Timeline

Minecrafts Success

Why has Minecraft been a critical and commercial success?

Minecraft is an open-world sandbox (construction) game that was created by the Swedish video game designer Markus Persson and then was further developed and published by companies: Mojang and 4J Studios. Minecraft was originally first created in the summer of 2009 and was released as an independent game that costed around £8, he sold around 40 copies on the first weekend. In the summer of 2010 sales reached 15,000 and the game was now no longer considered an Indie release with Markus teaming up with Mojang to make this a mainstream release. When sales reached 200,000 PayPal froze Persson's accounts for suspected fraud due to the huge transactions entering his account. In April 2011the sales reached 2 million and now Minecraft stands as the ninth selling video game franchise in the world selling a total of 144 million copies. The game currently costs £16 and is available on many platforms such as: XBOX, PS4, iPad, Nintendo Wii and many more and has made £52 million in total revenue.

Minecraft has been highly successful because it is a very unique idea and at its time of creation the only thing that comes to close to an endless open-world sandbox game is Roblox which has many ethical issues. This is because Roblox has been the source of a multitude of investigations into indecent approaches being made between gamers as there is no limit as to where you can go into other players' game. In the game players make structures out of 3-D cubes to mine and then craft whatever structures they desire to, however you can also explore and combat. It also offers several game modes with the most popular being survival and creation mode. The survival one consists of beginning the game with nothing and you must collect all the: tools, weapons, armour and other resources in order to succeed. In the creation mode you get given all the resources needed to make any structure that you would want to.

Another reason for Minecraft's amazing rise to success is the fact that it is incomplete and constantly innovating. This is because when the game was originally designed, Markus wanted to leave it unfinished to ensure that he could cater to whatever responses he got about the game and then subsequently add them into the game. Every Friday he would take these responses and update the game in order to improve it by adding features, which led to sales rising on every occasion. Markus always stays up to date on social media as well by always discussing the needs of his audience before finding a way to get these features into the game. This builds a strong relationship between the consumer and the developer which can be passed on to friends therefore widening their customer base and increasing sales and success.

Minecraft has had a massive cultural influence on people thank to its multiplayer and social media aspects of the game. There are a plethora of Minecraft dedicated streaming channels on YouTube and Twitch which allow players to escape to a community where they can share their interests with people of similar personalities or meet people that are completely different, thanks to Minecraft's massively varied fanbase. This was helped by the fact that Persson never released instructions for the game so if players were struggling they would have to communicate with friends or through social media in order to succeed within the game which greats a positive atmosphere within the Minecraft community.

Production and Distribution of Radio

• Chris Price is the head of Music for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, who is responsible for deciding the playlists which can make or break new musicians.
• After 7 pm the Radio 1 music is chosen by DJ and show teams rather than what is on the playlist
• Made up of around 50 songs used through the week, depending on which playlist it is on
• A list- these songs are played the most- around 25 times a week
• B list- music usually gets played around 15 times
• C list- your still on the playlist but only played around five times
• In music we trust- this is for testing out new music so songs don't get much air time
• Chris Price says Radio 1 has a unique brand as it introduces new artists alongside pop artists
• They try to play new artists straight after big names like: Justin Timberlake and Ed Sheeran
• About 14 people meet every Tuesday that look through all the songs that they want to be put on the playlist over the next week, this helps them to always stay up to date
• BBC introducing is where you send your music if you want to get onto Radio 1 where Chris Price and his team decide if your good enough, this happened with: Florence and the Machine, James Bay and Jake Bugg
• He says that the radio is like the sky that pushes you in the right direction of what you want to discover

The BBC

• Radio 1: this station prides itself on discovering new artists all the time, it was responsible for the discovery of artists such as; Ed Sheeran and James Bay. It describes itself as having a distinctive mix of music and speech to interest its target audience of 15 to 29 year-olds. It aims to offer a range of new and contemporary mix of music whilst supporting emerging artists in order to stay within its remit. This station stays true to the value of being the most creative organisation in the world.
• Radio 2: the remit of this station is to have a distinctive mix of music and conversation that is designed to interest a target audience of people aged over 35.  They do this by tailoring their music to that the target audience would have listened to particularly that which was played in the 1980s and 1990s. They tend to have a lot of phone in's during this show to discuss matters that are going on in the world currently. This station stays very true to the mission to enrich people's lives with programmes that inform and educate.
• Radio 3: this station is designed to offer a mix of music and cultural segments in order to interest their target audience of people aged over 55 years of age. It has a lot of classical and jazz music and has more relaxed themes in order to cater to its older audience. This station stays very true to the mission to enrich people's lives with programmes that inform and educate as well as being the most creative organisation in the world.
• Radio 4: this station provides minimal music coverage and is designed to be a mixed speech service, with a wide coverage of news and other speech (drama readings, comedy, factual and magazine programmes). It is targeted at an ABC1 audience aged 34-39 year-olds. This station stays very true to the mission to enrich people's lives with programmes that inform and educate.
• Radio 5: The remit of this station is to provide live news and sports coverage, to a target audience of mainly sports lovers from all ethnic backgrounds. It is seen as the main BBC station to bring listeners live and up to date news stories as they happen. Regarding sports, the station often has viewers ring up, or guests in the studio to analyse recent sporting fixtures.
  The station has a multi-purpose to entertain, inform and involve.
  Programs on this station:
  - 5 live Breakfast
  - 5 live Sport.
  - 5 live Drive.
  - Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy.
  - Up All Night.
  - Morning Reports.
• Radio 6: The remit of BBC 6 Music is to entertain lovers of popular music with a service that celebrates the alternative spirit in popular music from the 1960s to the present day.
  Its programmes juxtapose current releases outside the mainstream, including music from the BBC Sound Archive. It should provide context for the music it plays, and support live music and new artists.
  Programs on this station:

  - Chris Hawkins.

