The Purposes of Music Videos
Music videos help the promotion of artists as it's very easy for people to make simple videos and put it onto the internet. Music videos also help to promote other artists as some people put covers on YouTube which might make people investigate the original artist. It also helps to promote the director as other artists might watch the music video and like the director’s style and ask them to direct theirs. When artists make a music video it will also help to promote the song as people are most likely going to choose a song with a music video to listen to. Sometimes in the music video, the artist might have their name somewhere in some scenes, for example, in No More Dream by the band BTS you can see in some shots that their name is written out around the room.Different artists are marketed differently whether they are self-produced or not. Some artists will have publicity behind them, which is common for mainstream artists, such as, Ed Sheeran. There are a lot of different conventions / elements that will be in mainstream artists videos, this will include dances, narrative, fashion, positive thoughts, a wide range of locations and shot types, extras and props. This is due to the fact that they have the money to be able to afford the cost of it all, whereas, for independent bands or artists, such as, Adele, they often don’t have the money to afford a larger performance and so they might not change the location, have as many extras, have good lighting or many props, have good editing, or as big of a reputation. For mainstream artists, it is quite easy to find their music videos, as they are often shown on the internet, on websites like YouTube or the artists own website. The music video would also be shown on different TV channels, like Scuzz or Kerrang. Whereas with individual artists they might only be shown on the internet on websites like YouTube, Facebook or their own websites. However, there are disadvantages of being a self-produced artist, for example, often not a lot of people will see their songs.
When an artist record plays on the radio they will then get a sum of money for the use of their product, this is called royalties or payments. The artist will also get royalties if they make an official music video for their record and people view it. An estimate is made for an artist depending on how popular a certain track is, based on the popularity or interest in it an assumption is made and then the royalties are paid accordingly. The estimate is since it is impossible to track the consumption of a singular music video. Mainstream artists tend to get their royalties as they are top of the charts on a regular basis as their songs are often played on the radio. However, artists who aren’t heard of mainly rely on other “media outlets” to be known. The reason why broadcasters don't play unknown artists is that they know that the listeners want to listen to new popular releases and not songs that they don't know. This is also why popular artists get paid more as their songs get played more often and so more people will end up listening to the song. There are different ways that new artists can gain recognition, for example, they can pay to have their songs played in podcasts or they could have a famous YouTuber mention them in one of their videos. An example of a new artists song being in a podcast is “Things Still Left To Say” by Mal Blum which was used in Welcome To Night Vale.
Self-produced artists are artists that prefer to produce their own music as opposed to being owned by a company. An example of a self-produced artist is Chance the Rapper who, in an interview with Billboard said: "I can do whatever I want". This is also an advantage to being self-produced as you have full control of whatever it is that you want to do, also you can decide where your music gets uploaded on the internet. However, there are disadvantages of being self-produced which is that you might say something that some people might find offensive and if you get more popular someone might find it and could ruin your career.
Sometimes music videos have an art statement that the artist wants to be remembered by, this is often done by having an emphasis on the visuals of the video. An example of this is the song Blood, Sweat & Tears by BTS - in this video, it has the members walking through an area which has different sculptures as well as paintings. Furthermore, all of the members are wearing colourful clothes. The main reason artists make art statement videos is so the fans have a lot of things to focus on so that they won't get bored watching it.
There are many different types of media outlets that people can use to view music videos, for example, the internet and Instagram, as well as specific examples of each, for example, adverts on YouTube might play a small section of the artists' song. There are many different advantages and disadvantages to the growing number of media outlets, an advantage is that more artists will gain popularity because if they are playing on a TV channel people might hear it unintentionally and enjoy it, on the other hand, the artists have a higher chance of getting pirated as some people might not want to buy the album and so download it illegally. Another advantage is that it wouldn’t just help the artists but also radio stations and TV stations because some people might know that there favourite artist is playing on the channel and purposefully listen to it, so they can hear the song.
Although music videos are used to promote the artist, they are also used to promote the director. An example of a music video director is Spike Jones who has directed for artists such as, Beastie Boys and also Weezer.
Synergistic marketing is the term used when referring to companies being granted the rights to use a film for marketing purposes. For example, T-shirts, cups and plates having Marvel characters on them. This helps the companies gain money as more people will buy their products also it helps Marvel get money as well as the company gave them a sum of money to use their images. This also links in with product placement in films, TV shows or music videos as if people see a product (like an outfit or accessory) in a film then they might buy the product and so the company gets money through it. Synergistic marketing works in music videos as sometimes the artists will produce a song for a film and then include scenes from the film into the music video or just have the title of the film in the title of the song on YouTube, an example of this is Immortals by Fall Out Boy.
In conclusion I think that music videos are so popular because they are entertaining to watch as they sometimes have dancing, narrative and positive thoughts which will attract new fans and are easy to access on the internet, for example, YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes, even the artists' websites and there are different channels on the TV to watch music videos on, for example, Scuzz, Kerrang, The Hits. Also, because artists make music videos for a lot of their songs it might attract new fans and give the artists more money to make other music videos.
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