Archive for February, 2012
Choosing the Best MP3 Player
Posted by: | CommentsToday’s online market is flooded with so many different MP3 players that choosing the right one can prove be a very difficult task. There are at least 20 different types of MP3 players that are available, there is the line of iPods which are provided by Apple, plus others from companies like Sony, Microsoft, Transcend, Cowan, Pioneer, Insignia and more. Your task of deciding which player is best for you, can be made simpler if you were to first get an idea of exactly what you are looking for in a MP3 player. With this information you could then begin to search for the player having all these functions, and end up choosing a player faster than you think. Some
Most, if not all persons are concerned about the appearance of their MP3, people love to buy MP3s that have a sleek, neat and clean look, one that will make a statement with just its appearance. As a result characteristics like the color and size of the player including the length, width and weight may become factors of importance. The size of the screen is also another factor of the MP3 player’s appearance to be concerned about.
Another important factor to be considered when buying a player is the features that the player has.
The features that you desire will heavily depend on the purpose for which you are obtaining the player and how you plan to use it. If you are just planning to listen to music and that’s it, then this may not be a big deal to you. However other persons are concerned about features, such as the possibility of an e-book, video, Wi-Fi, a camera and such like.
Battery life may also be another concern, but this is mostly dependent on you and how you use the MP3 player. If you plan on using the MP3 player to listen to music in close proximity to an outlet or PC, this may not be an issue. However if you plan to use the player for listening to music along with watching videos and such like while on the road, the battery life is also something to pay attention to.
Memory is another important factor to be considered when purchasing a MP3 player. This will limit the amount of songs you can store and so having an idea of how you plan to use the player will be of big help.
The price is another factor that most persons will want to consider. How deep in your pocket are you willing to go. Even though the prices are pretty close to each other, a few bucks can make a lot of difference, so try having a budget in mind.
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Career As a Music Teacher
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Today more young people and students in the United States are looking to enter in music field or make mark in which they can merge artistic or music talent and idealism in satisfying and meaningful ways. Teaching music to these young talents can provide you a better scope and career satisfaction. In recent times, this profession has gained enormous popularity and the ratio of people enrolling in music education course has also increased dramatically. In fact, today it is one of the few dynamic occupations that offer vast opportunities.
The career path you take as music teacher can vary greatly and simply depends on the kind of teaching that interests you most. You may work as a full time or part time in a studio, or in an elementary or secondary school, college, university, or music conservatory.
School Music Teacher- As a school based music teacher, you can be mostly involved in providing music instructions to different classroom students. Though the exact curriculum you cover is generally dictated by the school district and the grade levels with which you are working. You may also be responsible for devising school musical productions or coaching the school band.
Music Store Teacher- Working as a music store teacher is great if you want to tell your friends that you work in the music biz. The most interesting aspect of working as a store music teacher is it offers you the opportunity to put up your own studio. A degree is not always required for this position but you must possess exceptional training in both areas of music and teaching. Besides this, the earning opportunities may vary based on location and qualifications, with some earning as much as $100 an hour.
Music Consultant/Supervisor – Working as music tutor or supervisor is one of the few career options that certainly require an extensive knowledge in music and teaching. You must be a good decision maker and adviser as well. Adding to this, as the profession demands for an extensive knowledge, an advanced music degree and a good background in teaching is must. Working as a music consultant or supervisor, you may earn as much as $70,000 a year, depending on qualifications and location.
University Music Administrator – If you are looking forward to work as a university music administrator then this profession demands an extensive background and knowledge in music and teaching. As you will responsible for administering university music, you will be required to possess good leadership skills and a good background as a music professor. In terms of salary, it can reach as much as $180,000 a year based on qualifications and location.
Apart from all this, you can also make career as private music teacher. The job outlook for private music teachers is good enough. In fact, due to budget restraints, many colleges and universities these days are hiring more private music teacher as a part-time or extra faculty members instead of full-time teachers.
Today making a career as a music teacher can definitely be considered as one of the legitimate ways to make money in music and still look like a respectable member of society. It is one of the few professions that help you reinforce the fundamentals for yourself and look things from a new and better perspective.