  - Laura Laverne.

The sites that are most clearly following their PSB remits most clearly in my opinion are BBC radio 4 and BBC radio 5 live. Radio 4 has taken on a strong reputation as being a relaxing radio station with a variety of conversation to retain the same target audience year after year with very minimalist changes to their programmes despite drastic changes in technology. Secondly, BBC radio 5 live has stayed to true to it's sport fans by not adding anything different and still having lots of interactivity with listeners.

Who was the first ever Breakfast Show Presenter on Radio 1?

• The first breakfast show presenter was Tony Blackburn, who spoke the first words on Radio 1 and remained in the slot for nearly six years.

List some other DJs who have presented the show.

• Noel Edmunds- 4 June 1973- 28 April 1978
• Dave Lee Travis- 2 May 1978- 2 January 1981
• Mike Read- 5 January 1981- 11 April 1986
• Mike Smith- 5 May 1986- 17 May 1988
• Simon Mayo- 23 May 1988- 3 September 1993
• Mark Goodier- 6 September 1993- 24 December 1993
• Steve Wright- 10 January 1994- 21 April 1995
• Chris Evans- 24 April 1995- 17 January 1997
• Mark and Lard- 17 February 1997- 10 October 1997
• Kevin Greening and Zoe Ball- 13 October 1997- 25 September 1998
• Zoe Ball- 28 September 1998- 10 March 2000
• Sara Cox- 3 April 2000- 19 December 2003
• Chris Moyles- 5 January 2004- 14 September 2012
• Nick Grimshaw- 24 September 2012- Present

Biographical Information on Nick Grimshaw

Nick Grimshaw was born as Nick Peter Andrew Grimshaw on 14th August 1984 in Manchester, England. He is the son of Peter Grimshaw and Eileen Grimshaw. He has two siblings, Andy Grimshaw and Jane Grimshaw.

Nick Grimshaw joined BBC Radio 1 and started presenting Switch, the BBC's youth strand along with his mate DJ Annie Mac where he worked for nine years. Nick Grimshaw is one of the famous celebrity of British industry. According to the BBC, his salary is in between $410,000-$470,000. He is also named the highest paid Radio 1's DJ in 2017. In total sum, he has an estimated net worth of $2 million. Grimshaw is often seen riding a Mercedes G-Wagon car worth $80 thousand. He was spotted looking to buy a house in Islington, London worth $2.1 million.

What are the current listening figures for Radio 1 Breakfast show? On October 26th 2017, it was reported that the show recorded 4.93 million listeners between July and September- down from 5.5 million last quarter, a record low.

The controller of BBC radio 1 is Ben Cooper, this can be suggested by there has been a recent dip in the viewing as ideas have seemed to have dipped in recent years.


The BBC is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up.


The radio 1 try to be distinctive by doing weird game shows and having live guests in to change up the schedules and so you almost have a live concert on your radio to attract all audiences and can the promote their own festivals if they have a good live act on their live lounge as almost a preview for their festival.


BBC doesn't make much money as they are all government funded so do not have sponsors and make money from adverts. where as commercial radio stations get money from adverts and sponsors making them money but have bigger pauses in between music so people tend to turn over to BBC radio stations.

BBC Academy Podcast

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• As a producer you are thinking ahead to the end of the show, what is coming up for each link and making sure they are most prepared
• A team assistant is in charge of ensuring everyone is prepared e.g making sure callers are ready to be put om air
• Fiona (assistant producer) make sure guests know exactly what is going to be talked about, what can't be mentioned, checking everyone is sounding well
• Music team: work from 4am till 7pm making sure they do not playlist the same music all the time

PREPARATION:

• The routine for the show is largely decided the day before (guests, competition etc.)
• Still have room to do whatever to make sure they are up to date
• First few hours of day reading through current topics
• The script: more of a flexible structure for each half hour
• List of things to be brought up that can be added in whenever is most suitable
• Don't have set creative meeting due to the type of guests coming in (big guest= best questions and features are needed)
• Use a group chat to constantly share new ideas
• Constantly thinking about what can be used for the show
• Have a good flexibility of who they can have on the show

TEAM DYNAMICS:

• small office space, sat very closely (important to know what people need and how each person works)
• the producer and assistant are always in constant dialogue so everyone knows their responsibilities and what gaps need to be filled.
• everyone tries to teach each other new skills
• constant change and new ideas with some continuity to have a good balance
• Everyone enjoys working with each other so they get through the time quickly
• Have to trust every part of the team

ENJOYABLE AND CHALLENGING:

• New production and new management brings new and exciting material for the presenters
• Everyone helps each other to improve
• Early starts
• Very busy and stressful show but has a good feeling afterwards
• After a while it doesn't feel like a job because everyone enjoys themselves
• There is a constant expectation to sound good but there isn't a pressure to produce good numbers
• The satisfaction of interesting their listeners
• Some guests are quite difficult if they don't stay on very long or aren't open to talking very much
• If guests start ranting they have to remind guests that they are on the air and may have to terminate the interview

BREAKING INTO RADIO:

• Try to do things that help you learn about the industry (working for free)
• Skills are learned through experience rather than courses
• Try and talk to people as much as you can about how they improved their careers
• Try to make sure you know how to communicate
• Directly approach people in the industry (do not be scared and stay persistent)

Radio Notes