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Classifier model performance

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Will the record label industries survive in the disruptive age of music streaming by changing their business model?

Music streaming services, such as Spotify, allows one to access and enjoy music conveniently in real-time without the trouble of downloading any audio files. Traditionally, artists have been reliant upon record labels to expand their consumer base and market their albums. Records labels accustomed to enjoying the monopoly over the revenue they earned from selling the work of artists. However, music streaming has caused the music industry to become an even playing field as artists have been able to achieve their own success while remain unsigned to record labels (Charles Koch Institute, 2018). In this essay, I will further discuss about how music streaming has disrupted the record labels’ survivability in remaining irreplaceable in the music industry, followed by two diversifying business models, pushing a ‘360-degree deal’ and signing deals with music streaming platforms, which would help these labels in surviving this disruptive age of music streaming.

Wall (2014) claims that artists are no longer subservient to record labels and music streaming technology has assisted well in reaching out to more fans abroad due to a growing music consumer base. This “accessed-based” music model provided by music streaming companies threatens the ability of record labels to sustain its current business model. Artists have been less reliant to record labels which causes repercussions such as record labels losing revenue, then diminishing from the music industry overtime. Although Universal Music Group is one of the major leading record labels with a 28.9% market share of the global music industry (Mulligan, 2017), every record label should still consider about diversifying their business model before music streaming disrupts their current business model completely.

One diversifying business model is to push a ‘360-degree deal’, which is a form of diversification of revenue streams for artists to grant record labels income from selling merchandises, publishing their music, recordings and touring instead of depending on traditional revenue streams, which only covers recordings and publishing services (Marshall, 2013). Contextually, record labels are playing the roles of a “venture capital” in the music industry to support new developing potential artists by supplying funding then subsequently, receiving their fair share of the revenue in the later years. For recording an album, the record label pays the artist an advance. Afterwards, the artist must repay the advance from his/her record royalties’ income. The revenue generated between both parties are cross-collateralized. With a diversified business model, record labels would be able to help growing artists gain more fans and outreach due to the record label’s deep-rooted relationships across the music industry thus carrying a greater deal to sustain due to consistency in gaining signed artists. However, the downside to this is that artists are afraid to work with record labels due to high pressure of not being compensated from underselling albums.

An alternative business model that record labels could diversify would be to move towards embracing music streaming by signing deals with the music streaming platforms such as Spotify (Nicolaou, 2016) to license its music. Warner, who signed a deal with these platforms, had an outgrowing revenue in streaming compared to downloads (Kafka, 2015). Licensing music deals have permitted record labels to reimburse some of their losses and contributing to a huge increase in profits of 1.6 billion U.S. dollars (Ellis-Petersen, 2016). Additionally, the detailed analytics about the artists’ fans would aid record labels to identify strategies for injecting special promotions to buy concert tickets and merchandises for the targeted super-fans (Titlow, 2017). On top of that, record labels are gaining revenue from the royalty’s premium model that Spotify offers when signing the deal - the more clicks the artist gain, the higher the revenue. Record labels would be benefiting as they possess ownership rights of the music that these platforms need. With a collaborative effort in signing deals, not only does record labels remain in control of the music distribution on music streaming services, but also gains more revenue and access to music fan analytics.

In conclusion, music streaming has transformed the music industry in several ways such as reducing the costs of purchasing music, providing accessibility to enjoy music and, even curbing piracy. Notwithstanding, the negative impacts such as disintermediation of record labels due to the “freemium” basis of music streaming that has disrupted its business model. Though if the record labels decided to embrace deals with music streaming platforms in licensing music or diversify its sources of income by pertaining additional revenue streams through 360-degree deals, this will help record labels offset the downfall of physical sales by pushing digital sales driven by high demand in music streaming. Record labels would not only survive and remain irreplaceable in the age of disruption due to music streaming but bounce back and produce promising financial figures for the next subsequent years. (793 words)