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Disruptive Technologies – How music editors are related to steam engines
Posted by: | CommentsI am not into technologies, those that change so ever fast, and always. But I do observe technological trends, along which the development of scientific applications revolves.
And of all trends, perhaps disruptive technologies are the defining path of industrial implications, a linear passage that technological progress almost invariably follows. Though the concept of “disruptive technologies” is only popularized in 1997 by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen in his best-seller “The Innovator’s Dilemma”, the phenomenon was already evidenced back in 1663, when Edward Somerset published designs for, and might have installed, a steam engine.
As put forth by Clayton Christensen, disruptive technologies are initially low performers of poor profit margins, targeting only a minute sector of the market. However, they often develop faster than industry incumbents and eventually outpace the giants to capture significant market shares as their technologies, cheaper and more efficient, could better meet prevailing consumers’ demands.
In this case, the steam engines effectively displaced horse power. The demand for steam engines was not initially high, due to the then unfamiliarity to the invention, and the ease of usage and availability of horses. However, as soon as economic activities intensified, and societies prospered, a niche market for steam engines quickly developed as people wanted modernity and faster transportation.
One epitome of modern disruptive technologies is Napster, a free and easy music sharing program that allows users to distribute any piece of recording online. The disruptee here is conventional music producers. Napster relevantly identified the “non-market”, the few who wanted to share their own music recordings for little commercial purpose, and thus provided them with what they most wanted. Napster soon blossomed and even transformed the way the internet was utilized.
Nevertheless, there are more concerns in the attempt to define disruptive technologies than simply the definition itself.
One most commonly mistaken feature for disruptive technologies is sustaining technologies. While the former brings new technological innovation, the latter refers to “successive incremental improvements to performance” incorporated into existing products of market incumbents. Sustaining technologies could be radical, too; the new improvements could herald the demise of current states of production, like how music editor softwares convenience Napster users in music customization and sharing, thereby trumping over traditional whole-file transfers. The music editors are part of a sustaining technological to Napster, not a new disruptor. Thus, disruptive and sustaining technologies could thrive together, until the next wave of disruption comes.
See how music editors are linked to steam engines? Not too close, but each represents one aspect of the twin engines that drive progressive technologies; disruptors breed sustainers, and sustainers feed disruptors.
This character of sustaining technologies brings us to another perspective of disruptive technologies: they not only change the way people do business, but also initiate a fresh wave of follow-up technologies that propel the disruptive technology to success. Sometimes, sustaining technologies manage to carve out a niche market for its own even when the disruptive initiator has already shut down. Music editor and maker softwares continue to healthily thrive, despite Napster’s breakdown (though many other file sharing services are functioning by that time), with products like the AV Music Morpher Gold and Sound Forge 8.
A disruptive technology is also different from a paradigm shift, which Thomas Kuhn used to describe “the process and result of a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science”. In disruptive technologies, there are no assumptions, but only the rules of game of which the change is brought about by the behaviors of market incumbents and new entrants. They augment different markets that eventually merge. In Clayton Christensen’s words, newcomers to the industry almost invariably “crush the incumbents”.
While researching on disruptive technologies, I came across this one simple line that could adequately capture what these technologies are about, “A technology that no one in business wants but that goes on to be a trillion-dollar industry.” Interesting how a brand new technology that seemingly bears little value could shake up an entire industry, isn’t it?
You are probably asking, why then that no one wants it? Or how true is the money claim to these disruptive technologies? And if it is true, what are the implications to the business practice? How do market incumbents and new entrants behave?
The scope of this article could only let me take the first question. Well, it is not that dominating companies are not visionary to see a disruption is coming. They can’t. A disruptive technology is inherently not attractive initially; no one could see how Napster could boom and lead to the thriving market of audio softwares like the music editors and mixers, except the disruptors themselves. Even if one manages to foresee it, the “Innovator’s Dilemma” is there to keep them from acting.
And as the books show, technology has always evolved in waves of disruption.
