In this blog I will be
explaining in detail the various purposes and opportunities a music video have
and why do they use them. I will take about the different section of music
video such as: Availability of artist, Promotional, Extension of income, Extension
of outlets meaning music channel, direct DVD and CD sales, Websites and
Downloads. Synergy meaning films and TV
programmes. And last the strategies producer’s use like major label,
independent and the artist self-produced.
The main purpose of music videos
is to make money out of it. They do this by:
- · Promoting the artist, single and album
- · Persuading the audience to buy the CD and download the
- · Raises the audience awareness or profile of the artist or group
- · Product placement
Availability of artist
Availability of the artist
is where the artist creates their own pieces of music or has the skills to
adjust and make the music better. This is very important when it comes to
creating music videos. A good example would The Beatles. Since they became a
band in 1960, they started creating their own music, achieved top of the pops,
and became famous around the world. They were seen worldwide in many consorts
and seen in films like ‘A Hard Day Night’ 1964 which is their first feather
film directed by Richard Lester. After they realised their song “Paperback
Writer” and became the first to make music video and distribute them in other
countries for the purpose realising new records without having to go tour the
world for people to see and hear them in consorts. Although if it were not for
the Queen’s success of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ it would not be, a regular thing for
artists to rehears for record companies to make music video of the artists’
singles and album. When the technology
got better, the audience could see these video anytime on TV shows like Top of
the Pops without the hassle of asking the artist permission and without the
need for the artist to appear in person. However, before promo videos became
popular, traditionally if the artist was not able to attend the consort or
other things would have their music broadcasted. Brain May said the video was produced to
avoid miming such as complex songs on Top of the Pops and they were not able to
appear on the programme every week as they were scheduled to appear on tour.
Other good examples of availability of the artist are Will I Am and Britney
Spears where they create their one music for example they created together the
song Scream & Shout where it shows both of them.
Promotional
Promoting
the artist, single and album is another purpose to create music video. When it
come to finishing the music, it start away becomes a key
element for a promotional tool for the artist or
other organisations to use and this has been going on for some time and it
has been the music industry main function. In the music industry music videos are primarily are
advert, which are created and tailored to the artist and audience to attract the attention of the audience and to demonstrate the performance of the artists. A
good example that the song and artists visual appeals to audience is PSY’S “Gangnam Style”. This is a good example
for promo video because it captures the audience attention with its lyrics that
is cunningly addictive even though it
is not English sub or sung in English. It make us want to dance to
the beat and follow the rhythm of the song. Also the dance routines used is very easy to copy, which makes us
follow it. Also from this music video there
was lots promotion used to make it successful, like different types of merchants. For example T-shirts, bobble heads, headphones etc. The Song is
self was great enough to persuade the audience to buy CD’s of it and download
it. The music got 2,458,320,912 views on YouTube, which is
the biggest view for a music video. Another good example would be
“Black Space” by Taylor Swift Which has the second highest viewers on YouTube, which are 1,305,657,797
followed by Justin Bieber’s “Baby” which is 1,242,923,074. All of
these artists are good examples of using promotion
because they clearly states in their music video.
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Creating a Brand
Often the purpose of music video is make money, however they are many other purposes for a music video
such as creating brand. These days in
the music industry music videos are created as a product of the brand, which
the artists create because they are seen as brand that hopes to inspire the
audience and their fans to be consumed by the brand. To do this the artist or the brand do this
through the ‘mise-en-scene’, meaning how they look, dresses the way they live
their lives and the extend the loo0k of the video into the rest of their lives.
However, the artists will aim to have constants figure image of themselves
across the different platforms, meaning, music videos, websites, CD covers,
etc. For some artist brand image is very important as it’s the key element that
gets the audience hooked on the them and sometimes it is more important that
their products. For example, the Spice Girls, The Spice Girls are unique group
that have their own style and identity, which is different from other groups
because as a group the members are supposed to be matching. Nevertheless, the
Spice Girls are exclusive as their looks are their own kind, which is important
because the audience will favourite each member for their own personality.
Although to some artists, their image is not that important as their product as
the audience likes the song more than the artist example Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran
image is not that of match to his songs, thus some people do not really like
him but his songs more that way his very successful artist. Another example
would Lady Gaga and Adele. As both
artists have their own unique style and image, which attracts their audience
and target market.