References

Chaparro, F. (2016). The Sound Of Disruption: Innovation In Music Streaming. Retrieved from https://business.nasdaq.com/marketinsite/2016/The-Sound-of-Disruption-Innovation-in-Music-Streaming.html

Charles Koch Institute. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/blog/mainstream-disruptive-tech-made-streaming-music-new-normal/

Ellis-Petersen, Hannah. (2016). Music streaming hailed as industry's saviour as labels enjoy profit surge. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/29/music-streaming-industry-saviour-labels-spotify-apple-music

Kafka, Peter. (2015). Warner Music Says Streaming Revenue Has Passed Downloads, and It Wants More. Recode. Retrieved from https://www.recode.net/2015/5/11/11562530/warner-music-says-streaming-revenue-has-passed-downloads-and-it-wants

Marshall, L. (2013). The 360 deal and the ‘new’ music industry. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1367549412457478

Mulligan, Mark. (2017). Global market shares 2016: Sony and Warner gain on Universal, as indies rule. Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved from https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/global-market-shares-2016-sony-and-warner-gain-on-universal-as-indies-rule/

Nicolaou, Anna. (2016). Music labels go gaga for streaming services. Financial Times. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/a548d874-bd60-11e6-8b45-b8b81dd5d080?mhq5j=e3

Titlow, J. (2017). Record Labels Are Rebounding, But This Startup Could Shake Their Dominance. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/40495530/record-labels-are-rebounding-but-this-startup-could-shake-their-dominance

Wall, M. (2014). Is tech saving the music industry?. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-28023116

Imagine standing front row at your favorite artist's sold-out concert, feeling the energy of the crowd, the thump of the bass, and the electrifying atmosphere—without leaving your living room. Welcome to VReality, the groundbreaking VR concert startup revolutionizing the live music experience.

At VReality, we harness cutting-edge virtual reality technology to bring fans closer to their favorite performers than ever before. With our immersive VR concerts, you can attend live shows from around the world, explore backstage areas, and even interact with other fans—all from the comfort of your home.

Join us on this journey to redefine live music. With VReality, the concert of your dreams is just a headset away. Experience the future of entertainment, where every performance is an unforgettable adventure, and every fan gets a front-row seat.

DreamFactory is a crowdfunding platform for entrepreneurs to advertise the projects and also, for investors and other entrepreneurs to browse and fund these projects.

This platform will be on a webpage that resides on a database to store all the user account details, entries, project details such as project name, funding amount, etc. The logic of the transactions, funding and browsing of project will be coded in Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) and Structured Query Language (SQL) queries, while the users’ interfaces will be the webpage.

The Clinic Admin Terminal supports the clinic appointment, registration, as well as administration workflow.

The purpose of the Self-Service Kiosk Terminal is for patients to do self-registration and appointment booking.

The AMS Client is created for testing purposes of the web services and they are used for interfacing with external vendors.

Charles & Keith is a renowned global fashion brand established in 1996 in Singapore by siblings Charles and Keith Wong. Initially starting as a shoe retailer, the brand has significantly expanded its product line to include bags, accessories, and jewelry. Known for its stylish, contemporary designs and affordability, Charles & Keith caters to the modern, fashion-conscious consumer.

The company has built a strong international presence with a robust online platform and over 600 stores across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Its commitment to innovation, quality, and customer satisfaction has positioned Charles & Keith as a leading player in the fast fashion industry. This business analysis report will delve into the brand's strategic initiatives, market positioning, financial performance, and future growth prospects.

URA's Vision and Planning

The vision for Woodlands Regional Centre as proposed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is “A vibrant live-work-play business hub set in a lush green northern waterfront”. The national objectives the URA have in plan are the four key strategies of creating transport oriented developments, capitalising on the waterfront, creating distinct districts and precincts, and enhancing connectivity and green networks (Urban Redevelopment Authority, 2014).

Figure 1. URA Master Plan 2014

Strengths

Woodlands Regional Centre is planned as four broad zones of Green Spaces, Residential Estates, Mixed-used Development and Business Parks. The four broad zones are developed as strips with direct relationship to adjacent plots in order to facilitate a smooth transition between the four areas (Figure 1).

