The purpose of music videos

The purpose of music videos:

There are five main purposes for music videos split into categories. This is because there are different types of ways to relate to audiences and there are ranges of ways the the industries and record labels benefit from these.

The five main purposes are;

• To promote a new music release
• To create a visual representation of an artist
• To extend the playability of & provide additional income from a song
• To create synergy (business tie-ins) with other media sectors
• To be art in their own right

To promote a new music release: 

As we see in the video I have provided above, it is a new single from the artist Rihanna called Diamonds and it was released on the 8th of November 2012 when her album was due to come out on the 19th of November 2012. The reason for this was to promote her new album that was due to come out a little while later because the record label would like to create awareness around the world that Rihanna's new album is about to come out and to give the fans an idea of what to expect from the album as this is one of the main songs in the album out of all of the 14 songs that are available. You Tube really helped this video go viral because it is a very much used website by most of the worlds population and when the video came out, the website used a lot of banner advertisement such as on other videos there was a banner for this new video from Rihanna and this encouraged people to click on the video and view it and since the video has came out it has received 46,763,422 views which is very much.

To create a visual representation of an artist:

As we see in the video I have provided, it is by an artist named Lady Gaga. This artist is very well known and established all around the world for being an extrovert artist which means that a person puts a lot of effort into their appearance to stand out and make themselves feel good and funky. The clothes sense that she has really puts in a lot of emphasis into her brand as she always wears very controversial clothes which stand out and that shows that she feels very powerful about herself and has confidence to stand out. Lady Gaga's energy also stands out in her videos because she usually has a fierce look which shows that she is serious in what she does. This must also help the record label because the more well known Lady Gaga would get, it would mean that there would be more revenue coming into the record label because her controversial likes would get to the audience in a positive way as it may inspire them. As we can see in the video, Lady Gaga has very kind of fierce energy about herself and this shows that she wants to show that she is very powerful. Throughout the whole music video she is wearing something funky and standing out so I can't really point out a specific moment as it occurs throughout the whole video.

To extend the playability of & provide additional income from a song

We generally see that music videos tend to show on music channels. The reasons may be that the artist would like to go mainstream and get well known around the world and when the video comes on television that enhances the possibility of getting attractions around the world. A very famous music channel is called MTV and it is very well known in the United States and in the United Kingdom and they advertise a lot of new music and they tend to normally have trends on their channel such as 'top 20 songs of the week'. MTV do receive some benefit from advertising music videos because they receive a royalty payment from the record label every time the video gets played and if the video gets very famous throughout the years, . The example that I have used for this section is a song by 'Tim Berg' and it's called 'Seek Bromance'. This is a song that firstly became very famous on You Tube and it gathered a very large amount of views and from this it became famous on television as many music channels started to advertise this song and from this it would mean that there could be an increase of sales for this music as people would like it as it is being played frequently. From 2:39 we can see that they have very hedonistic characteristics as they are dancing and partying and the girl is dancing around on tables. This video has became very famous over the two years it has been released for, as we see it is a great video with a group of people that live the hedonistic life and this may be one of the reasons why the audience loved the video so much as they may refer to it as well as it shows people who live for fun and love to party.

To create synergy (business tie-ins) with other media sectors

A synergy is when two different association's partner up and can release something together with both aspects in the final product. In music sense it can be used when music partners up with television and both of their services get together. The example of synergy that I have used is 'Eminem's' song called 'Lose Yourself'and this was the theme song for his own film named '8 Mile'. The reason that artists perform synergy with television is because they would like to promote themselves and the reason that television would like to have an artists music in one of their films would be to create more awareness and entertainment for the audience and if it is a very well known artist it would benefit both institutions simultaneously as the artist could enter new sectors in the media society so this would result in them getting more well known and the film makers would have done a good thing by including  a well known artist for example if the artists song would be the theme song for the film and it was in the trailer, the audience that normally already listen to this artist would like this and may want to watch the film even more than before so technically it is a win-win situation for both institutions. They synergy is used in this music video as throughout the whole video, there are short clips shown which are actually from the film '8 mile' and this is synergy as the record label and the film company has come together and reached an agreement where the record label would be able to use the short clips. There is also a sign in the background when it shows Eminem rapping and it reads '8 Mile'

To be art in their own right:

Some music videos in the music industry sometimes tend to take it to the next level by producing a video that shows so much emotion and imagery, This is because the record label would like to produce something that would be very memorable and stick in peoples minds for different kinds of reasons as some videos may show horror, action, comedy and dramatic effects and it means that it gives people something to talk about and if they like it, it will have a positive impact on the record labels as their sales may increase.The video I have used is by an artist names 'The Weeknd' and the song is called 'The Knowing'. In fact the video is actually so creative and shocking that I cannot explain what is happening and what the storyline if it is and this shows how it is an excellent example to use as the record label have put so much effort into the video that it leaves people shocked as it have left me shocked and very confused as to what is happening.

