The Purpose Of A Music Video

In 1975 Queen released a ground breaking video which would change music forever as it was the first example of a band using advanced visual effects within their video. Showing not only the band but the band actually performing the song that was being sung, it was revolutionary for its time. Since then music videos have become one of the most popular things since sliced bread, with millions of hits on video sharing sites such as YouTube they are known worldwide with the likes of Justin Bieber and Psy getting almost 3 billion hits on 2 videos.

One of the main reasons for a music video is to promote the director of the video, the artist and their new song. Pretty much every single artist nowadays has an ‘Official Vevo’ account on YouTube so fans can watch and listen to their favorite artists for free. The best way to promote anything is to create a large hype about the product, once this is done it will become very popular very quickly, for example Justin Bieber after being seen on YouTube and was then signed went on every talk show, TV show and radio to promote himself/his music.

Artists are marketed differently depending on what ‘category’ they come under. You have major label artists like Kanye West and Rihanna. They will have vast amounts of publicity behind them helping them promote their songs, videos and them as an artist. Publicity is their main promotion strategy. You then have Independent bands/artists like Bombay Bicycle Club, being a fairly well known band but not a major label band and not having the money to finance a large scale music video they’re often able to play their own instruments. With these artists its more about the music than the actual narrative of the video. Self-produced artists have become more popular over the years, Justin Bieber being the biggest known one. However when he wasn't as well known he obviously couldn't produce a large scale music video, if he had done he would have had complete creative control and free distribution and exhibition methods. Finally you have the ‘Art/statement’ videos. These videos are created not for the money or popularity but are created as the artist wants to create a piece of art.

Artists have many ways of making money; one of the main ways is selling their music or product to people. However many other aspects come into it now, there are more platforms for the artist to promote themselves. TV and Radio are now not the only platforms although the artist will earn money from royalties when there music is played on either of these. The internet, particularly YouTube is now a huge influence on an artist’s popularity and can often help find new artists. It can also make the artist money by the amount of views they get on the video and the advertising. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook can also help promote the artist and also make them money. There are disadvantages though, it’s a large market and every other artist is fighting for exposure which makes it hard to become big. Piracy is also destroying the music industry and losing the artists millions of pounds a year.

As said before more media outlets are becoming available to artists to promote their work, this allows them to get popular and so earning more money. The standard platforms are TV and radio however more have now come into play for example the internet. The internet has been possibly the biggest advantage for artists to date, allowing them to distribute and exhibition their work for free on sites such as YouTube and then promoting themselves on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Most artists will also have an ‘Official Vevo’ where all of the artist’s videos can be seen for free by the public. Music channels can also promote the artist; MTV, VIVA and Virgin help the artist gain popularity and also earn them royalties. BBC radio 1 also helps this as they give interviews with the artists and have exclusive ‘live lounges’ where the artist will perform their music live on the radio.

Most artists are involved in synergistic marketing. This is where the artist is promoted or is used to make money through licencing deals. Product placement can also gain the artists money as for example a car manufacturer will ask for their car to be in the music video and pay large amounts of money to the artist. Most female artists also have their own fragrance which promotes the artist as it’s their perfume but also promotes their product. A fragrance company will approach the artist, or artist’s agent and pitch their idea of making a fragrance which is the ‘artists fragrance’. They will then pay money so the deal can be made. The fragrance company is likely to earn more because of the artists popularity and the artist benefits as they have been given a lump sum of money from the company and also in a way getting free publicity.

Music videos are so popular because they’re unique. They allow fans to see their favorite artists, normally for free.  Artists also earn vast amounts of money and increase the popularity of the artist. I feel that they will continue to grow as there is nothing else like them on the market and its now just the norm for artists to create a music video to get a song popular. I feel that soon music videos will be everywhere and on every media platform possible to get more popularity for the artist. I do feel that TV and radio will live on, however in my opinion music videos will soon be completely internet based as more media platforms and more money can be made.