Radio 1 interview

Minecraft Essay

Minecraft was created by Markus Persson in 2009 and was developed by the Swedish production company ‘Mojang’. It was created in the summer of 2009, over only one weekend and to begin with only costed around £8 to download and play, it is now sold at around £25 due to its popularity. It was first published on a forum, and its first mode of advertisement was word of mouth, whereas now millions of pounds goes into the advertisement for the computer game. 

It began only selling 40 copies of the game on its first weekend of sales, whereas now it has sold around 125 million copies overall proving its success across the gaming industry and on its platform of game. It is a sandbox computer game, which means that it is a building and construction game. This means that the player is free to play it without specific things such as Wi-Fi or on a computer. Due to the games freedom, it gives the player chance to build and express themselves within the game, which is one of the reasons it is so popular with the younger generation. Since its release it has sold 125 million copies across the world, its success is down to the fact it has adapted and developed since its release as it started as a ‘blocky-looking game’ and is now used for gamers to create their own world out of blocks, independently or with other people and other activities in the game include exploration and combat to target a larger demographic.

Since the release of Minecraft in 2009, it has been a commercial success. It is estimated that 55 million people play Minecraft every month, and is therefore the second best-selling game ever made, coming after Tetris. The company is worth around £1.09 billion, as it was brought out by Mojang in 2014. There are many reasons as to why it has become such a commercial success, including its popularity; Minecraft is played all around the world, in around 8 different countries including the US, Norway and Australia. This means high volume sales, which could be due to its availability and easy accessibility. Continuing from this, another reason that Minecraft is so commercially successful is due to its spread onto different platforms. These include, Xbox, Windows 10, Windows phones, Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation and Android phones. This makes it more easily accessible for a wider audience meaning more people are able to play, therefore resulting in more sales and then higher revenue from sales. Finally, another reason that is credible for the commercial success, is the spin off games and merchandise created since the release of Minecraft. Spin off games include ‘Minecraft; story mode’ and ‘Minecraft; Education Edition’. Both of these games will appeal to a specific demographic, which will commercially benefit the business as they are targeting a wider audience, rather than just focusing on the original demographic targeted by the original Minecraft game. The merchandise that is created and sold across the world, will catch the eye of gamers, and also promotes and advertises the game when people wear the merchandise, which will increase profit which makes it commercially successful.

Overall I believe that Minecraft has been a critical success since its release as it has influenced popular culture, meaning that many clones of the game have been created by game developers, the most famous being ‘Terraria’ which since 2017 has had 20 million accounts created. I believe that is has critical success because it is an open-ended video game, which means the goals of the game are up to each individual player. You can play in creative mode and ‘build whatever you can dream of’ or you can play in survival mode and ‘gather materials from the environment to build shelter’. This shows that it is a critical success as players can do exactly what the mission statement for Minecraft was. In conclusion, Minecraft is a successful game commercially and critically, as its popularity has proven this, by high sales volumes and therefore high amounts of revenue for the company.

Minecraft timeline

17th may 2009 – First release of the game
21st may 2009 – Accounts can now be registered 
24th may 2009 - Official Minecraft forum is opened 
8th June 2009 -  Multiplayer released 
20th October 2009 – Beginning of survival test 
29th January 2010 – Introduction of crafting system. 
17th June 2010 – Minecraft passes 20,000 sales
22nd July 2010 – First over internet test of survival mode multiplayer
16th October 2010 – Mojang is founded
22nd December 2010 – Minecraft beta version is created
12th Jan 2011 – Minecraft reaches a million sales
1st July 2011 – Minecraft passes 10 million registered users 
16th August 2011 – Minecraft pocket edition released for Xperia play only
17th November 2011 – Pocket edition released on IOS
9th May 2012 – Released on Xbox 360
25th October 2013 – Java update 1.7.2 released ‘the update that changed the world.’
13th December 2013 – Minecraft for Java surpasses 13 million sales.
4th September 2014 – PlayStation 4 edition released.
5th September 2014 – Minecraft Xbox 1 edition released.
10th December 2014 – Pocket edition released for Windows phone
30th June 2015 – Minecraft for Java Surpasses 20 million sales.
13th October 2015 – Minecraft Story mode released.
17th December 2015 – Minecraft Wii U edition released 
2nd June 2016 – Minecraft sold over 100 million times over all platforms, makes 2nd bestselling game.
27th June 2016 – Minecraft announces release of Minecraft the movie for May 24th 2019
1st November 2016 – Minecraft education edition released
19th December 2016 – Minecraft pocket edition released on Amazon fire TV and Apple TV.
May 11th 2017 – Minecraft Nintendo Switch edition released 
13th September 2017 – Minecraft released on Nintendo 3DS
December 2017 – Minecraft hits 74 million active players and 144 million total 

BBC 1 Radio facts

ACTS

-Radio remains resilient
- 90% adults tune in on a weekly basis
-Time spent listening to radio has increased since 2015
-UK adults spend majority of time spent listening to any audio is accounted for by live radio (71%)
- 16 to 24 year olds spend similar amounts of time with live radio (29%), personal digital audio (26%) and streaming services (25%)
-Overall commercial stations increased their revenue in 2015, with overall growth to 1.4% to £519 million, as national advertising offset overall declines in local advertising revenue
-In 2015, over 40% of all reported radio listening was via a digital device
-A second national DAB network of transmitters was switched on in March 2016, bringing 15 unique radio services to 75% of the UKs population

NEW TECHNOLOGY

-New technology has helped the radio industry evolve and increase in popularity
-A huge increase in the number of people downloading podcasts and streaming internet radio
-Studio webcams and social media have changed the audience relationship with radio by making listeners feel more connected to the presenters
-This type of media convergence is achieved through the use of blogs and forums on radio websites
-BBC u.s.p is introducing new brands
-Highest paid: breakfast show/ afternoon drive

PSB broadcasters have to achieve a mix of education, information and entertainment

Different remits for different channels
-The BBC has 100% PSB remit
-ITV has a smaller PSB remit
-Channel 4 has a large,but slightly different PSB remit (mostly tackled through its enforced aim of showing lots of niche programming
-Channel 5 has a tiny PSB remit (basically news) and all digital channels have no PSB remit

OFCOM is in charge of ensuring broadcasters keep to their PSB remit

RAJAR is how they regulate to the audience and market figures

Radio production and distribution

Chris Price is head of music for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, he's responsible for all the music across both stations, his main focus is on the playlist. After 7pm Radio 1 goes specialist and the music is picked by the DJs and show teams. The Radio 1 Playlist makes up the majority of the songs that are played before that in the daytime. Most radio stations have a set playlist, however Chris Price says Radio 1's is unique because it introduces brand new artists right alongside established pop acts.

When picking songs as part of the playlist the team will research and look into the YouTube views, Soundcloud hits, Shazam ratings, Twitter followers and Facebook likes to evaluate the popularity and success. They sometimes feel they need to play certain 'upcoming bands' music as they otherwise feel they are "pulling the carpet from under their feet". However Radio 1 has a lot of power when helping artists break through by giving them the exposure they need.

In order for Radio 1 to know what to play for 15-29 year olds: 
"We've got a panel of thousands of young people from the age of 12 to 29 in our overall research group, and we pay a research company to test 400 of them every week. We play them the hooks of 25 current songs, most of which we've played over 100 times,

 

From 6am-10am Nick Grimshaws breakfast show includes special guests which are current and up to date swell as the latest charts music and prizes to win. This is aimed at the younger demographic to keep them interested on their way to school or work. From 10am-12am is the 'live lounge' which includes

Artists that the station has been late to play, such as Drake has been " because their songs are not suitable for daytime radio play", although for the younger demographic this he is one of the biggest trends. In the late 2000s the 'BBC Trust' criticised the station for having too old an audience and said it must focus on getting the average age down to under 30. The Trust promised to monitor Radio 1's listening figures among the 15-29-year-old demographic over the coming years. But despite introducing younger presenters, the average age of a Radio 1 listener is still 32. "Today's 30- to 50-year-olds have lived through just about every genre of music that's ever existed, from the most hardcore metal to hip-hop to dance and house."

more urban 'rap' music which is shown to be played when younger children are in school grabbing a different audience. 12am-1pm is the newsbeat show aimed at an older audience which is usually around the time they are on lunch break at work. Throughout the day the schedule changes to suit the demographic listening at that moment based around their everyday lifestyle.

BBC radio stations

BBC Radio 1

The remit of Radio 1 is to entertain and engage a broad range of young listeners with a distinctive mix of contemporary music and speech.

 

BBC Radio 2

The remit of Radio 2 is to be a distinctive mixed music and speech service, targeted at a broad audience, appealing to all age groups over 35.

BBC Radio 3

The remit of Radio 3 is to offer a mix of music and cultural programming in order to engage and entertain its audience.

BBC Radio 4

The remit of Radio 4 is to be a mixed speech service, offering in-depth news and current affairs and a wide range of other speech output including drama, readings, comedy, factual and magazine programmes.

 

BBC Radio 5 live

The remit of BBC Radio 5 live is to provide live news and sports coverage.

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

The remit of BBC Radio 5 live sports extra is to bring a greater choice of live action to sports fans by offering a part-time extension of BBC Radio 5 live.

 

BBC 6 Music

The remit of BBC 6 Music is to entertain lovers of popular music with a service that celebrates the alternative spirit in popular music from the 1960s to the present day

 

The Market

The Market

Popular:

The Sun
The Sun on Sunday
Daily Mirror
Sunday Mirror
Sunday People
Daily Star
Daily Star Sunday

Mid-Market: 

Daily Mail
The Mail
London Evening Standard
Metro
Sunday Express
Daily Express

Quality:

The Daily Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph
The Guardian
The Observer
The Times
The Sunday Times
The Independent
i
Financial Times

Audience

Audience: Kind of person you want to target.

Demographic profiling:
A= high management, lawyers, doctors, bankers
B= middle management, teachers, media people
C1= office supervisors, junior management, nurses
C2= skilled manual workers, plumbers, builders
D= semi skilled and unskilled manual workers
E= unemployed, pensioners, students, casual workers

Psycho-graphic profiling:
Mainstreamers= seek security, conformist, conventional
Aspirers= seek status, materialistic 
Succeeders= seek control, strong goals, confidence
Resigned= seek survival, past and tradition
Explorers= seek discovery, energy and experience
Strugglers, seek escape, alienated, disorganised 
Reforms= seek enlightenment, personal growth

Target audience Vs Niche audience 
Audience response:

• Age
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Historical competence
• Situated culture
• Cultural experiences 

Gillette evaluation - The best a man can get:
The advert is telling the audience that if a man uses a Gillette razor, then he will be the best he can be. The advert shows scenes of a man and his son, a man on his wedding day, and a man in the Olympics, which tells the 

 that a man can do anything if he uses a Gillette razor. 

In the advert there are a lot of 'medium long shots' this is because then the viewer can see the setting around the character telling them the whole story. However there are also some pan left and pan right shots to show the characters on their journeys. They also used natural coloured shots to make it seem realistic.The song in the background fits the advert because it is about a father and son.

Gillette Advert

Gillette Advert

In the Gillette advert  it say that Gillette is "the best a man can get" making it seem as if you don't have a Gillette razor than you are not living to your full potential as a man. they do this by presenting a man using Gillette as being successful and being a good dad that has a great relationship with his child. this Cretans a brand image for Gillette that makes it seem as a ital part of any mans life and is necessary for growth emotionally and financially. It also shows multiple times throughout the advert a woman and man coming together making it seem as if you bought Gillette than you would attract females and have a great relationship.

Furthermore in the advert it shows a range of camera angles to make a man using Gillette as superior to others. an example of this is when hes finishing a race and the video is in slow motion while he is ahead of the other competitors showing as if he deserved his win and it was down to his use of Gillette. It continues to repeat the phrase "Gillette the best a man can get" throughout the entire video. it again uses different camera angles through the advert when the model is shaving it is a close camera shot in an attempt to show how sooth the cut is. So not only is it a great shaver it also makes you a better man supposedly.