Weaknesses

The linearity of the transition zones has separated the area into distinctive Live, Work and Play zones. As a result, these are isolated zones specific to their own uses and restrict the potential for synergies to happen.

Opportunities

The site has potential to incorporate retail, business, residential and lifestyle elements 100 ha of land available for expansion and it is a potential site for a vibrant live-work-play precinct set in lush green northern waterfront over the next 10 to 15 years (Li, & Chun, 2014).

Figure 2. Artist’s Impression/ Render of the Pedestrian-centric Regional Hub (Urban Redevelopment Authority, 2017b)

The mixed-use developments might be able to tap into being a walkable, pedestrian-centric regional retail hub that will serve residents (Figure 2). With 30ha of land available for development, there will be about 350,000sqm of new office and retail space to anchor the area as a regional hub of opportunities (Urban Redevelopment Authority, 2017b).

Focusing specifically on learning, work and play spaces, educational institutions such as Republic Polytechnic, Innova Junior College, Singapore Sports School, and several secondary and primary schools are all accessible via public bus services.

The recently completed redevelopment of Woodlands Town Park East, which now includes a hilltop garden with fitness equipment and an earth trail through the forest, has strengthened Woodlands’ appeal as a good place to get close to nature. Enhancements to Admiralty Park to turn it into a Destination Park will feature new recreational elements not usually found in parks. Additionally, the Round Island Route will link up park connector loops, cycling networks and other connections to create a continuous recreational corridor around the island.

Projected Population Profile, Education Levels and Changing Social Aspirations

Singapore’s national population is expected to reach 6.5 to 6.9 million in 2030 (Population White Paper, 2013). Currently, Woodlands is considered a semi-mature estate. Residents of age 30 and above make up 63 percent of total population living in Woodlands ("Age Group Demographics of Woodlands, Singapore | ShowNearby", 2017). In the future, it is expected that URA is responding to target the middle upper class as they are adding several new executive condominiums to the site (Lim, & Seah, 2016).

Singapore is progressing towards a more technology centric state, transiting from manual to technological-related and from labour-intensive to data-based. Efforts to promote this transformation can be seen from the Committee of the Future Economy’s one of the key strategies, which is to build strong digital capabilities (Sim, 2017).

Changing social aspirations is another important factor in planning. Currently, residents in Woodlands have less family time since they mostly travel to-and-fro work as their offices are situated far from home such as the Central Business District areas. They are not proactive in community activities and lack ‘kampung spirit’. In the future, residents are envisioned to work close to home which decreases travelling time, thereby allowing greater work-life balance. Also, there will be more collaborative community efforts by proactive residents.

Vision Articulation – Proposed Ideas

Figure 3. Extending Green Spaces into Residential, Retail and Business Zones

Figure 4. Proposed Land Use Planning of Woodlands Regional Centre

The land use planning of Woodlands Regional Centre is proposed to be less linearly segregated by allowing for the bleeding of green spaces into the residential, retail and industrial areas (Figure 3). The establishment of green corridors and small parks could serve to link the different land functions together, allowing for a better integration between work, live and play. The new land use layout would discourage a car-centric community and in doing so, encourage better connectivity between the four functional zones through cycling and accessible green corridors.

In addition, the current business park is proposed to be extended into the Woodlands North MRT station, which serve as a nodal point, as shown by the red locator in Figure 4. This would bring start-ups closer to residential and commercial areas, establishing a dynamic and integrated relationship between the areas. Woodlands would also be further promoted as a business-centric hub where creativity could be fostered and developed.

Figure 5. Proposed Transition to the “Layered Cake” Idea

To further increase potentials for synergies between learning spaces, work spaces and living spaces, we propose a “layered cake” idea (Figure 5). The ground level across residential, educational and commercial spaces will be porous to the public to engage in recreational activities. Greenery will bleed across the entire ground level of the site for visual aesthetics and to integrate green spaces into work, play and living environments. The mid level will be partially open to the public for learning and collaborative activities. The rest of the mid level and the entire top level of the buildings will be reserved for the buildings’ respective functions. This proposed plan would address URA’s vision of creating a more attractive and liveable estate for the residents, while providing residents with spaces for learning and recreation with a wide range of environments and facilities.

