About the Author

Hi! My name is Jonathan Pham and I am currently a Junior at the University of Maryland. I started my first two years in community and transferred over so this would be my first year at UMD. I'm currently majoring in Information Science. For work, I'm a car salesman at Ford and Lincoln.

On the right is a picture of my cat Moonie. He's the most talkative cat and whines when I don't give him attention. I have two other ones but Moonie is for sure my favorite. Some interesting things about me is that I like to go to the gym, I like to rave and I love playing video games. A typical weekend for me is sleeping in. I come from a family of five and I'm the oldest child. Besides taking this class so I can get my credits, I actually enjoy journaling. I write a lot in my journal but when my hands get tired, I'll journal on my phone or laptop.

Journaling is something I picked up a couple years ago. It helps me figure my mind out and get a clear view on what it is exactly is going on through my brain. I think it's a great outlet for just needing to vent or even just talking about literally anything. It's versatility is something that appeals to me since I can be creative with whatever it is I need to write.

 

Photo Credit: Jonathan Pham

My favorite food is sushi and coming in close at second is steak. I have an unhealthy addiction to sushi and spend way too much money eating it. My favorite rolls are dragon rolls and tempura rolls. I recently started liking volcano rolls as well. I wasn't a huge fan of cream cheese on sushi until I tried it on the volcano roll and it's safe to say that I always order it. To me, sushi is one of those foods that I couldn't live without. I would say that I'm a pretty big foodie. I love to eat and it's genuinely one the biggest delicacies in life. Besides sushi, I'm also addicted to Korean BBQ. These two food categories are the reason why my bank account is so low.

                                                                                                    Photo Credit: Jonathan Pham

As I take JOUR 150, I have a ton of things that I'd like to learn more about in regards to media. I want to learn how to journal better. For example, I want to learn how to organize/structure my blogs (this is my first blog) and also make them more appealing. Some questions that I have is can journaling be a career that pays well? I love writing and I am always talking about something so doing something like this for a living is something that I would love to do. I also wonder what career paths open up with journaling. I know about bloggers and people who publish news but I am curious as to what other routes someone like me can take in this field. Another thing that I'm curious about is how much freedom do I have with blogging and how creative I can be with my blogs.

How Has the Music Industry Changed Over the Years?

As we approach the digital age and revolutionize technology and media, the music industry begins to change drastically. The great thing about music is that there are so many genres so it's really hard to not like music as a whole unless you just hate sound. The music industry has changed so much over the years. Some parts for the better, some for the worst, but the industry is one that will always be changing.

Personally, I love listening to music. On a yearly basis, I average about 150,000 minutes listening to music (that's a lot)! I think that music is a great thing and it's one of the things that are a must have in my life. I personally use Spotify and love the interface of it. Unfortunately, apps like these charge you if you want to listen to your music ad-free which I'm not a fan of. On top of the charge, they can also charge more if you want premium sound or an account with multiple users. You don't have to pay the artist but you do have to pay the streaming service. However, on the bright side of things, the industry is constantly releasing new music from favorite artists and these people also have the creativity to come up with new genres of music. Basically, streaming services like Spotify offers free music but has plans that can make the customer quality of life better.

My Top 3 Favorite Songs

1. Waves by Zeds Dead, Flux Pavilion, DeathbyRomy

Record Labels: Deadbeats, Altered States and Circus Records

Who Owns These Labels? Zeds Dead and Flux Pavilion

Spotify pays about .003-.005 cents per stream meaning about 3-5k per million. This song has 38 million streams. It costs me $5.99 a month to use Spotify Premium and they keep about 30% of the total earned from a song. Meaning the song makes about 114K, 79.8K goes to the artists and Spotify keeps 34.2K and my $5.99.

 

2. Animals - Radio Edit by Martin Garrix

Record Labels: Spinnin' Records

Who Owns This Label? Warner Music Group

Again, Spotify keeps my $5.99. This song has 250 million streams and with how Spotify pays, this song has generated about 984K! With Spotify keeping 30% they earn 295,200, leaving the record label with 688,800.

 

3. Hadouken VIP by Zeds Dead

Record Labels : Deadbeats

Who Owns These Labels? Zeds Dead

This song has about 1.7 million streams. Spotify earns my $5.99 and the song makes about 6800 in total. Spotify keeps 30% so they get an additional 2040 and the rest goes to Deadbeats which is about 4760.

photo credit : music