U29.1 - Understanding The Purpose of
Music Videos
By Kirsty Richardson
The Music Industry
The
music industry has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. It is now a lot
easier for unsigned artists to show off their work on social networking sites
such as You Tube, Vimeo, Soundcloud and others. It is also a lot easier for
record companies to look for new talent on these sites and give them an
opportunity to become a signed artist and start producing music professionally.
Justin Bieber is an example of this as he uploaded You Tube videos of him
singing, and talent scout Scooter Braun discovered him and signed him to
Usher's label.
Years
ago, the main source of income for a signed artist or band would be selling
their music. However, nowadays artists do not make their money by how many
singles or albums they sell, as there are more platforms to illegally download
their music. iTunes has taken over so not a lot of people still by CD's from a
shop or the record company take most of the profit. Now, artists make their
money by touring, as the prices for the tickets to their shows are increasing and
they tour more regularly as the artist directly makes most of the money. People
will pay a lot to see big artists at stadiums, arenas, theatres or small venues
as often as they can so the artists and backstage/organizing staff make a
lot of money. The music video is the first selling point of the artist, as it
sets the image and tone to the artist and their music. When their first music
video is released, people make a judgement straightaway on their appearance,
for example, when Lady Ga Ga brought her first music video out, the audience
knew that she was not like a normal artist and the music video showed this. The
music video is also the first selling point for the concerts and shows the
artists put on. The music video sometimes sets an idea or tone of what you
would expect them to be like at one of their shows, and then the artist/brand
of the artist expands from there.
The
technology that is available nowadays has also made record labels' jobs easier
distributing and marketing their artists' music. For example, technological
convergence has helped record labels a lot as they can produce something for
the artist (e.g. a music video) and have it not just played on a music channel,
but it is available to download on iTunes, easy to watch on your phone/tablet
device, watch it on artists' website, scan qr codes from newspapers/magazines
and watch the music video on your phone and other ways that you wouldn`t have
been able to do 10 or 20 years ago.
Artists
also earn revenue when their music video is played on music channels, heard on
TV shows or films etc. Tours/royalties and endorsements are an
artists/labels biggest income. Now, an artist would usually earn more money
endorsing a product or featured their advertising campaign than their actual
music. For example, Cheryl Cole earns more money being in the Loreal hair
campaign adverts than actually how many singles or albums she sells.
If
you are signed to a big record company, they will find ways of getting you on
different TV Shows, Magazines and other platforms. If you are signed to a small
label, they probably won`t have the power or contacts to get you onto prime
time TV to promote your new song or album as no one would`ve heard of you,
therefore you would have no interest to the UK audience.
However,
if you are signed to a smaller but well known label, you get the creative
freedom to take as long as you want on your albums, and have your say on the
sort of music you want to produce. Not producing music for a certain market,
producing the music because you like the sound and want to. They can write and
produce their music in their own way and on their own terms.
Music
videos are one of the best ways to promote an artist and a song, and have been
for a number of years. However, they don't generate CD sales anymore, like they
used to.
Examples of artists creating income
Beyonce
A
lot of companies distribute for Beyonce, one of the biggest stars in the world.
She also creates a lot of income for herself, and her record companies.
Distribution Of Beyonce
Beyonce
is signed to Columbia Records, which is under the ownership of Sony Music
Entertainment. Sony are one of the biggest companies around, as they are a well-known
brand and have other companies connected to them that deal with video games,
Film & TV, Music management (Beyoncé’s label), financial services and Audio
Disc corporations. As Sony Music Entertainment are a big label for an
artist to be on, there are lots of other opportunities for the artist to go off
into film, tv etc, not just music. This is what Beyoncé has done. She has not
only made music, she has also been in films and involved with other projects,
which her label have given her. She has built up an image/persona over the
years, mainly from when she started out in the girl group Destiny`s Child, but
also as a solo artist. She has been described as a ‘diva’, and she has lived up
to this name in her music videos.
