The Purpose OF Music Videos

Task 1: 

Intro:

People have been listening to a form of music for over 100 years, in modern day however artists, bands and other music creators have the chance to not only express themselves through the music with sounds but now also a form of video also which creates a better experience for the viewer. The first ever music video was released on MTV's TV channel on August 1st 1981 and would change how people listen to music forever, the video played for of 'The Buggles' and their song 'Video Killed The Radio Star". Shortly after this Music Videos started gaining momentum in the mid 80s and are currently seeing mass amounts of popularity with all the biggest artists using music videos with almost every song they release. My aim and the purpose for this essay is to expand and show my knowledge of world of music videos in terms of all the aspects that goes into creating them, the industry behind them and the history of how they became what they are today.

Para 1:

Promotion of Artists 

One of the reasons Music artists and bands make music videos is done as part of a promotional tool, which likely aims to increase exposure of the artist along with the song, build a loyal fan base, express themselves to a further extent and make extra money. Music videos do usually cost a lot of money but they can also make a lot of money through downloads of the song, advertisements on the music video and product placement within the video for example a lot of main stream pop music videos will likely include someone using a 'Beats Pill' or wearing a pair of Beats headphones. Another part of promotion for a music video or any type of media is the director of the shoot. Having a good director with a popular and respected name has many benefits such as free promotion from their fans and others wanting to see more of their work as well as them likely being good at their job resulting in your video being of a high quality and well directed/polished. Some more examples of how brands promote themselves are to post content regularly which results in people listening more, higher chance of word of mouth and it will attract new listeners/potential sponsors. Another way is to release behind the scenes footage that they can obtain easily and people will find interesting resulting in a more connected fan base. Furthermore bands also work with director who contribute not only to the project but also with the promotion aswel, here are a few examples of how a director might promote themselves; post onto their own website, post of their social media pages and get other larger names involved with the project. The results of this might include more views and word of mouth surrounding the project and different fan bases seeing the product which could lead to more loyal fans.  

Para 2 : 

Producer Strategies 

Firstly, I would like to mention that the Music video producer’s job is to control the way in which the music video is created all the way throughout the project. The strategy of the producer will likely be to discuses, add input and control how the Record Label wants to have the project providing there is one and which director they want to shoot and direct the project. The purpose of the producer strategies are to encourage overall sales of the artists/brands work, promotion of the artist/song and to increase the artists/brands image to the audience. There is quite a few different ways that the strategies are used I will list some and give examples. One of the more obvious ones is the image, this can vary in terms of style and what’s happening on-screen such as costumes, sets and special effects. The narrative will have a large impact on things such as how memorable the video is resulting in exposure through people talking about the video over social media and word-of-mouth, it will likely build more of a relationship with the viewer as if they enjoyed they will re-watch and/or come back to watch new content when available or watch previous content. Another key feature of this is the different approach from each artist, this means you will rarely see two music videos/songs that are similar. This comes under each artist being marketed differently, trying to tailor themselves to different markets while being unique and their own form of art. 
An example where a producer has changed the style of the image resulting in it influencing the style of the video. Rihanna - ROCKSTAR 101 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMOIUUS8GWo)
Another notable feature is how mainstream artists who often have large amounts of money themselves, brand deals and a label to help pay for a music video meaning they will of course spend a lot more money on a project compared to an indie artist who is not with a label and rarely is offered brand deals, this can be very noticeable but is often not the reason why a music video is either deemed good or bad.
I will now give two examples of music videos one artist has recently singed with record label (Atlantic records) and the other is a indie artist. Both these artists are incredibly talented and have produced very professional music videos but if you look deeper who can see some very noticeable differences between the two. The biggest differences between the two are that ones in set in one room whereas the other is able to explore several different locations, one has close to 30 extras whereas the other only has around 8 and lastly at the end of end song during the 'credits' ones displays the '2 Project Studios' logo which is a very high end recording studio and in-house video production location and if affiliated which some very large artists and the other lists 10 peoples names including the artists.

