The+Sound+Recording+Industry

By: Shane Collier toc

-I began this project by choosing a point of focus from my project two ideas. I choose the recording industry because it is a significant part of how music is able to transfer onto a digital format. From here, I began searching internet websites such as wikipedia for quick ideas on what the record industry entails.

-I then researched many books, encyclopedias, photographs, and Statistic Canada to get a better idea of what I was going to do.

-From here, I wrote out my ideas I wanted to focus on, and began exploring interactive ideas in Flash.

-After extensive research, I found an interesting set of data I wanted to focus my attention on. The data speaks about Recording Industry Revenues divided in different types of formats such as: Vinyls Albums, Cassettes, Compact Discs, Multimedia, and Singles. Below shows the data I choose to work with.

**Information Focus**
-Through research, I compiled different types information that I was thinking to use in my project.

**Rough Sketches**
-These files show rough drawn thumbnails I did initially to get my ideas out. When I was thinking about what I wanted the visual design to be for my info-graphic, I began by roughly drawing out quick colored sketches. Here are some of my initial ideas.

**Rough Thumbnails/Flash Versions**
-Here are some initial thumbnails I did in exploring different types of layouts.

**Images For Project**
-By very quickly collecting photographs relating to the recording industry through books, websites and encyclopedias, I found this was a great help as I could quickly generate fast ideas to add to my information graphic.

**Inspiration Websites**
-I found these pieces helpful when designing my info-graphic because there are so many different approaches to take and explore. The layouts of each of the designs helped me to further expand my ideas of organizing information, and types of ways for a user to interact within an environment.

http://www.emakmafu.com/designspam/category/information-graphics/ -This website has interesting information graphics for The New York Magazine. The designs focus on the intensity of lines, shapes, and colour to create interesting maps, and information pieces. The designs can be a little confusing as the information is scattered and difficult to comprehend. However, the maps created are complex but easy to comprehend and follow because of the consistency of lines, and contrasts of colours.

http://www.johngrimwade.com/ -I quite like this information graphic website as it illustrates different solutions to various types of information graphics. Information graphics are quite complex and take careful planning in order to create something innovative and interesting. As well, the website layout is simple and elegant which makes the experience to the user interesting. His website is a portfolio of information graphics and it is inspirational to look at his work because he approaches problems in unique and innovative ways. His work is excellent.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/20061228_3000FACES_TAB2.html -I found the infographic very simple to use. The user can only control the time-frame they are analyzing and even that, they can only choose between set time frames.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/20061228_3000FACES_TAB1.html -I thought this type of interaction was informative, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to understand/use.

http://lastgraph.aeracode.org/ -Here, the user can collect information very quickly and I like how each icon gives different information and it changes as the viewer rolls-over the image.

http://www.number27.org/projects/maps/traveltime/ -This experimental info-graphic shows a new way of mapping our world. It's interesting to see how the information is displayed and conveyed.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/43257 -The Sputnik Legacy is a website that visually organized a timeline of space exploration. Each mission is shown in the form of a little dot. The missions (dots) can be revealed by year, planet, and country.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html -This interactive graphic from The New York Times looks at blockbuster movies and compares how much money each movie had made. The information graphic at first glance is very complex and difficult to understand but the use of roll-overs allows the user to distinguish particular movies.

**YouTube Video**
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xUGRRUecBik -This video is very well done. It shows how vinyl records are produced. This video is very informative and gave me a new outlook on how amazing vinyls are.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ydn_lLbJSWg -This video discuses how the compact disc was created. I like it as it gives a brief but concise showing of how a cd works and the buttons needed to make a cd work.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TWAN7iMM_M4 -This video discuses different types of multimedia and how they work. was created. I felt it was interesting as the viewer can understand some new information and how complex multimedia is.

**Project Summary**
The recording industry uses technology to record, store, and play back sounds. For this project, I decided to focus on the recording industry because it so what makes up how sound is reproduced. Sound recording is a very important invention as and I thought it would be interesting to explore the comparisons between different formats in the recording industry and how their sales revenues compare. Sound can be recorded using various formats such as cassettes, compact discs and other multimedia devices. In my information graphic, I was demonstrating the differences between the revenue sales between each of the formats through the use of typography, graphs and photos. I believe the user can understand that compact discs are in high demand and they take up the bulk of sales revenues. Through extensive research and collecting varieties of content such as statistics, texts, images, I was able to get a deeper understanding of what the recording industry is and how it works. I choose to study the recording industry because I did not know how it really worked or the processes behind it. I now have a greater appreciation for this marvelous invention because without it, sound reproduction may not exist.

Also, this project allowed me to get a better sense of working in Flash. I wish I could have experimented more with different types of ways to make my information graphic more interesting, but I think I created an innovative, experimental piece. In my final design, I focussed on the revenues of different formats in the recording industry. All of my information conveyed is there to help the viewer understand these different areas and the viewer can contrast and compare each. When I designed my information graphic, I wanted it to be use a lot of typography and create something comprehensive and interesting. The placement of my buttons are easy to navigate throughout the page.

**===FINAL===** media type="file" key="2005p_pro03_08_scollier.swf"

**References (Photos/Information)**
__Websites__ http://www.ct4me.net/multimedia_in_projects.html http://encarta.msn.com/mediacenter_/browse.html http://www.storageheaven.com http://www.flickr.com http://www.thecassettes.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/compactdisc.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/vinyls.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/multimedia.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cassettes.html http://www.totalsonic.com http://www.wesdooley.com http://www.aues21.dsl.pipex.com http://jdfrey.files.wordpress.com http://www.dereklark.com http://www.majormusic.com http://www.farnsworthelectronics.com http://www.directproaudio.com\

__Books and Encyclopedias__ Author Unknown. “Microphone” __Encyclopedia Britannica 2007.__ //Microsoft Corporation.// 1993-2007. Author Unknown. “The Microphone.” __The Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2007.__ //Microsoft Corporation.// 1993-2007. Busby, Linda. //The Art And Science Of Radio.// Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1984. McLeish, Robert. //Radio Production: A Manual For Broadcasters.// Oxford University: Focal Press, 1994. McLeish, Robert. //The Technique Of Radio Production: A Manual For Broadcasters.// London; Boston: Focal Press, 1988. O'Donnell, Lewis B. //Modern Radio Production.// USA: Wadsworth Inc. 1990. Pease, Edward C. //Radio: The Forgotten Medium. New York:// Transaction Publishers, 1995. Wilby, Pete. //The Radio Handbook.// London, New York: Routhledge Publishers, 1991.