Beyonce's
music has been sold on digital and physical format, however, like most artists
experience, the people buying their music are usually buying it through iTunes
or websites such as Amazon, Play.com etc. This is called a mechanical royality,
as Beyonce and the record company will get money from every song or album
downloaded/bought, whether it be a CD or an mp3 file.
Income
As
most artists, however popular they are, earn the most income through touring
and endorsements, not through the amount of records you sell. Beyonce gets
income through all sorts of projects she is involved with, not just the music
she sells. She tours a lot and charges a lot of money for a ticket as the
record label will know that the fans will pay it to see Beyonce in concert. Her
label have used this synergy to their advantage as she has also used footage of
her touring as a music video (End Of Time - Beyonce). That way, the video
promotes the tour as well as the song. She also has TV rights and has made
some documentary programmes about her life, her recent being ‘Life Is But A
Dream’ that aired all over the world. This documentary would’ve been available to
watch on many devices, not just on TV. It was available to watch on any smart
phone that has the You Tube app and also be able to watch on cable TV’s ‘catch
up’ service e.g. Sky to watch it if you missed it. This is a technological
convergence that would not have been around 10 years ago. You would not be able
to watch a documentary anywhere in the world, anytime you want 10 years ago,
and this shows how much technology has progressed over the years. She also has
made income from tour DVDs from her latest tour. This is a good synergy as fans
who couldn’t be at the show would want to buy the DVD to watch it, and fans
that were at the show would buy it as they would want to re live the concert.
This is a strong income stream for any popular artist.
She
also has her own fragrance line and has a number of fragrances. She also uses
her own music in the advert for the fragrance, so that it promotes the
fragrance and song.
She
also has done high profile campaigns such as the recent Pepsi campaign, and has
used a song that she has recorded but not released before, to use as the
campaign song. This creates a buzz around the campaign and heightens it even
more, as people wanted to listen to the new song as well as watch the advert.
Because Beyonce endorsed Pepsi, Pepsi sponsered her latest tour The Mrs Carter
show (2013). Í
How Music Videos Help Promote The
Artist/Song
Artist: Demi Lovato
Music Video: Made In The USA
Record
Label: Hollywood Records (main conglomerate)
• Universal Music Group (markets and distributes in America/India)
• Fascination Records - Demi is directly signed to
Universal UK`s Fascination (markets
and distributes in the UK)
Hollywood Records are
integrated with Walt Disney Records and Walt Disney Music Publishing to create
the Disney Music Group. Demi was signed to Hollywood Records to create her
first solo album. She was the main actress in Disney film Camp Rock and Camp Rock
2 so afterwards, got signed to Hollywood Records as they represent Disney stars
(such as The Jonas Brothers, Bridgit Mendler) etc, that have been on Disney TV
shows or films and want to go into a career of singing.
Music
Video: Made In The USA
How the
music video promotes the song and artist
This video for Demi
Lovato's song Made In The USA is very different to her usual videos. She co -
directs this video and is not featured in at as much as she usually is in her
videos as she always wanted the opportunity to direct her own music video. She
''had the specific vision and shots she wanted for the video so
decided to have a go at co directing the video''. You can tell it is
quite different from her usual videos as it is almost like a short
film rather than a music video.
This video promotes the
song well as it is very anthemic and has a big chorus so the short film style
of the video matches the song well. The video promotes Demi Lovato well as it
is unusual for a pop artist to have such a hands on behind the scenes role in
their own music video, so it shows that Demi is quite different from other pop
artists. This promotes the idea that not all Pop artists don`t have any
say over the direction of their music or how they want their own material e.g.
a music video to look like. Demi rebranded herself away from the Disney image,
as she was in the popular Disney Channel film ‘Camp Rock’, and wanted to go off
by herself and create her own solo music. She rebranded herself and got
involved with The X Factor USA, so is well known with being a judge on that, as
well as her new music, it promotes her whole brand/identity more.
