Why We Are Different

To be honest, I have no gift in Music and I always sing out of tune. However, EMUSIC really attracted me because of its special function. I appreciated today’s field trip to EMUSIC which made me begin to like music.

I believe that all of us surprised about the calculation about how much time of music EMUSIC provided. When the host asked us how long it would take if we played 12 hours a day till we finished the whole 13 million tracks, we confused and said maybe about two years, five years or ten years. However, the answer was about 250 years which meant when we began to play them, we cannot finish them in our generation, in our children’s generation, even in our grand children’s generation. The surprised data directly showed the special of the EMUSIC. That is also why EMUSIC can be popular and why they are different.

Just as the host said, iTunes has changed the music. ITunes provides its customers a platform to find and download music with a low price. Before iTunes came out, there is no way like this for music lovers to enjoy music. That’s why iTunes has a large amount of customers. This situation lasted until 1998, when the EMUSIC built. EMUSIC provided a definitely different way for musicians or music lovers to find, collect or download music. Now they have more than 250 million members and more than 13 million tracks, the work they do is to be the line between the two parts, customers and songs. They provide a lower price than iTunes or Amazon to their memberships which just cost a little. It means the more you collect, the more you saved. That’s why EMUSIC are different. Besides, they provide more comprehensive analysis and collection of music, such as photo and story of music, to make their members more comfortable and clear.

Besides, the UI designer, the engineering and the QA also gave us a special topic about their own experience in EMUSIC. The QA told us no matter what you study, keep on and get a degree, it will help you to find a nice job. She also said that leaning code more or less which will be easy for you to communicate or work with your partner. This view was also recommend by the engineering. He stressed at last that if he can choose his graduate study again, he would choose an interdisciplinary program combines designing and programming.

I considered them carefully after the field trip, and I named the theme Why we are different. Besides it was said by the host many times, in fact, we are different because we chose Integrated Digital Media. Therefore, what we should do is to create difference.

First, we chose Integrated Digital Media which means we not only have the knowledge of technology, but also have the media ability. Just as the host said, we could do what ever we want. Thus, we need to keep our advantage and try to make full use of them. That is to say, what we should do is to make difference, as same as the EMUSIC. We frequently complain that all our ideas have been done by others, and there is no new product to create. However, EMUSIC told us, no, definitely no. We can and we have to find new products or even find a new way to solve the old problems. That is what a media person should do and the real value of a media person.

All in all, EMUSIC encouraged me and inspired me. I gradually find the well way in media study and in my life.