Purposes of Music Videos

Promotional 

Promoting the artist is a key thing when making a music video because they are who people want to see. However, sometimes an artists appearance/personality or style may die out and the record label in charge of them must find other ways to grab people's attention. The examples I am going to be analysing is from the artist 'Katy Perry' who has changed her style of music videos and music category completely. 

Katy grew up with both parents being pastors and very strict on religion, she also listened to gospel music and early in her career she would sing gospel songs such as 'By the Grace of God' and  'Spiritual'. Everyone who is a keen fan would have remembered her before, now however her fame has hit the ceiling because of her dramatic change in things such as her style of music videos, and her image. I reckon that the record label whom she is signed with have lured her to this direction in order to make her stand out amongst the other artists, for example in the song 'By the Grace of God' the beginning of the song differs completely to the song below called 'I kissed a Girl', this being more of a quicker tempo than the other more humble song. I think her audience would definitely this change because they would be familiar with her music. Secondly, the song 'I Kissed a Girl' shows elements of Katy's admittance to her change where the first words are ''this was never the way I planned, no this is not my intention'', this suggests that although it may have other meanings behind it which relate more the specific song, there is a right to say she is slightly regretful of her change. Also, if we look at Katy's image before and after, we see a clear difference, for instance their is less clothing more heavier make up and seuxualised behaviour- something that her parents wouldn't approve of. 

Extension of Outlets

Youtube

In order for a music video to be published and increase it popularity and playability there needs to be outlets in place where the music is available for the public to listen to or download. Outlets are a popular way for the artist to expose their song to the public and get their name popular amongst their audience (fans). One outlet where you are able to listen and download music is iTunes which is part of  

DVD's

the Apple company. A company like Youtube will pay artists in accordance of the views they get on their videos, which promotes the artist. DVD's are the most obvious way of selling your music, which allows the artist to again promote themselves, it is also very good because it means that the audience's attention is all on one artist increasing the playability of the music. Other outlets such as spotify and iTunes which allow for downloading are useful for audience members because it is likely that if they liked the music video they would want to see it live at a

concert, and it they downloaded an MP3 format they'd want to watch the music video so will watch it on Youtube, which increases the extension of income for companies like Youtube.  MTV is another outlet which is a cable TV channel and broadcasts music videos, their main target audience is young adults and teenagers. This is because the majority of the videos aired there appeal to this demographic, mainly because of the 'MTV era'. This is where the editing of music videos have become so cut to the beat that each shot lasts about 3-4 seconds not lasting very long, also the quantity of shots. 

Major/Indie/Unsigned Record labels

Record labels are another part of a music videos purpose, because without them artists are unable to produce high quality music video's, the artist(s) will usually be signed to a record lable who will produce their music videos/pay for world tours and concerts etc. Their one aim is to promote the artist in as many ways as they can in order to gain for themselves, this being money from the ticket sales of concerts or merchandise. 

Major

Major record labels are the main source for all artists who want to make successful videos that are high quality. Some of the major record labels include; Warner music group, Universal music group, Sony music etc. It is these companies who have the right money for artists upcoming and old who want their audience to listen to their music, as well as the artist these companies want to make money for themselves in order to continue with their business.  For example, an artist who is signed to Sony Music group is the American singer and songwriter, Beyonce. Sony will pay for her millions of dollars to make a  music video, then will pay for her publicity that being in magazines, adverts, on the side of buses etc. Some benefits to a major label to the artist is obviously the funding which contributes to the marketing and production. Another pro is its influence on the industry which stems from the size of people working within on record label. One con is the turnover that can happen, where they may agree to sign an artist but then it quickly gets dropped. 

Independent 

There are also independent record labels who although may sound wealthy from the name which suggests something  'private', are almost no match for the major record labels, this is simply because of the money gap between the two. Although there will be signed artists on these indie labels it is likely that their video popularity wouldn't be as major as the major labels could offer. However some benefits to the artist in being signed by an indie label is they can have more personal relationships with the team, because they tend to have smaller artist rosters, which allows you to get more freedom is deciding on your video. Another benefit is the contracts which are more artist friendly, giving them more money for their work through larger percentage of revenue than given by the major labels. On the other hand, some downfalls is the lack of people within these labels which mean that they have less influence within the industry. 

Synergy 

Beyonce and Pepsi

'Synergy' simply means the collaboration and cooperation of two institutes who work together to promote/support one another, wanting to produce a greater effect than the one they'd have had they worked individually. Usually this collaboration is done for the audience/ public's sake because it is them that these companies are reaching out to. Collaborations range from major brands such as Pepsi working with well known celebrities like Beyonce, movie stars like George Clooney and coffee companies Nespresso but the one I will be discussing its benefits is from the band Nickelback using synergy in their music video called 'Hero' which features scenes from the 2013 Spiderman movie. This video clearly shows synergy because right before we even see the band, the spiderman flies past the camera leading us towards where the band are stood which nicely starts the video off for us. The collaboration makes sense because the song is called 'Hero' and Spiderman is a 'heroic' character, or is known as one of the superheros, so it is easily relatable to the song and the movie itself. The fans of the movie will enjoy watching short clips from the movie whilst listening to the song, making them want to buy the song and listen to it again separately. Similarly, fans of the band will want to listen to them perform but once they see the various clips from the movie will want to book tickets to the cinema to watch the full thing. Therefore, synergy is an effective way of boosting two companies popularity/revenue/gross etc, here both will benefit from their simple collaboration with each other.    

George Clooney and Nespresso

This example with George Clooney and Nespresso may not follow the same understanding as the example above because he is not promoting any movie he's been in. The synergy here works where the Nespresso company want to extend their shoppers of the coffee and the coffee machines so the fans of the actor will watch the advert and want to buy this product because their favourite actor is trying it. Therefore, the Nespresso company will benefit more than the actor in this case but his fans will also want to watch the next movie he's in.

Extension of Income
Many institutes pay their artists to publish their music online or even offline, this is also connected to the outlets like Spotify, Youtube, iTunes etc.

In order for a music video to be published and increase it popularity and playability there needs to be outlets in place where the music is available for the public to listen to or download. Outlets are a popular way for the artist to expose their song to the public and get their name popular amongst their audience (fans). One outlet where you are able to listen and download music is iTunes which is part of  

the Apple company. A company like Youtube will pay artists in accordance of the views they get on their videos, which promotes the artist. DVD's are the most obvious way of selling your music, which allows the artist to again promote themselves, it is also very good because it means that the audience's attention is all on one artist increasing the playability of the music. Other outlets such as spotify and iTunes which allow for downloading are useful for audience members because it is likely that if they liked the music video they would want to see it live at a concert, and it they downloaded an MP3 format they'd want to watch the music video so will watch it on Youtube, which increases the extension of income for companies like Youtube.

Copyright Laws on Illegal Downloads

''The penalties for copyright offences depend on seriousness, but at the higher end of the scale it can lead to an appearance before a magistrate where the sanction for distributing unauthorised files is a fine of up to £5,000 or six months' imprisonment.''-The Independent Newspaper 

People have grown more desperate to have artists music as soon as possible, even if it means getting it the illegal way. Copyright laws have been around since 1790 and have ever since been reformed many times so that they are up-to date with modern technology such as the outlets above. The governments plans on controlling illegal downloading is as stated above which is the current law on pirating, however the minister of culture , communications and creative Industries ,  Ed Vaizey, wants to impose ideas for stricter charges on those who engage in  illegal downloading of music videos.