Purpose Of Music Videos

What is the purpose of a music video?

There are various purposes to a music/promotional video, different artist release them for different reasons, the main reasons I feel why music videos are made are:

·         1 .To simply entertain the audience, these are more linked to performance based videos such as hip/hop, pop videos, that feature dance routines etc. Artists release singles to yes make money, but to entertain their audience so a music video helps to also do this.

·        2.  To sell an artist's image and ideologies, primarily more linked with rock, alternative music that feature story lines  The content of these music videos are to help portray the style of the band/artist, so that the audience will see the video and identify and relate to its content, ultimately making them a fan of the band.

·         3. So that the audience will get a better understanding of the song and the meaning behind it, many songs can feature lyrics that are unclear about that the song is about and the message or meaning behind it, so a music video can help to reveal this to its audience by telling a story through the lyrics.

·         4. To help attract a mass audience to the song, if a band releases a music video that the audience likes because of its content, it makes the audience more likely to like and buy the song because the video contains something they liked or related to. The audience begin to associate the actual song with the video they liked.

·         5. The most obvious and main reason is, to make money, a large number of artists will release a song and once the buzz from the song has died down, they will then release the video for that song, this then creates a new buzz and often leads to a sudden burst of song sales.

Target Audience

Audience Consumption Habits

Who are they consumed by?	How are they consumed?	Where are they consumed?
My research showed me that the majority of people who consume music and music video tend to be between the ages of 11-21. Any younger or older than this were generally very uninterested in music or videos. I did not find any significant difference in the amount of male and females consuming music and music videos.	With the recent advances in technology, we can now watch videos, not just on our TV's but on our phones and computers through portals such as YouTube or Vimeo. Once to watch a music video it must have been through a music channel on TV now millions of videos get uploaded to YouTube everyday and allow people from all over the world to watch videos, of these videos a significant number of them are promotional music video, either uploaded directly by an artist to promote their music or by a fan or YouTube user to share it with others. My research showed this as many when asked said that they often watched videos on YouTube or Facebook and rarely viewed a music video on TV anymore.	Because of these technological advances, people can watch music videos or listen to music, wherever and whenever they like, videos can now be watched via phones, iPods or tablets. So you can now watch a video on the tube, at school or at home.

Goodwins Theory

John Hartley's Theory

Audience Theories

Without an audience there is no point in creating a media text, the audience is the most importanat factor to consider when creating a media product in order to create the best product possible I have researched some of the common audience theories so that I can gain a better idea of how to structure my media text to appeal to my audience, through this I can gain a better understanding of how my audience might view my product.

History Of Music Videos

A music video is a short film that accompanies a song, often called promotional videos or promos. 1974 was the beginning of music television. In the UK the very popular music TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos, but did have very strict limits on the number of outsourced videos shown.

In 1981 the U.S music station MTV was launched and aired ‘video killed the radio star’, by the mid 1980’s music videos played a central role the music industry.

1983 was the release of the 14 minute long thriller by Michael Jackson costing $500,000 to film and has become one of the most iconic and influential music videos of all time. Before the airing of this it was rare for an African American artist to be featured on MTV.

VH1 was launched in 1985 by MTV showing much softer music and aimed at an older audience, followed by MTV Europe in 1987, and MTV Asia in 1991. By the mid 2000’s MTV and many of its overseas channels had stopped showing music videos in favour of reality TV shows as they proved more popular with its audience.

The launch of YouTube in 2005 made online viewing of music videos much more accessible.

In 20120 many artists began also releasing music videos, these were usually released prior to the actual music video and separately to the actual music label. There are often unofficial music videos released also, these are videos made by fans of an artist, consisting of images clips relating to the band or song or even clips shot by the fan themselves.

Marketing/Advertising In The Music Industry

Distribution In The Music Industry

Media Convergence & Consumption

Media convergence is the idea of different types of media gradually coming together due to advances in recent technology. For example media can now be consumed on various platforms; you can now watch a video/movie on your phone or even iPod as opposed to just your television. Internet also allows us to access certain type of videos maybe before they are officially released, internet can even allow us to read reviews of certain movies or TV shows before they are aired. Due to this growing media convergence, some once popular forms of media are dying out; newspapers are finding it more and more difficult to compete with the vast amount of media technology.

Media convergence is rapidly growing and has a great impact on the music industry in many ways.

Firstly music videos were largely played and viewed on TV via various music channels. Media convergence now allows consumers to watch a music video on the internet e.g. YouTube, music videos can be streamed and shared with others and even people’s opinions and reviews are now easily accessible than before.