Joyner Lucas - Stranger Things (Has record label) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-u9uo0laA8

Witt Lowry - Piece of Mind 4 (Indie Artist) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpoiWX9ZSZY



Para 3 :
Extending artists and record label income

Extension of income is where a artist or record label will attempt to receive the money they are owed for the royalties of a song or music video that they have made and own. Every time an Artists or a record labels song is played or music video is viewed the creator/s are owned money for their content. This however can become very difficult for large artists to keep track of all the times and places there art is played or watched. This is due to the huge amount of media playing/viewing providers and companies out there. With some possibly playing them illegally and playing/showing things they have not paid for which can damage an artist or record label when done regularly. To counter this an artist or record label will find other ways to make up for lost income. It usually results in extra product placement, an attempt to sell more merchandise or synergistic marketing. Furthermore, an artist will never be paid the exact amount they are owned due to it being impossible to count the exact amount of views or plays. To compensate for this most media outlets will have to estimate how much they should pay for the royalties or the artist/record label will ask for a price, they take into account things like song popularity, place on the charts and how well its selling as a single to name a few factors. Furthermore an example of a Music Video using product promotion is Dr. Dre - I Need A Doctor Ft. Eminem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA770wpLX-Q) This incredible popular and loved music video includes multiple piece of promotion as show below. The promotions include Eminem wearing a Casio G-Shock Watch, the doctors using a hp computer and Dr. Dre drinking bottle of Gatorade. For artists music videos helped them greatly in terms of helping them express their art and as a way of creating more revenue to make them more profitable and their careers more sustainable.

Para 4 :
Extension of various media outlets

Media outlets are platforms and formats that allows us to access and watch a huge amount of media. Some examples of the more popular media outlets are as follows:
YouTube.com
Apple Music
CDs and DVDs
Vimeo.com
Television Channels
Really any platform that will allow someone to view a music video is a media outlet, Artists and Record Labels will look at these outlets and decide which to put their content onto or they will be asked first. Once their content is being played on that media outlet they will receive royalties as well as promotion and exposure for their art. The list stated above is only a small portion of the rising amount of media outlets available to the public today, the advantages of this include more competition between the outlets resulting in them all wanting to have the best music and best possible experience for the users so they will stay on their outlet and on the flip side this gives the viewer a large range of media outlets to choose from are some advantages. The disadvantages to the huge amount of media outlets we are presented with include that it can be very difficult to find all the songs from your favourite artist as you may find all their content to be spread about allover different platforms and outlets, the outlets will also be making less money and paying more for the royalties due to the high amount of competition and demand meaning they will have to play more ads and find over ways to make money (premiums, memberships, product placement etc) and  the market will likely become over saturated due to how over done this idea is and how its separating up the market into lots of different  pieces so people cant just enjoy the music as much. Here is a comparison of the YouTube music video marketing to the Vimeo market showing the different view counts on Rihanna - Work ft. Drake (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL1UzIK-flA).

Para 5 :
Synergistic Marketing - Promotion - income

In terms of media, Synergy is where a company owns a product completely but will make licensing deals with other companies who will then create new products and sell them using the other companies creation. This usually results into a form of profit for both companies. The company licensing their product/creation to the other will receive great promotion for their brand and product when done correctly resulting in a more loyal and engaged fan base meaning the first company will likely make more future sales as well as them making extended income from the first licensing for which they didn't have to do to much over than created the product/creation in the first place and license it. The company buying the licensing can sell a product using another much more popular brands name and/or creation which usually works well due to them now not needing to advertise their product as they in a sense just ride on the back of the licensing they are paid for. Here is an example of the Artist Drake wearing if own clothing brand Called 'Octobers Very Own' (https://uk.octobersveryown.com/collections/shop-all) in his music video for Hotline Bling.
Lastly is soundtracks which usually help all parties involved due to promotion, income and usually good content.

Conclusion

In the current day music videos are nearly if not as popular as music in general. I believe this is due to the experience the viewer receives when watching as it adds to the feeling and emotions of listening the someones art as well as watching makes it more entertaining and helps people relate more. It also makes the art more sustainable because rather than music listening couple of times to a song or artist and becoming board you are able to watch the videos which are often more re-watchable. Further evidence of this is the growth of music videos in the last decade and the current growth and expansion we are still seeing today. A very recent example of this is a Colombian singer who received over 4,500,000 million views in less than 12 hours.

Another example that also ties in with synergistic marketing because it was made for movie and received a huge amount of success is Wiz Khalifa - See You Again ft. Charlie Puth which was uploaded in 2015 and is currently sitting on over 3,300,000,000 views. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk)