Elissa's Midterm Proposal Part II (?)

Only the amazing Beth (thanks!) commented on my draft, so I have no idea where to go with this! I guess I'll just keep it like it is for now because it makes sense to me...

Title(s)
Internet Killed the Radio Star: The transition of marketing mediums in the music industry or How's It Going to Be: the future of music marketing or Carry On My Wayward Son: the transition of marketing mediums in an ever-changing music industry

Abstract
Music marketing was a static issue until the digital age. I will be exploring how it has evolved over the past 50 years and the avenues the field must take to be successful in the future. This is important because standard marketing and promotional techniques need to continue to adapt to the digital market and not rely so much on traditional methods like radio and print. While these are still viable mediums, they should no longer be considered the primary avenue of music marketing in this complex digital world. For instance, websites like purevolume.com and garageband.com allow for bands to market themselves, but how to market these websites to potential users - both bands and fans? In researching this topic, I will uncover types of marketing that are effective in reaching unique market segments and demographics, and demonstrate methods that could be effective in targeting these groups in the future. This will be based upon market research and interviews with professionals in both the music and business fields. The best way to present both the past, present and future of this field is to use an experiential format, where the "reader" can travel through a sample marketing campaign using both old and new methods, and decide at the end which was more effective to them. This project will be useful to both artists interested in promoting their music and to companies who represent music and other media.

Methodology
This project is making an argument that music marketing needs to get more creative in order to reach its target audience, and suggesting ways in which it can succeed in this endeavor. I want to speak with those that currently work in the marketing field to get their opinions on how marketing has changed since they began working, and also uncover their marketing processes. I would also like to speak with those that work in related business fields such as advertising, public relations, and artist management to see what they feel are the best ways to adapt their contributions to ensure that new music marketing is successful. Obviously the most important aspect of this project however will be market research on various market segments - consumers and musicians alike and their respective demographics. I also want to research and do some case study-type work.

Media Presentation
I am seeing this project as an interactive "click and learn" journey through the history of music marketing, and then have it turn into a visualization of a discussion about where the industry is today, and the results of the market research into current techniques. Then I want to have the user experience some marketing techniques and at the end, judge which were more effective to them, and once they choose, have that lead into an explanation of the positives and negatives of each way, going from the oldest model to the newest idea for the future of marketing. Then at the end I would like to present again a visualization of a summary of ideas for the future. The project will flow much like a paper but will have varying ways of using multimedia in each segment (interactivity, visualization, experiential, etc.) to keep it interesting. Marketing is itself not a subject that can be adequately described on paper, as very little marketing is done on paper. You must have multimedia to show the complexity of the subject, and especially in that this project relates directly to music, which obviously can only be heard in order to experience it.