Convergence of Technology
The coming together of new media technologies.
e.g. Television is now digital and interactive and can be used for shopping and banking. Internet webcams can also be used for visual interaction between users.

Convergence of Industrial Acitivity
The coming together of industries (that create mobile phones, internet, downloads) to form mobile phones with internet and downloads, as technology moves on.

Synergy
The coming together of two seperate media texts in such a way as to benefit both.
e.g. The film Titanic included the Oscar-winning song 'My Heart Will Go On' by Celine Dion.

Conglomerate
An international company with a wide and varied range of commercial interests.
e.g. News Corporation, with its interest in the publishing of books, magazines and newspapers, film and television production.

Globalisation
The growing tendency of industrial and commercial companies to merge and operate on an international rather than a national or regional basis.

Analogue Music
A method of recording visual and sound images.

Digitalisation.
To transcribe data into a digital form so that it can be directly processed by a computer.

Vertical Integration
The merger or takeover of companies operating at different stages of the production/distribution process.
e.g. In media industries, the takeover by a newspaper owner of a distribution service and retail outlets such as newsagents.

Horizontal Integration
The merger of competing companies from the same line of business and involved at the same level of activity.
e.g. The merger of Carlton and Granada to form ITV.

Major record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. The largest four labels are called major record labels.

Subsidiary label
A smaller label being run by a larger, major record label.
e.g. Universal music has lots of other labels such as Show Dog.

Independent label
A record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels.

Niche Audience
A small, select group of people that have a very unique interest.

Mainstream Audience
Regarded as the most typical, normal and conventional because they belong to the same group or system as most others of their kind.

Fans
Fanatical enthusiast or supporter.

Active Audiences
Any of various theories of audience behaviour that see the audience as active participants in the process of decoding and making sense of media texts.

Audiophile
A person who has great interest in high-fidelity sound and reproduction.

Early adopters
A person who embraces new technology before most other people do. They tend to buy or try out new hardware items and programs along with new versions of existing programs sooner than most of their peers.

Consumption
The process in which the substance of a thing is completely destroyed, used up, or incorporated or transformed into something else. Consumption of goods and services is the amount of them used in a particular time period.

Web 2.0
Associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue.

Meta-tags
HTML codes that are inserted into the header on a web page, after the title tag. In the context of search engine optimization, when people refer to meta-tags, they are usually referring to the meta description tag and the meta keywords tag.

Download
When people transfer data from the Internet to their personal computer. Downloads could be such things as web pages, pictures, music files, computer games, computer software applications, movies and more.

Streaming
Multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.

Peer to peer
A communications model in which each party has the same capabilities and either party can initiate a communication session. On the internet, peer to peer is a type of transient internet network that allows a group of computer users with the same networking program to connect with eachother.

Piracy
Generally used to describe the deliberate infringement of copyright on a commercial scale. In relation to the music industry it refers to unauthorised copying.

Portability
A characteristic attributed to a computer program if it can be used in any operating systems other than the one in which it was created without requiring major network.

Multi-track
A method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sounds to create a cohesive whole.

Sampling
The selection of a subest of individuals from within a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population.

Digital audio workstationAn electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio.

Artists and repertoire
The division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists.

Record deal
A legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote.

Distribution
The way in which something is shared out among a group or spread over an area.

Plugging/marketing
The action or business of promoting and selling products.