L01 : The need for music videos

This video contains an interview with Chris Parr. He discusses and explains what he feels makes music videos are so important and why they have such a large impact on the music industry in various different ways.

 

 

Music Videos have many different purpose’s, to make people laugh, to provoke emotion in the viewer or simply to entertain. All of these link back to one main purpose and that is to promote the artist/band and to showcase their music to a wider and more varied audience.

 

When somebody finds a music video entertaining their likely to share it with their friends and will most likely do this via some sort of social networking site. Every single person that watches that music video or hears their song on the radio is a potential customer and they could generate profit for the band/artists , the directors , the film crew and finally the record label.

 

The sole purpose of a music video is to generate more income for a band , thats the simplest and most effective way to explain their purpose, but some artists such as Rhianna for example , continue making videos even though their already rich , this is becuase they want free advertising and publicity so they can add to their fame.

 

It’s incredibly easy to gather evidence that supports the statement that music videos help sell music, here is a extremely popular music video that has sold thousands of records.

Views – 259,580,597

She sold over one million copies of this song in the UK alone.

Here is a music video by an artist without an expensive music video I have chosen a band that are still fairly popular so that musically things are fair.

 

 

 

Views – 512,054

 When you compare the number of views on this video and the amount of records it sold with underground songs (without expensive music videos) you can see a huge contrast in the amount of money the artists generate.

 

Evidence shows that the more money an artist invests into their music video the more records they will sell. Some artists are willing to spend millions on music videos in an effort to sell more records.

A very important part of getting publicity for a music video is to find the best and most common ways to share it with the public , there are several different ways that an artist can do this but the main three are music channels (MTV) , DVD’s and online downloads.

Music channels such as MTV generate income from advertisers , they broadcast adverts for various different companies for example MacDonald’s and Maybelline and the more views that the channel can guarantee the advertisers the more money that they are able to charge. These channels accumulate so many viewers by broadcasting music videos and the more popular the videos the more money is generated for both the artists and the broadcaster.

 It’s hard to say exactly how much income a music channel brings to an artist but there is certainly a lot of evidence to support that the extra exposure and the additional visual aspect to the music can take an artist to the next level.

 

The use of synergy has brought a whole new side to both the music industry and many different forms of media such as television, films and adverts. Often artists are commissioned thousands of pounds to produce soundtracks for high end blockbuster movies and some adverts.

  

 Sometimes the most memorable part of an advert is the soundtrack, a nice upbeat tune over a boring advert can change the way the audience looks at it and their more likely to give it the time of day.

 

Here are some strong examples of how music has driven up the sales of a particular product, film or other media product.

 

The recently released James Bond movie “Skyfall” gained an enormous amount of publicity before it was released by the release of its soundtrack which was performed my award winning singer and songwriter Adele. The combination of a multi-million movie franchise and one of the most successful singers in the country makes for one of the most successful films of the year and shows us an incredibly catchy and memorable advertising technique.

 

 

An audience will often associate their favorite television programs with the theme tune, the artist or band will receive royalties for the use of their song and unless their song is copyright free then they will have to agree some sort of contract with the team behind the program which is basically just an agreement on how much their being paid.

 

A good example of a popular television series with a well-known theme tune is “scrubs”. Over the course of several series and many years of creating this show they have kept the same theme tune throughout and it has now in a sense become a part of the program, it’s something the audience have come to expect and enjoy.

 

 

 

One of the most important components involved in creating a successful advert is to have a memorable , simple and catchy soundtrack. If you’re watching an advert and you don’t like the soundtrack then almost sub-consciously you stop listening to advert and completely lose interest in what their saying. Whereas if the audience likes what their hearing their much more likely to become engaged with the advert and take the time to see what the purpose of the advert is.

There are many different examples of adverts that have successfully chosen the perfect soundtrack for the production and really managed to engage the audience and advertise in a professional and creative manner.

This is an advert for a Sony Bravia television and it fills all the criteria of a good advert , it’s simple , there’s nothing too complicated going on and theirs enough bright colors and action going on to keep the viewer engaged.

 

Music videos can be used for a large range of different things , their used for publicity , their used to boost record sales , they exist so that music channels can generate income and finally they give artists a way to portray an image of themselves to their fans in any way that they see fit.