Figure 6. Potential Development Available in Each Synergy: Live, Work and Learn

Figure 6 illustrates the potential developments available in each synergy. Working on enhancing these spaces would make these spaces more attractive for industrialists, employers, workers and the residents.

Public-Level - Potential Leisure and Recreational

To enhance potentials for leisure and recreational opportunities, the ground level will be made porous with amenities that are accessible to all. For example, at the ground level, there can be a Public Plaza where an array of community activities can take place, such as line dancing, festivals like Christmas bazaars and outdoor movie screenings. Therefore, residents, students and the working people can participate in these activities after school or work as a form of relaxation. Furthermore, there can be more F&B options such as alfresco dining where residents can dine in while enjoying the outdoor greenery and pubs for working adults to unwind and socialise over drinks. An outdoor amphitheatre can be built where performances can be staged regularly, such as by students from neighbouring schools like the Republic Polytechnic.

In order to increase potential play areas, playgrounds can be built scattered within the boulevard to provide children with play spaces. Exercise corners with amenities like pull up bars and sit up stations are installed to promote a healthy lifestyle and for residents to keep up with their fitness levels. Such areas can play a key role in achieving a larger national objective of maintaining physical wellness among residents.

Semi-Level - Enhance the Learning Environment

Figure 7. Types of Collaborative Activities for the Three Synergies

Planners can contribute to improving the wellbeing of residents by enhancing the learning environment. The three synergies provide opportunities for lifelong learning since the semi-level spaces can be used to carry out collaborative activities between residence and business, school and business, residence and school. These synergies can move towards two main types of learning environments, namely hobby and personal growth, employability and education. Figure 7 presents some suggestions of collaborative activities that can be conducted within the semi-level space.

Case Study - Linked Hybrid Project in Beijing, China

Figure 8. Linked Hybrid Complex in Beijing, China

The 220,000 square meter pedestrian-oriented Linked Hybrid complex (Figure 8) was built to counter the increasing number of privatised urban developments in China. The porous urban space which is accessible to the public from all sides serves to promote interactions between businesses, residences, education and recreation.

Figure 9. Ground Level of the Linked Hybrid Complex

The ground level has multiple walkways for residents and visitors to access and are decorated with lush greenery which improves its visual aesthetics (Figure 9). Shops near the large reflecting pond plays a major part in making the area attractive and bustling. Cinemas and schools are also situated in the public spaces with close connectivity to the surrounding greenery, creating a relaxing environment.

Figure 10. Connecting Bridges between Buildings in the Linked Hybrid Complex

On the intermediate level, public roofs gardens provides tranquil green spaces (Figure 10). From the 12th to 18th floor, multi-functional bridges between buildings also improves connectivity from one building to another (Holl, 2015).

The linked hybrid is one project that we can learn from and apply some useful concepts back to the Woodlands context. One of the key takeaways from the case study is knowing how to counter privatized urban developments by encouraging urban spaces that are open to public. The case study also highlights how learning, living and recreational spaces can potentially encourage interactions and encounters. Similarly, this could be applied to the context of Woodlands Regional Centre through the creation of multi-functional public space, such as parks and waterfronts, that serve as both learning and recreation areas. Moreover, green spaces can stretch throughout the whole ground level of the Woodlands North Coast plot.

Another takeaway is finding learning spaces that could potentially activate the urban spaces surrounding it. For instance, if these learning spaces in each district could leverage on the strengths of one another, it could benefit the whole plot. The last key takeaway is understanding how intermediary spaces could be best utilised to enhance the learning environment.

From all these takeaways, we could learn to create learn and play areas that promotes opportunities for potential synergies between live, work and play areas, where each district could leverage on the strengths of one another. Consequently, this idea would support the vision that URA has set for the site, a vibrant live-work-play business hub set in a lush green northern waterfront.

