1) Promotion and publicity
2) To make money and increase sales
Promotion:
A music video is a key platform for the promotion of a band, song and album. It persuades the audience to buy the record, or in today's industry, to buy a ticket for their concert. Some artists use product placement in their videos, for example Katy Perry in "Roar" where we see a Nokia Lumia right at the start.
Synergy:
Synergy is defined as "the interaction or cooperation of two or more organisations,
substances or other agents to produce a combined greater effect than the sum of their separate effects." In the music industry artists can promote films, TV shows and products alongside their song and image. It works in mutual benefit for both parties. Examples of this include:
"Skyfall" - Adele
Skyfall is the 23rd James Bond film that Adele wrote and sang a song for. It quickly rose up the iTunes chart and increased both popularity for Adele and for the film. The soundtrack was second in the UK singles chart and the film second highest grossing film of that year.
"Robin Hood Prince of Thieves" - Bryan Adams
This song was performed by Bryan Adams who performed this song for the film "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves". This song proved to be a huge success as it spent 16 consecutive weeks at the top of the UK singles chart, this boosted not only Adams' fan base but the films. The film managed to become the second highest grossing film of 1991 and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song.
"Lose Yourself" - Eminem
This is a song by rapper Eminem from the film 8 mile in which he's the star. It was released on September 17 2002 as the lead soundtrack for the film. Many critics described this as Eminem's best work to date praising the aggressive lyrics. Some critics have gone as far to say that this was one of the best hip hop songs of all time. "Lose Yourself" reached international success peaking the top of the charts in eighteen countries including the UK and Australia. It was the first ever rap song to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and also received other awards such as the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Solo Performance in 2004.
What makes a successful music video?
There is a myriad of elements that must merge together to make a successful music video. The following factors contribute to/reflect the success of a good promo video:
- Word of mouth?
If the music video is constantly being praised by critics and spoken about amongst different groups of people the video will gain a larger audience and possibly attract more sales.
- Newspaper articles/TV reports?
The most common "word of mouth" is newspaper articles like The Daily Mail. However, in recent times, apps and websites such as YouTube and Vimeo are much more successful methods of distributing videos as audiences can comment on what they think of the video and open discussion,
- Number of times shown on television?
Music channels like Smash Hits, Kiss and MTV distribute music videos, in particular MTV is renowned for gaining success for artists. But due to the technology advancements there are much more successful methods of distribution now,
- Number of views on YouTube?
As many people today own smartphones it's much more convenient for them to view videos on apps like YouTube which give them access to millions of music videos at their fingertips. Also if they enjoyed the video they just watched, YouTube has features that enable sharing on other branches of social media to spread the video to friends and family.
- Publicity?
Through social network sites and TV advertisements artists can gain even more success with their video. As many artists today have a social network page in which they have followers on who act as subscribers to their content and can post it in an instant and get quick feedback.
- Brand Identity?
Pop artists like Beyonce, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna have an image which has been enforced into their 'brand'. The audience know what to expect from a video of theirs which encourages them to watch more as they are familiar with them.
- Downloads (legal/illegal)?
Although the artists do not gain anything financially from illegal downloads, they do gain larger publicity which means they will have a larger audience and hopefully sell more concert tickets as a reuslt of this.Legal downloads through iTunes/Google Play Music are popular due to many people owning smartphones where music can be downloaded instantly.
- Charts?
This provides a list of the most popular downloaded songs at the moment and usually features as a show on music channels. For example 4Music normally do a "UK Top 40" show where all music videos of songs in the top 40 are shown.
- CD sales?
CD sales reflect the success of the music video, however of recent times due to the developments in technology there is a constant decline on its impact.
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