Evaluating Music Video Outlets

Music Video Outlets

In this blog post Music Channels, Social Media, Artists Websites, Downloads (Legally and Illegally), Direct CD purchases will all be shown as music outlets and I will explain about how important they are to the artist and music as a whole.

Music channels:

Music videos normally tend to advertise on mainstream music channels and the fact that the channels are mainstream it shows that a lot of people tend to tune in to the channels regularly and hear new music as the music channels tend to advertise new exclusive music. There are some mainstream channels that specifically are only dedicated to music videos only and they do not show other programs that are about other things such as reality shows, channels such as MTV Base are fully dedicated to music videos as they always have music playing on their channels and tend to have specific playlists such as the top 20 songs of the week. Some TV channels also have a requesting zone where people can phone in and request what song they would like to hear however a negative about this from the audience point of view is that it costs a lot more than a normal phone call to call into these channels. A positive aspect for the audience is also that the channels tend to repeat a few songs that are the most liked ones and if a person likes that specific song they will be very satisfied to hear it again and this also benefits the record label because they can fully establish that people like the songs that they have made because many people call in to request to hear a song again and the record label takes a lot of value from this because they know that their song has satisfied the audience and they know that it is being played repetitively and this would satisfy the record label. The record label also gets a small royalty payment from the money that the audiences spend to call in and request a song but this is not what's most important to the record label, the most important thing is that they know their song is satisfying the fans and audiences.

Social Media:

Music fans can use social media services to view and listen to music as a lot of websites tend to advertise artists music onto their sites. We see that there are Facebook pages dedicated to artists and there songs and we also see that sometimes on the home page, there are advertisements on the right hand side showing a picture of the artist and a heading saying things like 'New album out now' or 'New single is now out'. There is also Twitter which is a social media website which many people in the world use similar to Facebook and on Twitter we find that many music artists use and they tweet on the site telling the world what they are up to and how they are doing sometimes, but most importantly, some artists also tweet to the world sometimes saying that they have a new song or album coming out soon. This helps to advertise music as when the artist tweets these things, it lets their followers know that they have a new album or song coming out and the more followers that know about this can start to talk about it and also let their own followers know about it, it is a bit like a food chain but in social media terms and as more and more people start to find out about it, they can make it trend and when something trends on Twitter it means that a lot of people are talking about the same thing and if this trend becomes a worldwide trend, it is a very good aspect for the artist as they know that the whole world are now talking about them and this proves that the social media is a very good aspect to use to advertise artists music. The good thing is that it is free for the people to view the advertisements made on the social media but it could be a negative aspect for the artist's record label as they have to pay to make an advertisement however if the music gets sold a lot by the advertisement then the record label can be happy as they will know that they haven't made a loss. You Tube is a really good aspect to use as nearly the whole world visits this website to view videos and the more views a video gets, the more money the person who made the video gets and this is a good thing for record labels.





Artist's websites:

Artists websites are also a good aspect to use to access artists music however artists websites will also tell the fans other things such as the latest news they have such as a new song or album about to come out, music videos, music players to hear some samples of music but the websites will never provide a whole song because the artist and the record label will always want to make music and my providing samples it would encourage the fans to hear it and if they like it they will have to buy the real music, this is an effective money making scheme that record labels use efficiently. Artist websites will most likely always have an ITunes link on their website which would say something like 'Buy' or 'Download here' this is because they want the fans to go onto the site where they can buy the music. Artists websites will most likely always have a 'Share' button as well so the fans can share the website on social media services such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and this is because they want the artist to be known worldwide. Artists normally tend to also advertise when they have a concert upcoming on their websites and they tend to give information about which country it would be in, the date of the concert, the city in which it will take place, when the tickets will be on sale and where you could buy the tickets from. This essentially means that the record label are looking to help the fans as they have a direct link on the website and from this they can make money more easier as some times it could be hard for the fans to find tickets but on the artists websites there are direct links to this.

Downloads (Legally and Illegally) AND Direct CD purchases:

Record labels normally advertise buying links around the internet where the fans can go straight to the link and buy the music and the most likely one to see is ITunes and that is the main site that most people use to download music buy buying it for a certain price, the normal price that each track costs is normally about $0.99 and normal albums normally cost around $10. A good aspect for the record labels is that when you view an album page of an artist, by the picture is a little writing space which says the name of the record label and this gives some establishment to the labels. As paying for the music is a legal aspect and good for the record label, some people can take it to the next step and download music illegally and by doing this it means that they do not pay anything as they download the music for free. People tend to use websites that enable torrents to download music and this would satisfly the people as downloading music illegally would mean that they can listen to the music repetitively and it is easy to download shows that people would like this and they would spread the word around and get more and more people to download it aswell and this is a bad aspect for the record labels as they do not recieve any money from this process and it could also be a bad aspect for the people who download the music because the of the fact that it is illegal and if they get caught they can recieve a fine or even get arrested. Direct CD purchases are a good way way of accessing music as the fans can order online and even go into some stores such as HMV and buy the music there as this would help the record label and the artist as revenue would be coming their way.