The Purpose of Music Videos

Intro
The arrival of the music video could be said to be when queen released their song called Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975 the same year in which Jaws was released. This was a ground breaking video and set the template of the modern music video that people should use. Music video would then be in very high demand as there were not many outlets that fans could consume to see there favourite artist.


This essay will outline the overall purpose of the music video. I will explore questions on who,why and where people watch music videos.

Promotion of Artists
Promotion is a big part of why music videos are made. Promotion is things that encourage and support the buying of a song. When a music video is made it is thought out very carefully as the video is a reflection of the band or artist. Usually through a music video the artist will be perceived in the way they want to be perceived. This will show the world how they are through the music video.


In this music video promotion is shown through the bands attitude to money and how they are anti establishment. Just like any other music video the artist would choose to come across this way to target a specific audience however mostly it's just to show how they are.

As well as the artists in video's the song is also promoted in a music video. When music video's weren't made there was a limited outlet artists could promote there own songs by either a performance or a CD.

Sometimes music video's also promote the creator of the video as well as the song. For example some film directors have started out making films and going across into film. David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) directed Madonna's music video Bad Girl. When a famous director or producer takes part in the music video the production value increases and so forth the song is promoted as fans will know its good through the name.

Producer Strategies
Producer strategies are ways in which the producer can promote their artists. If we look at mainstream artists they are mostly found on the most popular of mediums e.g. YouTube and MTV.
















Producers will come up with different ways to promote their own products through a variety of ways. No artist is the same so artists are promoted in many ways. With YouTube many producers will use this as it is a free medium they can use. Also most mainstream artist are shown through the music tab now so artist are more likely to be shown when they have a lot of views.

Another way in which some producers promote their artists is through their own websites. Some independent and mainstream bands use websites for their fans to promote their own songs. Websites show a lot of information about the band or artist which can sometimes include the actual songs they produce. 

However some unknown artists have to promote their own songs on their own. This is why the new media outlets have become so popular as it is free promotion. For example when Justin Bieber was young his videos were posted onto Youtube this was free. He was then discovered and has become known world wide. However the fact that it is free is can mean that sometimes unknown artists won't have  the same budget as an established artist who is well known.

Extension of Income

One of the reasons music videos exist is because of income. When Record labels and artists makes music usually they will recieve royalties or a payment for the use of their product. When they also make a music video this happens again for the amount of people who watch the video. This is why the most known artists do so well. If an unknown artist was to make a music video it has a very low chance of being seen because people in the media industry don't like to take risks. If a radio station like Kiss Fm was to stray away from the usual pop music and change it to rock music. It would be very hard to predict the outcome of the change.

This puts off people from discovering new artists because their is a risk of the royalties not being as high. Also this is why mainstream artists dominate the charts as people know a style of music works in different areas of the media.

Extensions of Media Outlets
With the coming of modern day technology there are many media platforms and outlets for music to be broadcasted to people. Some of these platforms are Radio, TV, Internet and Cds. On these platforms there are outlets which include Kiss FM, Scuzz, Soundcloud and Cd stores such as HMV. These outlets have there advantages and disadvantages for the up and coming artists. A clear disadvatage would be with the amount of outlets that are on offer the saturation of new talent increases dramatically. For example with Youtube 300 hours of content is being uploaded to youtube every mintute. With more content it means that artists can have there going literally un notices due to the volume of content. However due to this it can be an advantage as artists and record labels are forced to be more creative to get noticed which means you would be getting more promotion for a music video any way if its creative. E.g. Coldplay has a creative stop motion music video that has 9 million views on youtube.


Synergy
Synergy marketing is promotion and profit of a music video through licensing deals. This original idea was founded by Disney when Walt Disney gave other companys the rights to show Mickey Mouse on different products. This idea of synergy is widely used today and must be taken into account if you want to use other peoples work in a product. An example of synergistic marketing through a music video could be Nickelback Hero. This music video was also included and marketed in the Spiderman film. This allows the music video to combine the popularity of the movie to therefore promote it.


Conclusion
The reason why I think music videos are so popular is because in my opinion music plays a huge part in the our lives that influences all of us in different ways and plays a huge part in our culture. People will want to consume it as much as possible therefore there is a constant need for music videos. I feel that music video will sustain itself in the media because it is always pushing the boundarys and innovative music videos are constantly evolving. Overall I feel that music video popularity will continue to grow for a very long time.