Beck Vs Xfactor

Becks audience is niche as he released sheet music. This means that there is no actual audio just lyrics and notes for the audience. This means that his fans needs to actually create their own interpretation in order to listen. The only type of fans that could do this are dedicated musicians, this is a niche audience. This is a great way for Beck to make his fans feel more involved in his music. Whereas in Xfactor they let the audience vote for the contestants that they want to stay in the competition. X factor also feeds the audience a story of each contestant in an attempt to create a relationship between the artist and fans. Both Beck and X factors tactics create prosumers in the process.

Becks music does not devalue music as it makes the fans create their own interpretation, every interpretation is different thus creating NEW music. In comparison to Xfactor all artists cover music owned by sony, this is an attempt to make more money for Syco (Simon Cowell's label) and sony. Covers are nothing new to the industry they are the same song just with a different singer, same beat, hook and image etc. Covers do create nostalgia which may be why X factor is so popular. There is no new music on Xfactor. This devalues music.

Beck lets the fans present their videos in their own way as its the prosumers interpretation of his sheet music, this means many different images may be associated with one song, punk, rock, pop for example. X factor dresses the contestants in extravagant costumes in order to take the audiences attention from the actual music, instead the fans will focus on the image and vote on the image instead of the quality of the singing/performance. This may be evidence for the argument that x factor is a form of thermometer to gauge what the public's favorite style is week by week. Doing this x factor can craft/mold the perfect image for an artist and make loads of money. This also de values music as the quality of the artist may be bad but they have an image that entices the audience to buy drivel. Becks sheet music creates thousands of different songs in the process, which can freshen up the industry with new sounds and images.

As Beck's fans create the music they can sell the music on services like Amazon for example, this spins the music industry on its head as the artist is not earning money, the fans are. X factor sells the covers on iTunes, the contestant gets none of the money while the record labels do. The record label (Sony, Syco) tells the contestant what to sing from the back catalog in order to generate money from old songs which do not sell anymore due to their age and lack of exposure.