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Sample Discussion Essay3

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7 views

Sample Discussion Essay3

Uploaded by

zafarruziyev29
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sample discussion essay

Explanatory note

This is by no means an example of “the perfect discussion essay”. It is merely an


indication of how a discussion essay might be structured using source materials, expert
opinions (including your own), and other evidence. It also attempts to draw your
attention to the distinctive style features (some examples in bold) of discussion essays
explained in the presentation. The referencing style used in this essay is APA.

Structure Discuss the significance of the ipod on the Style


music retail industry and on music features
consumption.
Introduction: [1] The era of digital music has arrived. [2] According Description
Background/ to a recent report (Forrester, 2007), half of all music
context sold in the U.S. is expected to be digital in 2011 and
sales of downloaded music will surpass CD sales in
2012. [3] By 2007, over 100 million iPods had been
sold - a milestone for a product that has been on the
market for just five years. [4]The iPod has become an
Interpretation
integral part of modern society, affecting the lives of
even people who do not actually own one. [5]This essay
examines the reasons for its success, Apple’s Description
dominance in the digital market, and the phenomenal
impact on the music retail industry and music
consumption.

First point: To some people, the iPod is a cultural icon. That is Discussion
debatable, but there is no doubt about its popularity
and success, which stemmed not from any particularly
ground-breaking technology, but its emphasis on ease
of use and, as Bull (2007) calls it, “downright coolness”
Evidence
(p.5). There have been other digitalmedia players
in the last few years, but the iPod uses a “scroll
wheel‟ (instead of skip buttons), which the user could
spin to scroll through menus and lists of songs. It was
also one of the first digital music players to use a Assessment
hard disk to store songs instead of a flash memory.
However, the most revolutionary aspects that have
made the iPod into what some people are calling a Discussion
“lifestyle‟ product are its massive storage capacity, its
portability (fits into a shirt pocket), and its ability to
carry all forms of media. Due to its storage capacity,
the iPod is also uniquely positioned for podcasts. A
thirty-minute podcast can mean a 20 megabyte
Evidence
download, using as much storage as about 10 songs
(Bankhofer, 2005).
Second point: Clearly, the success of the iPod is also largely due to Interpretation
some astute marketing by Apple, which has
established quite a stranglehold on the digital music Description
industry. It produces the hardware, software, and sells
songs at low prices to put in the hardware it sold. The
release of the iTunes music software in 2001 would be
the key to the iPod’s success. Apple now leads the
portable digital music player market, with a 31%
market share for iPod and the iTunes Music Store Evidence
hosting 70% of all legal music downloads (Teather
2005). Apple is also at the front of the pack for the
portable media players. It is continually updating its
product-there is now an iPod Photo, iPod Mini and iPod
Shuffle – the only flash-media based iPod.

Third point: As far as the music retail industry is concerned, one of Assessment
the key impacts of the iPod is in the increase in
illegal downloading of music, resulting in great financial
loss for the original artists. The setup of the iTunes Discussion
music store by Apple to protect the artists has not had
much impact, and ironically, the sale of iTunes has
not increased at the same rate as iPod sales. According
Evidence
to Michael Bull, a lecturer in Media and Culture at the
University of Sussex, the reason could be that the iPod
has become an “artifact”, and iPod users are spending
their money buying the latest models, instead of on the
music. Bull predicts that the market is moving toward
the artifact (the aesthetic) and away from the music to
fill it. He points to the collapse of Tower Records in New
York, once known as the world’s largest music store, as
a sign of the “end of the music industry as we know it.”
(2007, p. 7).

Fourth point: In addition to reshaping the music retail market, iPods


and iTunes have started a revolution in the way music
is consumed. Without a doubt, the iPod has made it
much easier for people to carry with them thousands of Logical appeal
tracks and artists in the size of
something smaller than that of a CD. In other words,
Discussion
the iPod has brought control back to the user- control
over exactly what gets listened to at what point, control
over their own space, and control over distraction in
some cases. Bull believes that the iPod has also brought
a new music-sharing realm. According to Bull, this
concept has further developed into iParties, where
music is provided by iPods instead of traditional music Evidence
media. Young people come together and use their
diverse musical tastes to select two tracks for the party
from a huge repertoire. Bull says that users are drawn
to the participatory aspect of iParties.
Conclusion: [1] The popularity of the iPod has suggested to many
other companies that there is a market out there for the
taking, if only they can track what makes the iPod so
popular – simplicity, good looks and the cool factor.
[2] Although Apple was not the first to innovate, it
packaged the iPod in a neat, minimalist style with a
simple and effective userinterface. [3] This is the root of
iPod’s success. Combined with iTunes (and later iPod
“ancillaries‟ like Apple TV and the iPod Hi-Fi) it offered
an integrated home entertainment system. [4] Whether
people buy the product or not is no longer the issue;
the fact remains that the iPod has changed the modern
media landscape and the way people listen to,
purchase, and store their music. (860 words approx..)

References
Bankhofer, A. (2005). Understanding the podcasting revolution. iPodlounge. Retrieved
April 2, 2008, from
https://web.archive.org/web/20080201195550/http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articl
es/comments/understanding-the-podcasting-revolution

Bull, M. (2007). Sound moves: iPod culture and urban experience. UK: Routledge.

Ross, D. (2005). iPod revolutionizes music consumption. Retrieved April 2, 2008,


from www.cdhi.mala.bc.ca/issue 2/essay5.html

Teather, D, (2004). How do you like them Apples? Retrieved April 2, 2008,
from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2004/jan/16/comment.business

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