References

Age Group Demographics of Woodlands, Singapore | ShowNearby. (2017). Sg.shownearby.com. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from http://sg.shownearby.com/place/Woodlands-Singapore/249/demographics/age-group

Holl, S. (2015). LINKED HYBRID - STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS. Stevenholl.com. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from http://www.stevenholl.com/projects/beijing-linked-hybrid

Li, C., & Chun, D. (2014). Analysis on Woodlands Regional Centre and its future growth potential (1st ed., pp. 1-2) Real Estate Data Trend - Special Focus on Growth Area. Orange Tee. Retrieved from https://www.orangetee.com/Research/RED/Woodlands%20Report.pdf

Lim, E., & Seah, Y. (2016). Woodlands envisioned as Singapore’s Northern Gateway. TODAYonline. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from http://www.todayonline.com/business/woodlands-singapores-northern-gateway

Sim, R. (2017). Committee on the Future Economy outlines 7 strategies to take Singapore forward. The Straits Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/committee-on-the-future-economy-outlines-7-strategies-to-take-singapore-forward

Siong, O. (2016). From SkillsFuture Credit to Silver Support: Key policies to be rolled out in 2016. Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 7 April 2017, from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/from-skillsfuture-credit/2394842.html

Urban Redevelopment Authority. (2017a). Woodland Regional Centre. North Region. Ura.gov.sg. Retrieved from https://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/master-plan/View-Master-Plan/master-plan- 2014/master-plan/Regional-highlights/north-region/north-region

Urban Redevelopment Authority. (2017b). Key Strategies. Master Plan. Ura.gov.sg. Retrieved from https://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/master-plan/view-master-plan/master-plan-2014/Growth- Area/Woodlands%20Regional%20centre/Woodlands-Central

Self-driving car accidents spurs an ethical issue, which is whether it is ethical to conduct product testing (public beta testing) on the consumers, given that the consumers had already paid for the product itself. Also, should there be 'beta testing' for the Autopilot software if there is a chance the consumer might die.

Singapore is moving forward in becoming a Smart Nation, to improve the lives of citizen, building stronger communities and making way for opportunities by harnessing technology. This proposal focuses on smart mobility and transport, which is one of its initiatives in pursuing a Smart Nation.

Problem statement

Due to the rising population and the curbing of private vehicle ownership, there has been an increase in MRT commuters which caused both SMRT and the commuters to face the problem of congestion in trains and on the MRT platforms, due to the heavy human traffic, during peak hours.ue to the rising population and the curbing of private vehicle ownership, there has been an increase in MRT commuters which caused both SMRT and the commuters to face the problem of congestion in trains and on the MRT platforms, due to the heavy human traffic, during peak hours.

Therefore, there is a need to create an Information System (IS) that can strategically complement the current initiatives by leveraging information technology (IT) to offer a better travelling experience for the commuters. We will do this by providing better advisory of emptier carriages and open more doors for future SMART initiatives in transport and mobility. These efforts would provide opportunities in managing the crowd congestion in trains and on platforms, and points out the weaknesses of the co-existing efforts that can be improved, based on organizational learning on commuters’ activities and behaviours.

Solution

SMRT-Q works in 5 simple steps:

1. The SMRT Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) will take real-time image at regular intervals to provide update information of carriage occupancy level.

2. The image is processed by the application on the server on-board the train. The application does counting by detecting the number of people.

3. The server then connects to the Wi-Fi and sends the data to the server at the next station and to an external central database for other SMART systems.

4. The stations processes the information and sets the light colours of the indicators according to the pre-set threshold.

5. The data is then stored in the external central database for organization learning and higher level decision making.

Being obese may lead to accelerated brain aging.

On 4 August 2016, Daily Mail Online published an article "Obese People's Brains Age More Rapidly, Research Finds". It reports that fat people have OLDER brains based on a scientific study that was conducted and reported in the journal Neurobiology of Ageing, showing that white matter in overweight and obese people is equivalent to that of a lean individual who is a decade older.

