-
The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
Observatoire de la culture et des communications du QuĂŠbec http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/observatoire/ www.younglances.blogspot.com
Title of the paper The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers Author Observatoire de la culture et des communications du QuĂŠbec Dominique Jutras Keywords Cultural goods and services; peer-to-peer; cultural practices; digital natives; cultural policies.
A careful look at the appropriation and uses by young people of digital
cultural
goods and
services
is
necessary, but it is a complex task. Nonetheless, even partial observation gives a glimpse of the future. The digital compels the transformation of cultural goods into cultural services, which completely changes the
process
of
creation,
dissemination
and
consumption of culture, both national and foreign. Strictly on the basis of the consumption of cultural goods, it seems that the purchase of those products is even more marked by a dichotomy between the
The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
2
dominant cultural products―essentially those of the majors—and
the
works
of
national
artists.
For
example, in Québec, national production accounted for 53% of the sound recording market in 2009.1 That share has held steady and even increased in recent years, while globally, CD purchases have declined substantially. However, in the segment of cultural services acquired on the Web, the market share of Québec digital albums is 35% and that of digital tracks is 7%. The remainder of the market is dominated by United States production. That phenomenon is intriguing and has elicited a number of theories. It is said, in particular, that the strength of national production on the CD market could be linked to the fact that Québec consumers are reluctant to copy Québec music on peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing sites, whereas they do not hesitate to copy foreign music. However, the theory is unconfirmed,
1
Claude FORTIER (2010). “Ventes d’enregistrements sonores au Québec. Les albums québécois maintiennent leurs ventes en 2009”, Statistiques en bref, No. 61, Québec, Institut de la statistique du Québec, Observatoire de la culture et des communications du Québec, June, 24 p., www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/observatoire. The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
3
given the consumption observed on a torrent2 filesharing site.3 Downloads of national works by Québec users of the site studied account for 51% of all downloads, while Québec creations constitute 20% of the music files offered on the site. The dichotomy between national and foreign products draws attention to the difference in the behaviour of consumers
in
regard
to
goods
(physical
media)
compared with cultural services (files, the Web, etc.). However, another observation is that P2P downloaded music is, in fact, constituted by classic works, with new works accounting for 40% of downloads. Thus, P2P use strongly resembles the old practice of bringing together musical pieces on an audio cassette or, more recently, on a CD using a digital burner in order to draw up a personal discography. It is more akin to “private copying”, recognized in 1997 by the Canadian 2
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files. 3
Martin Tétu (2010). “Le téléchargement pair-à-pair au Québec. Un premier portrait statistique à partir d’une observation directe”, Statistiques en bref, No. 56, Québec, Institut de la statistique du Québec, Observatoire de la culture et des communications du Québec, January, 20 p., www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/observatoire.
The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
4
Copyright Act. Note that a bill respecting copyright was tabled by the Canadian government on June 2, 2010.
That
future
legislation
has
elicited
much
comment from artists, particularly because it does not provide for the broadening of the royalty for private copying and confines it to CDs and cassettes, which are on their way out, without considering the new digital platforms like iPods, MP3 players, phones and other mobile devices, as well as digital recorders. Another theory about the continuing success of the CD on the national products market is based on the absence of a supply of easily accessible Québec music on the Web. It is said to be easier for Québec music fans to buy a CD than to look for albums or digital tracks (singles) on the Internet, where most often they are not to be found. That state of affairs has probably played a major role during the initial phase of dissemination of digital works on the Web, since it has been shown that, until recently, it was difficult to buy Québec musical works online. On the other hand, the
consumption
of
foreign
products,
consisting
The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
5
particularly of the work of mainstream artists,4 has been abundantly stimulated since Apple, Steve Job’s company, launched the iPod, and the iTunes virtual store, and set an standard affordable price for a sound recording. Access to a wide variety of Québec works in the store is relatively recent. Since then, consumers of music and other cultural works, especially digital natives,5 are encouraged to supply themselves on the Internet, since the devices available to listen to music are linked to it. Young people show a very marked desire to use portable digital players (iPods, MP3 players, etc.), particularly since the previous devices have simply disappeared from the market. This generation lives in a world where those mobile platforms are the norm. Hence, to listen to music, it must be loaded onto a personal device, with the source being the Internet… or a friend’s platform, since it is possible to share and copy works.
4
Referring to the following book: Frédéric Martel (2010). Mainstream. Enquête sur cette culture qui plaît à tout le monde, Paris, Flammarion. 5 Don TAPSCOTT (2008). Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, McGraw-Hill, 368 p. The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
6
Observation of the users of the Francophone P2P filesharing site6 also shows that the youngest窶付he digital natives窶病re not the ones who download the most. The average volume of weekly downloads by 10-19 year olds and 20-29 year olds is smaller than that of people 30 and over. Thus, digital immigrants make greater use of P2P sites. In that regard, the behaviour of Quebecers does not appear to be very different from
that
of
Francophones
in
France,
Belgium,
Switzerland or elsewhere who visit the site. Among other explanations for that practice, young people cite access to musical products from parents or others, more free time to be with friends and the fact that they are less confined to their homes than their elders,
who
responsibilities.
are To
weighed shed
light
down on
by
family
that
distinct
behaviour, the fact is mentioned that digital natives have tasted the free download culture and therefore have an affinity for it, while digital immigrants limit that type of activity because they give music a cultural value, they know more about the industry, and they download selectively and encourage innovative artists. OBSERVATIONS 6
Martin TETU (2010), op. cit. The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
7
The following examples tend to describe the way that cultural practices in using mobile digital platforms become established. In general, the studies consulted concerning the impact of the digital on young people are, above all, qualitative analyses or, when the analyses are quantitative, they are based on surveys. Although highly useful and interesting, the surveys provide only a partial understanding of attitudes, particularly because of the difficulty in administering that kind of survey to young people. That is why, additionally, it is important to observe actual cultural product
consumption
activities,
and
analyse
the
demand. A review of the literature reveals that a number of researchers seek to categorize young people who have lived under the influence of the digital since birth. Some call them “Generation C”7 for communicate, collaborate
and
“NETgeneration”
8
create,
while
others 9
or “Generation W”
prefer
the
for those born
7
Sylvie OCTOBRE (2009). “Pratiques culturelles chez les jeunes et institutions de transmission : un choc de culture”, Culture prospective, Vol. 1, 8 p.,http://www.culture.gouv.fr/deps. 8 CEFRIO (2004). NETados. Portrait des 12-17 ans sur Internet, Québec, 60 p., summary: http://www.cefrio.qc.ca/fileadmin/documents/Publication/NetAdo s_2004_depliant.pdf. The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
8
after the advent of the Web. Among the variety of names available, we have chosen the digital native generation, as opposed to digital immigrants. A few figures will provide a somewhat clearer picture. For
instance,
80%
of
Canadians
and
77%
of
Quebecers use the Internet.10 Among those under 30, 53% of home users go on the Internet to download or watch a TV program or a film, while 45% of that age group say they provide content. Unfortunately, we have no indication of the kind of content provided. According to another source, Quebecers 12 to 17 years of age11 devote 16 hours a week to Internet use, while for 18-24 year olds, the figure is over 22 hours. As regards the devices used, 85% of 12-24 year olds have an MP3 player or the equivalent, and over 70% listen to or download music online. In the particular
9
J. Piette, C.-M. Pons and L. Giroux (2007). Les jeunes et Internet : 2006. Appropriation des nouvelles technologies; Mediappro, A European Research Project. The Appropriation of New Media by Youth, 88 p., http://www.mediappro.org/stat_3_1.htm. 10 STATISTICS CANADA (2010). Canadian Internet Use Survey, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/100510/dq100510aeng.htm, site consulted on June 22, 2010. 11 CEFRIO (2008). NETendances 2008, QuĂŠbec, 125 p., summary: http://www.cefrio.qc.ca/fichiers/documents/publicationsNETendan ces(depliants).pdf. The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
9
context of Québec, where seven million Francophones live
on
a
continent
inhabited
by
325
million
Anglophones, half the young people especially or almost exclusively use sites in French. Therefore, a very large share of cultural goods are consumed on English language sites.
These few findings related to the acquisition of products on the Internet make no mention of the Internet as a place open to other cultural practices and uses: Internet users access the work of artists and creators on the Web, consult them and interact with them. The rate of video screening or downloading is constantly on the rise. All cultural practices, from creation to consumption, take place on the Internet; professional
creators
expose
their
works
and
consumers partake of them. A researcher noted that, in the space of a day, young Internet users consume the equivalent of 20 hours of media and cultural products in 7 actual hours.12 In short, the Internet
12
P.C. BELANGER (2007). “La fusion des médias traditionnels et des nouvelles technologies : vers l’émergence de médias interactifs”, in D. GIROUX and F. SAUVAGEAU (ed.), La rencontre des anciens et des The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
10
changes the ways in which art and culture circulate by offering a vast array of readily and rapidly accessible cultural experiences.
It would be tedious to list all the avenues for thought highlighted by this look at the cultural practices of young people and the Internet. However, the myriad avenues through which to study the question suggest a few scenarios. Some of them take the form of an astonishing fatalism, given a future detrimental to a calm, realistic vision of the paths that the digital opens to culture.
Opinion surveys on cultural practices supplement the statistical study of cultural consumption. But it is still essential to gauge the demand, both the purchases of cultural goods on physical media and the use of cultural services on the Web for consumption on mobile or fixed digital devices. The true business models and their real economic value will be apparent
nouveaux mĂŠdias, proceedings of the symposium on the business model and regulation, MontrĂŠal, November 2006, pp. 19-52. The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
11
from that quantitative reading of the markets and an analysis of cash flows to creators.
In fact, polling firms compete in the all-out collection and dissemination of data on digital consumption, with resulting projections that are not always realistic. In addition, those are private data and access to them is costly,
prohibitively
so
for
most
small
cultural
enterprises and organizations. That is why, like most media, they use the information strategically revealed by large corporations.
Obviously, that information is divulged for a purpose favourable to their business, which is not necessarily in
tandem
with
that
of
the
small,
independent
enterprises. For example, one can wonder about the emphasis the majors place on pirating. And why Jack Valenti, the former big boss of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), has made it his personal mission, to the point of “exaggerating the statistics in order to build studio propaganda on
The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
12
pirating into a national cause in the US”.13 That battle is, above all, intended to boost Hollywood’s revenue by attacking the bootleg DVD market and the risk related
to
downloading
in
the
profitable
North
American and European markets. But that struggle can also be seen as a way to divert attention to the benefits that independents could derive from the Web, at a time when the majors were not ready to deal with that revolution.
Reducing the pace of the upheaval induced by the digital has made it possible to find time to control the new marketing tool that the Internet represents. That theory is also valid for the majors in the music industry. They have pulled it off in a way and convinced certain governments to join forces with them. Furthermore, few independent creators and producers have the audacity, or the resources, to develop Internet strategies, for fear of losing their shirts in the venture. While the cultural majors do battle against the Internet, business opportunities have
13
flourished
outside
the
cultural
field.
The
Frédéric MARTEL (2010), op. cit., p. 32.
The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
13
hardware manufacturer Apple has even become the largest retailer of cultural products and is pursuing its own revolution. All
these
commercial
innovations
prompt
public
authorities to express their vision for the future of national cultural products. States must have reliable, relevant data for that purpose. Moreover, they have every interest in maintaining their knowledge of the markets for cultural goods and services. That way, they are able to analyse trends and fulfill their commitments regarding national identity and cultural diversity. The still unknown and unforeseeable factor is the emergence of digital natives as adults on the labour market, since their behaviour will play a decisive role in determining the place that the digital holds in cultural consumption.
COUNTERPOINT The Observatoire de la culture et des communications du QuĂŠbec (OCCQ) constantly questions its capacity to produce relevant, high quality cultural statistics in the The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
14
digital age. The exercise arouses the interest and mobilizes the attention of its team, which seeks, designs and develops strategies for the production of statistics on digital cultural consumption. For example, the OCCQ disseminates data on CD sales because it was able to negotiate an agreement with Nielsen Soundscan for the purchase of data on the QuĂŠbec market, which is considered marginal by those companies. Our interest was further aroused in noting that the firm compiles the sales of albums and digital tracks
by
Bell
Mobility,
iTunes,
Napster
and
Puretracks. Those enterprises garner a sufficiently significant
share
of
online
sales
in
QuĂŠbec
to
extrapolate from those figures the principal market trends. I have discussed the analysis of P2Ps. There again, the OCCQ has shown
imagination
and
succeeded
in
producing data that have made it possible to study the actual trends in P2P music file-sharing and to qualify certain affirmations about the value of that market. The OCCQ is now working on a strategy concerning video on demand (VOD). It plans to produce data on digital screenings in cinemas and is preparing to
The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
15
compile statistics on digital books as soon as the market emerges in QuĂŠbec.
CONTINUITY It is generally complex to draw up a profile of people, and even more so, of young people, in terms of cultural practices, as is the case for studies of cultural practices and opinion polls. The degree of difficulty increases with practices related to the Web and mobile platforms. In QuÊbec, the ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition feminine modified the survey of Quebecers it conducts every five years in order to include a component on these new practices. The results of the most recent survey, conducted in 2009, will be unveiled in the fall of 2010. The arrival of digital natives to adulthood should appear
distinctly
in
the
statistics
on
cultural
consumption. It is therefore crucial that strategies be developed to collect that information and analyse it. We must explore new ways of collecting the statistics and even rethink the organization of the data, which implies an upgrading of the conceptual frameworks for cultural statistics. For the time being, we must The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
16
persevere, collect and analyse the most information and statistics possible from varied but reliable sources, for the sake of continuity. That is how we can truly and correctly interpret the impact of the digital on the culture and cultural practices of young Quebecers in particular.
Key questions for the future -
What
is
the
impact
of
the
new
cultural
consumption practices of young people on creators,
beneficiaries
and
other
cultural
stakeholders? -
Is there a genuine supply of, and a consistent demand for, works that are not mainstream?
-
Do digital natives have an interest in the diversity of cultural expression?
-
Can public authorities design cultural policies that take into consideration the issues related to the new cultural practices?
-
What
means must
be developed
to have
reliable, relevant data on cultural supply and consumption?
The Impact of the Digital on the Cultural Practices of Young Quebecers
17