more of having dealt with it primarily on the side, and now more majorly as a staffer of convention gaming halls. I understand the basics of tournament running and setup, I have little to no knowledge of the professional esports world, shoutcasting, or anything of that nature. I find it incredibly fascinating and have actively expressed interest in getting involved with the scene more, whether as an organizer or lead, or as part of the support team on either technical or social organization. 

Video games on the other hand, while I have a huge amount of experience both as a developer and consumer, I have not gotten the chance to explore the topic on an educational/formal level. I find this a fascinating topic to explore as a topic through the lens of “communication technology”, rather than as an art form or simply a hobby or pastime. I’ve been able to explore the topic as a formal art form (game development processes, storytelling, concept to product, etc), as well as a hobby, but never as a piece of communication technology. I find this quite interesting as I’ve never even considered it under that umbrella topic, but it makes sense that it would fall in that genre.  

I also firmly believe that video games and esports are here to stay, and are the way of the future. While traditional sports will definitely stay around, I believe it would be interesting to explore how these two things will grow and evolve as the world does, and how it will integrate into our lives. Being relatively recent in the world’s history, video games and esports are constantly changing and evolving to keep up with our rapidly changing world, having become more relevant than ever with the pandemic, and beoming more and more mainstream across the world.