Which
outlets the music videos appear on
This video appears on music
channels in the UK and America regularly. It is also on You Tube, VEVO, Demi`s
website and other outlets on the internet. There also has been adverts on You
Tube and VEVO to watch the video, if you are watching a video that is in the
same genre, there has been a banner at the bottom of the video to watch this
video. As Demi Lovato is one of VEVO's biggest stars that create the most
traffic to their website/app, this music video was promoted a lot by them. For
example, they sent out a reminder to every person that has the VEVO app on a
smartphone or tablet device when the video was first available to watch on the
app. This would've created more traffic to the app/website as people would've
clicked on this link. They do this for only a selected few artists that are big
enough for people to take an interest and watch their video.
What
synergy with other media is there
There are also a lot of
synergy with other technologies to watch or buy this music video. If you watch
the music video on You Tube, you can buy the song and music video on iTunes.
You can watch about 30 seconds of the video on iTunes before you buy to see if
you want to buy this music video to watch back on your apple device. This video
was her most viewed in 24 hours with over 5 million views on VEVO. It ranked
number six on the ''all - time worldwide Vevo list of most viewed videos within
24 hours''.
How labels
at different levels of the business utilize them.
Demi Lovato`s label is one
of the best in the business as it is linked with Disney. For this song, they
wouldn`t have minded that Demi wanted a more of a behind the scenes role as she
is one of their big artists on their label and brings in a lot of revenue to
them. This promoted the video even more if anything as it
was unusual for someone in the pop genre to co - direct their own
video and feature in it. The record label would`ve promoted the music video
when it first got released on Twitter/Facebook and other social networks to
promote their artist.
Technological
Convergence
Demi Lovato recently
released an ebook only available for iPad. This synergy was a good way to
promote Demi as it was exclusive for fans and used different technologies
within it. There was a story within the book, like you would expect, but also
you can watch exclusive videos through it, games and links to iTunes to buy her
music. This was to promote her album at the time and was one of the first
eBooks to use these technologies together. It promoted her more and also her
music and music videos, as there was also a link to watch and buy her music
videos.
Artist: Jessie J
Music Video: It's My Party
Record Label: Island Records
Lava Records is Jessie J`s main
label (a conglomerate of Island Records)
Lava Records are an
american based label that Universal Music Group own and are also controlled
through Republic Records. Lava Records are in a 'joint venture' collaboration
with Universal Republic who promote, market, sale and distribute Jessie J`s
records. She first signed with them in 2008.
Music Video: It`s My Party
How the
music video promotes the song/artist
This video was directed by
Emil Nava who has directed many of Jessie`s videos and always produces her best
music videos. This is one of them. This song reflects Jessie`s style and so
does the video. The video promotes Jessie well as she has a 'care free'
attitude and doesn`t believe in different groups of people, and this video
shows that, as she goes into different rooms and breaks free the stereotype of
the group. It promotes the artist as it is bright and colorful just like
Jessie`s style. The music video reflects the lifestyle of Jessie J, and how she
wants to ‘inspire’ fans and to change the way Pop music is seen. People buy
into this by purchasing her songs, music videos in iTunes, concert tickets etc.
In her music videos, especially in this one, she performs like she would on
stage, therefore people buy into the performance by buying her concert tickets.
Which
outlets they appear on
This music video appears on
TV channels, social networks, You Tube, VEVO etc, like any other music videos
around at the moment.
What
synergy with other media is there
You can watch this music
video on other different types of synergy such as on a tablet, your mobile or
if you scan a QR code with the link from a paper advert of online advert, to
watch her video.
How labels
at different levels of the business utilize them.
As Jessie is signed with a
big label, they would`ve promoted this video a lot on Twitter, Facebook, their
own social networking accounts and also Jessie`s accounts. They also would give
them to TV shows that she would be appearing on to promote her single, so they
show part of the video on primetime TV to promote the song.
Income
Jessie J creates income
like any other artist through touring, music sales and endorsements. She also
gets income from royalties; especially synchronization royalties as Boots have
just recently used one of Jessie J’s brand new song from her new album, for
their Christmas campaign. She would’ve got a lot of money from that advert as
it was boots’ biggest campaign, plus it was an unheard song so this generated
References
Intro
Demi
Lovato
Jessie J
