The Music Industry,Marketing, Promotion

& Music VideosAn Introduction

Introduction to Music Industry

• Musical taste can be a controversial topic- almost to the point of tribalism.

• It is contentious because it defines and often signifies personality and lifestyle. Musical taste is about the way you dress, speak and sometimes act.

• However, all commentators agree that Music and its trends -sit at the epicentre of popular culture.

• Not only to the extent that an individual can derive a sense of identity but to the extent the global community can be changed by Musical Trends

Inspiration or Perspiration?

Some critics believe that Music and Industry are in many ways

incompatible terms.

Why?

Key Tensions

• It is this ‘dynamic tension’ that exists between the artistic and commercial forces & underpins the success of this vast media business.

• A tension between the ‘naturalistic’ or organic and ‘manufactured’ or synthetic.

• Another feature to consider is the music industry ‘synergetic connections’ with other media forms –this codependence with other media means that a ‘mutual reliance’ can be productive but also risky.

The Place of the Pop Video

• You must understand that the pop video is only one strand of a an often multimedia campaign.

• The overview is a diagram of the contributing and sometimes, conflicting forces behind music/media creation.

• Examine the overview of the UK Music Industry – how significant is the pop video as a text or product within this scheme?

The Music Industry

• Dominated by 4 transnational corporations

– Universal Music Group (French multinational)

– Sony Music Entertainment (Japanese multinational)

– Warner Bros (US multinational)

[ EMI (British multinational) – defunct from 2012]

• Known as ‘The Majors’

• Largest music retailer is Apple’s iTunes.

The Music Industry

• Most majors also own, or licence, a string of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre

• These companies are known as ‘major-independents’

The Music Industry

• Finally, there are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors

• These companies often concentrate on a small number of artists, within specialised niches in the industry

• Known as ‘independents’

• What do you think is the relationship between Majors and Independents?

The Music Industry

• It is misleading to see the industry simply as a ‘hierarchy’, dominated by the majors

• A better description is a ‘web’ of companies, whose connections allow:– smaller companies to gain access to bigger markets– bigger companies to gain access to new artists and

movements in popular music

The Music Industry

• In turn, most record companies organise themselves internally into several key areas:

– Artists and Repertoire (A&R)

– Marketing/Artist Development

– Promotions

– Legal

– Financial

The Music Industry

• The industry as a whole has a complex relationship with a number of different media : Radio, TV, Print media, Film, New Media

• Synergy and symbiosis

• Within these relationships the Music Video serves a number of purposes

The purpose of the Music Video

• Music video serves a number of different functions:

– Promotes a specific single and, normally, an album– Promotes a specific artist or band– Creates, adapts or feeds into a ‘star image’– Entertains as product in its own right– Reinforces, adapts or undermines the ‘meanings’ of a

song

Music Video

• Often contains a number of different elements:

– Performance

– Narrative

– Thematic

– Symbolic

Music Video

• Visually stylish – ‘artistic’ mise-en-scene

• ‘Rhythmic’ montage, fragmented style

• Intercutting

• Experimental use of camera/editing

• Fast pace

• Conspicuous lighting and cinematography

• Often break the rules of continuity editing

Music Video

• A visual equivalent to music

• Encourages repeated consumption

• Encourages identification or desire for the artist

• Provides an open, polysemic experience for the viewer

Current ‘threats’ to the Music Video

In many respects the pop video is becoming defunct and irrelevant…

• Artist > Internet > downloading audiences

• Manufactured programmes with live feeds

• Music television becoming more mainstream – MTV?

• Can you think of any other threats to the music video?• What do you think is the future of the Pop Video?