The study involved 527 healthy subjects with an age range of 20 - 87 years who were recruited over 5 years. The variables which were considered to determine the aging of brain based on being lean, overweight or obese, were body mass index (BMI) and white-matter volume. The conclusion of the study has stated that there is an association between obesity and brain aging, and such effects may be equivalent to an increase in brain age up to 10 years in overweight and obese individuals.

Based on our research findings, it is difficult to conclude that there is an association due to inaccuracies reported in both the article and the study.

One of the inaccuracies is due to Quantitative Bias Analysis. For instance, the study states that a self-report questionnaire was distributed to calculate the total estimated physical activity per week (measured as kJ/d/Kg). This means that participants were required to estimate the amount of energy they spent on physical activities, resulting in human error as the estimations were subjected to human judgement.

Moreover, a research study entitled “Many of us overestimate how hard we work out” carried out by York University shows that individuals tend to overestimate their pace of activity. This will result in inaccuracies as participants may inaccurately estimate the intensity of their exercise, leading to a problem in the Collection and Analyze portion of the Quantitative Reasoning(QR) framework.

Muscle mass is a confounder.

In the study conducted, a conclusion was made where adiposity modulates the relationship between white-matter volume and age. The determinant that segregates the lean, overweight and obese were their BMI values. However, BMI only takes into account an individual’s height and weight, but not their muscle mass. This might cause a very fit individual with high muscle mass and low fat percentage to be classified as obese, introducing a confounder to the study. This is a problem in the Specify portion of the QR framework.

Another inaccuracy is due to Sampling Frame Error. In the study conducted, there is an error in the sampling frame of the subjects. With the comparison conducted on middle-age subjects of approximately 40 years old, no obese subjects were available to conduct the comparison as the age of obese subjects ranged from 45 – 77 years old. As a result, the study’s comparison of white-matter volume between lean and overweight or obese subjects is potentially inaccurate due to unfair sampling frame. This exhibits imprecisions in the Collect and Analyse portion of the QR framework. In addition, with the absence of obese subjects of 40 years in age, the study combined overweight and obese subjects into a single group and compared the overweight subjects’ white-matter volume with lean subjects. This shows an Atomistic Fallacy as an incorrect inference was done on overweight and obese subjects using the information from overweight subjects, leading to an inaccurate conclusion of results. This shows a problem in the Communication portion of the QR framework.

Moreover, the study states that participants were cognitively healthy adults recruited from the local community over a period of 5 years as part of an ongoing project to investigate the effects of aging on memory and cognition at the Cambridge Centre for Aging and Neuroscience. This shows that the participants were not randomly selected from the population, resulting in selection bias as the participants may not be representative of the population, leading to a problem in the Collection portion of the QR framework.

The final inaccuracy is due to range restriction. The study states that there were two groups of participants omitted from the data: (1) 54 participants were excluded on the basis of being underweight (BMI < 18.5kgm1), under the age of 20, or for reasons of poor MR image quality and also, (2) the omission of severely obese participants due to scanner limitations. Both categories, underweight and severely obese, were omitted from the study due to limitations which may affect the true scale of the effect of brain aging. However, enforcing a range restriction on the BMI, i.e. excluding the severely obese and underweight participants, can be misleading as it alters the correlation between the two variables, brain aging and BMI. This will eventually create an attenuation effect, leading to a problem in the Analyze portion of the QR framework. However, tackling the problem of having poor MRI image quality is not easy. As of now, the MRI scanner, 3T Siemens TIM Trio system, is one of the best MRI machines and even caters to carry up obese individuals.

Summary

All in all, the article titled “Fat people have OLDER brains: White matter in overweight people is the equivalent to someone who is a decade older” suggests a causation – that fat people will have older brains. However, there is insufficient evidence to prove that there is a causation between these two factors as this is an observational study where the researcher had no control over the composition of the control groups. Hence, to deduce a definite conclusion, further studies should be carried out to gather sufficient evidence.