T1 : : Understanding the purpose of music videos

Music videos can be used for many different reasons some of which include;

- Promotion of the song
- Availability of an artist
- Extension of income
- Extension of outlet (music channel, direct DVD and CD sales, website, download)
- Synergy (film, TV programmes)
- The strategies producers' use (major label, independent, artist self produced)

Promotion - Music videos began to be used in the 1960s when The Beatles, in 1964, starred in their first feature film "A Hard day's Night" directed by Richard Lester. A year later they began making small promotional videos, not quite music videos more just shorts of the Beatles doing everyday stuff that could be played over the top of the music when they weren't available.

Availability of an artist - The success of Queens "Bohemian Rhapsody" created the regular practice for record companies to produce promotional videos for the artists singles releases. These videos could then be shown on television shows, such as Top of the Pops, without the need to appear in person, due to tours or the song being played in another country. Brian May has since said that the video was made: for 2 reasons A) The Band could avoid miming the complex song on top of the pops 2) They were unable to appear on the next programme every week as they were scheduled to appear on tour (number one for 9 weeks)

Extension of income - A video promotes the artist, the album/single as well as persuading the audience to buy things like CDs or to download the song/album on itunes. When a music video is released it raises the audience awareness of that artist, opening up more opportunities such as tours and festivals. An artist can also use the video to advertise their own products or are offered deals to advertise other products. examples of these are Christine Aguilera advertising her perfume in "Not myself Tonight" and Miley cyrus advertising the Beats Pill in "We can't stop".
















Extension of outlet - An easily accessible music video allows the artist to be seeable, without having to make a live appearance. They can now be seen in videos across multiple platforms; Music channels, Direct DVD and CD sales, A website, an online download. As a result for a multi platform availability music channels are no longer required to see the video you want to watch, and is at risk of dying out.

Synergy - When a film or TV programme uses a certain song/artist to advertise themselves they are directly bring publicity to the artist and vice versa. A strong example of this is "Skyfall" which was performed by adele as the theme tune for the James Bond film, the result is beneficial to both entities.



The strategies producers' use - The Music industry can be divided into 3 main groups; The Majors, The Major-independents, and The Self-produced Artists.
Its dominated by 4 major companies known as the "big 4", they are Sony Music, Universal, Warner Bros., and EMI. Known as 'The Majors' they are backed by conglomerates with stakes in other media such as film, TV, and Print Media. These Majors own smaller companies known as the major-independants, Columbia, Island records, Syco, RCA, Virgin.
VEVO is a music video site owned by several companies - Google, Universal Music Group, Sony music entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media. 3 of the 4 major labels have contracts with VEVO, Warner has a contract with MTV Networks instead, after considering VEVO as a host. Revenue is shared between VEVO and Google.
Huge numbers of small companies have no financial to the majors and are usually associated with specialised genres. "Warp Records" is an example of a successful independents, these often begin as independent but are then bought by a major and become major-independents.
Self produced artists have the smallest budgets and make a small income from sites like YouTube. Justin Bieber was found by American Talent manager Scooter Braun on YouTube in 2008.