This is beneficial in some ways to an artist as it allows more access to watch their videos and listen to their music, therefore resulting in more views and popularity, the fact that more people have access to their material means a larger spread via word of mouth.

Convergence now allows us to view an artist’s song or video on many different platforms such as iPods and smartphones, meaning you can now watch a video anywhere as opposed to having to specifically tune in to a music channel and waiting for the video to be shown.

Social networking sites such as Facbook or Twitter, also allow videos to be viewed, shared and discussed, sometimes before they even have been officially released.

Media convergence s forever changing the way music and music videos are consumed and distributed to their audience.

The Music/Recording Industry

 The music industry is a large expanding industry a selection of large business that make money buy producing and selling music. There are many parts to the music industry, from producer, publishers, recording studios, record labels, the artists to radio broadcasters, promoters, booking agents, video producers and editors.

Recording of a song are reordered by an artist or band, these recordings are generally owned by the record company that signed the artist or band. The A&R department of that record company is responsible for finding new artist to sign with the company at then overseeing with the recording and producing of the songs. A recording of the song will usually been done in a recording studio alongside record producers and audio engineers, this will be paid for by the record company. However with the advances in technology many musicians can now use ‘home studio’ recording equipment, but many artist still use recording studios to create a better recording with the use of producers, engineers and specialist equipment. The record producer also oversees other aspects such as financial and artist aspects with the artist.

As the recordings are owned by the record company this will usually involve a recording contract specifying this and in return the record company takes on responsibility of the costs of producing, distributing and marketing the recording. The record company then pays the artist a small amount of the profits from the recording if successful known as a mechanical royalty.

There are many companies involved in the music industry, but there are certain companies that monopolize the industry:

Universal music group

Considered one of the ‘big four’ is a American multinational music company, a subsidiary of universal studios with a revenues of $5,584 million in 2010. Employing around 7000 employees and broken up into many divisions such as, Universal music publishing group, Universal music group distribution, Universal republic recording and so many more.

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment is considered the second of the ‘big four’ controlled by Sony corporation of America, which is the US subsidiary of Japans Sony corporation. Sony Music Entertainment was founded in 1929 and generated around $5, 672 million revenue in 2010.

Warner Music Group

The third of the ‘big four’ is Warner Music group. An American based company founded in 1958 and owned by Warner Bros studios, and a subsidiary of access industries.

EMI

Lastly EMI music group based in London UK, owned by citigroup and founded in 1931. It is the fourth largest in the ‘big four’ of the music labels with a major publishing branch known as EMI music publishing.

The label has undergone huge success in the early 1950’s to the early 1970’s under the management of Sir Joseph Lockwood. The combination of EMI and its subsidiary labels and its roster of popular groups from, the beach boys to the Beatles made it one of the most successful and well known music groups at that time.

Issues Surrounding Music Videos

Issues Surrounding Music Videos on Prezi

My Chosen Brief

My chosen brief for A2 Media is brief number 1. A promotional package for the release of an album, to include a promo music video, together with two of the following: A website homepage for the band, A digipak for the album's release, A magazine advertisement for the digipak. I have chosen to include with my music video, a digipak for the album release and a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

Here is my list I have written of what I intend to do throughout my Advanced Portfolio:

A2 Media Check List

Video

o   Issues Surrounding Music Videos

o   Research industry and one key company

o   Media Convergence & Consumption

o   Distribution Research

o   Promotional/Advertising of Music & Music Videos

o   History of Music Video 

o   Audience Theories

o   Audience Research

o   Target Audience

o   Research types of music videos

o   Questionnaire

o   Questionnaire results and what I learnt

o   Chosen video type and why

o   Possible song choices

o   Chosen song and why                                         

o   Letter Of Permission

o   Initial Idea

o   Focus Group

o   Detailed Storyboard

o   Costume Designs

o   Issues to Consider  

o   Props Needed

o   List Of Shots

o   Location Photos

o   Research on How to use final cut

o   Filming + Photos

Digi-pack

o   Research what is a Digipack                                                        

o   Detailed Analysis

o   Initial Designs                                                                                   

o   Design of All Digipack

o   Logo Ideas

o   Possible Album Names

o   Photos for Digipack

o   Photoshop Effects Research

o   Different Designs With Effects

o   Company Logo Research

Magazine

o   Layout Analysis

o   Colour Schemes & Masthead Analysis

o   Magazine Names

o   Masthead Designs

o   Initial Ideas

o   Final Idea

o   Photo Research

o   Photos