Extension of income
In the music industry, extension
of income is another important purpose behind a music video. A music video is
created to provide big opening to increase income, by watching the video the
audience will be hooked and persuaded by the song to buy their merchandise such
as t-shirts, CD’s wristbands, singles and albums. By doing this, it will increase
the artist profile which will help them be known better by a bigger
audience. This will help encourager the
artist to start touring and attending events worldwide. In addition, it can be
a good chance for product placement by the artist. A good example of product
placement would be Lade Gage’s ‘Bad Romance’, where it shows Parrot by
Phillippe Starck, Ukrainian vodka Nemiroff, Heartbeats earphones, Burberry
trench coat Nintendo Wii and Alexander McQueen outfit.
Extension of outlets
Another meaning behind creating
music video is extension of outlets. This is where music video allows the
artist to extend the platforms, which are available to watch the video on. These platforms are music channels, websites,
YouTube and smartphones. Allowing the artists to display their music video on
these outlets will create high chance that the audience viewing the music video
through the outlets will become fans of the artist. In addition, some outlets
such as websites and smartphones provide the opening to buy merchandise relation
to the artist or their music. Also, provide information containing tours and
update of the artist. By doing this, it will help the artist become promoted
and the name of the artist will spread like a wild fire to other audience in
different categories, friends telling friends etc. Some apps allow the audience to sign up to
their organisation to send them live update of the artist, backstage scenes and
free giveaways such as singles and albums.
Synergy
In
addition to purpose of the music video, the music video exists as only one strand
of a multimedia campaign, and is just one way in which a song is promoted. The
music industry as a whole has a relationship with a number of different media:
Radio, TV, Print media, Film and New Media. There can be many opportunities for
the artists if they Synergy their work. Synergy is where two media products
from an alliance to equally benefit each other in their great project. A good
example for Synergy is ‘Skyfall’ by Adele. The alliance between both Adele and
the producers of James Bond Skyfall intended that they will benefits from the
agreement. For example, the movie will promote Adele’s song from the trailer,
poster and other advertisements, while at the same time Adele will promote the
movie by her music video. This will effectively promote each other, while in
the process of gaining wider audiences and creating profit together. This
Synergy was successful because Adele’s song ‘Skyfall’ becomes the first song
from the Bond franchise to win the Golden Globes, The Brit Awards and The
Academy Awards. However, with competition from a variety of online platforms,
music channels are no longer needed, as they are not the promotion platforms as
they were once. Nowadays music video
channels are not that much viewed, so in some time they will stop because the music will instantly available via online streaming and downloads.
The
Strategies Producer’
In
the music industry there are many types of artists, Major Label, Independent,
and Self-produced artists. For all of these, each of them have their own different
purpose for music video and use it for they own, however the music video is an
important tool for the artists. In the music industry there are four major
music record companies that control the music industry. These four powerhouse
music record companies are Universal, Sony Music, Warner Brothers and EMI.
There are also smaller music companies that are owned by the big four but they
are unheard of because they are not as known to the market like the big four
but they are independent as they can survive for a long time. These companies
are created to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of
genre. These music record companies are
Columbia, Island, Syco, RCA and Virgin. Also these smaller companies are known
as major-independent. For independent or indie producers, they often see their
work as form of art and not just an advertisement for the music industry. Sometimes
most their videos are used as ladders for the next generation of directors to
further their career and because of it these types of producers often become
well sort known by mainstream artists.
A
good example of a mainstreaming artist would be Chris Cunningham. Chris
Cunningham made his directorial debut in 1997 with the music video for ‘Come to
Daddy’ by Aphex Twin. Thought the video was praised, banned and raved about by
many people in the business, he has since gone on to have a career in film
making and advertising. If the artist is self-produced, their videos have the
smallest budgets and are usually unknown artists to the world. So making a
music video is very crucial important to them, as it will help them to promote
their songs and early career to the world. Allowing the artist to use websites
like YouTube, will help them to become more known by the world because they
will be exploiting website as much as they want to their benefit, which can
lead to great success. A good example
would be Justin Bieber who was discovered in 2008 by talent manager Scooter Braun.
He saw music video Justin Bieber uploaded on YouTube, with only his guitar.
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