Student: (name and number) Alison Griffiths 09005088
Chosen blog: (title and URL)PodComplex Music Technology-http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/podcomplex-music-technology
Chosen post: (title and URL)http://www.podcomplex.com/blog/vinyl-pressing/



The blog I chose to write about for this assignment was a music technology blog by PodComplex. I found it very interesting as it covered many aspects of music that i wouldn’t have nescessarily considered before. They’re topics ranged from Plagiarism, Electric Picnic, The new methods of releasing music, Ipods to The highest and lowest frequencies of the human voice. Their posts were very frequent even for the most commited blogger it can be hard to find time to blog more than weekly, but PodComplex certainly maintained that if not more. Subjects varied considerably as music technology news changed. They often had posts about the latest software available, recording news and recent gigs. Having said that there was always the dedicated theme of Music apparent in every post.
In my opinion the target audience of this blog would be people similar to myself. Music technology students, music fanatics or people in the industry. Their blog really does cover an immense amount of information relavent to all those with an interest in the Irish music scene and technology alike. Whether you were looking for a review on a recent gig or looking to upgrade your Ipod PodComplex seems to cover it all!
The language is clear and technical as would be aspected from a blog of this genre. It states the facts needed to be known yet isn’t laced with the descriptive language that some blogs of other subjects may be. They balance the lack of description by including images of the hardware and software respectively . Therefore the language and the graphics combined give the reader a clear view of whatever subject is covered. For example in their blog of “Electric Picnic” there wasn’t a huge amount of text that would be expected in a review of this kind but the atmosphere and experience of the festival was clearly conveyed graphically in the quantity of photographs.
In relation to the embedded artefacts there was no lack of video applications displaying how the newest of technology works. I found this very effective, once again they didn’t go overboard on the text explanations but through “You Tube” etc they made it very clear how, for example the new “appleton controller” works or how to make music on a touchscreen interface based program.
Interaction with this blog is a major disadvantage, it is possible to comment on the blog in general but when I went to do so it was very unclear how to retrieve what you had said. I couldn’t understand how to access other peoples opinions of the differnet posts and even when there was a chance to comment about the blog as a whole it wasn’t possible to locate what others had said.
My favourite post by PodComplex was they’re thoughts about how vinyl is making a comeback to the music industry. The first video showed footage from the early days of vinyl explaining what a miracle it was to the generation. It explained exactly how the technical process took place and gave samples of the earliest recordings. They talked about one of the last vinyl pressing factories in the world, it’s based in Nashville where they produce thousands of records every 8 hours! They then included another video which explained how the factory in Nashville now produce vinyl for DJs , the more modern use for it. This really interested me because in my personal opinion vinyl is making a comeback. Consumers are tired of buying music online and not recieving hardcopies of their purchase. There are no leaflets of song lyrics to look through, no photographs of the band and most of all that old record smell that can only be found on vinyl is well and truely lost to the consumers of 2009! This has caused an increase in vinyl sales and many bands are beginning to release they’re albums on record aswell as online.
In summary I find PodComplex’s blog to be very informative and useful to a music technology student such as myself. As well as an interesting read for the general public.






My comments on blogs:
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/podcomplex-music-technology.html#comment_706123


http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=58854586&blogId=50599286

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=70699583&blogId=510872665

http://www.futuremusic.co.uk/page/futuremusic?entry=fm220_in_the_studio