POST 2: INDUSTRY

My artist is signed to the 'Universal Music' record label with my independent production company being commissioned to produce the new music video for my artist. Once produced, my music video will be available to stream on YouTube and sister app YouTube Music with the audio-only version of the song also available on Spotify and other music streaming apps such as Deezer. In order to encourage my audience to watch my music video, the logos of these brands will feature on my website, with a link directly opening the video. This is the perfect demonstration of how different media platforms work symbiotically for the mutual advantage.


Universal Music Group & Vevo
Universal is one of the "Big Three" record labels along with Sony Music and Warner Music Group, with its headquarters based in California, USA. Due to Universal Music Group (UMG)'s status as a large conglomerate company, they have acquired smaller record labels of various genres. This has resulting in them having a wide range of artists such as Australian pop boy band '5 Seconds of Summer' as well as country single female artist 'Carrie Underwood' and electronic DJ 'Deadmau3.' Therefore, my single female dance artist would be best-suited to a large record label with a well-known brand identity and market power in the market.

UMG launched Vevo with the other two large record labels in 2009, as a video-hosting service which operated purely for music videos. Vevo is now a widely known video-hosting service, attracting high-end advertisers who may target the market segment of consumers who would watch music videos rather than the general audience that YouTube attracts. This is likely to be of a similar demographic to my "class AB" target audience.

Independent Production Companies

In terms of ownership, independent production companies tend to have lower budgets than larger production companies, often with conglomerate parent companies. This means that the independent companies are not able to spend extravagant amounts of money on mise-en-scene elements of the music video such as on costumes or hiring out large locations. Through my research, I also realised that many independently-produced dance music videos have do not have large dance sequences with over ten dancers, and instead tend to have a smaller group of around four dancers.

I have been inspired by 'London Alley Entertainment,' an independent production company specialising in music videos. They have produced many recent music videos like David Guetta & Anne-Marie's 'Don't Leave Me Alone' and Hailee Steinfeld's 'Capital Letters.' Both of these examples were directed by 'Hannah Lux Davis,' an American music video director who has worked on many female dance artist's music videos. I plan to base my independent production company on this one.

Marketing and Branding of Artists

Artists, particularly ones signed to large record labels like UMG, have their own recognisable, branding that spans across their whole presence, creating synergy through repeated fonts and logos. When achieved across online platforms, as well as in the music video and other branded posters or single covers, they achieve digital convergence and are recognisable as a full brand with a particular look and style to their dedicated audience.

After achieving this status, the branding behind the artist involves encouraging their TA to interact and engage with them and takes place across various platforms as cross-media marketing. This has been made easier over recent decades through the recent inventions of social media platforms, where fans can easily interact with artists by commenting on their photos (on Instagram) or retweeting their tweets (Twitter). Aside from these free methods, fans are able to see their favourite artists live on their tours or buy into their brands by purchasing their merch through their websites. An example is shown below, of a beret, jumper and deluxe CD sold by Anne-Marie on her website, with the clothing representing her most popular songs. The link at the bottom 'More Merch at the Official Store' links to Warner Music's merch store where there are many other items available to purchase. This not only generates extra revenue for the company but encourages fans to buy into the artists' brands.

Current Trends in the Dance Music Charts

Single female artists are currently performing very well in the music charts and are fiercely popular due to their large fan following from young women and teenagers. However, a pattern I noticed was that women were often paired up with other male artists for dance tracks in particular and in these instances were only credited as 'featuring' on the track. This is true for 'One Kiss,' a song that was at #1 in the 'Official Singles Chart' for seven weeks and although being widely recognised as a Dua Lipa song, she was merely featuring on Calvin Harris' song. In a similar way, 'Friends' with Marshmallo & Anne Marie climbed to #1 although the official music video was only uploaded to the male artist's YouTube channel, as was 'One Kiss.'

Despite the fact that these male-female collaborations are highly successful, single female artists are equally successful without someone else writing the song for them. This is particularly demonstrated with Dua Lipa's breakout song 'New Rules' which kept her at #1 for two weeks at a time where she was just beginning to be widely recognised. Therefore, I believe that as a single female artist, FRNKE (my artist) would be heavily popular with my 16-25 target audience.

YouTube Music
The streaming brand's sister company was initially released in 2015 but a new version of it was released in May 2018 with a desktop player and redesigned mobile app. It operates in a very similar way to YouTube, allowing users to browse and stream all music-oriented content, with the choice between a song's music video, original track and even live performances- the first two of which would be applicable for my artist.

To rival subscription streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, YouTube has expanded into the subscription service market, offering ad-free, background/audio-only streaming and downloadable music for offline streaming for a small monthly fee. Spotify offers a similar service to the one mentioned above, including ad-free downloadable music, but does not host music videos.


Regulation of Music Videos
Online music videos are regulated by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) which works with Vevo and YouTube to ensure that music videos that feature unsuitable content for younger children, under 12, are given a certificate age rating. This rating would appear on Vevo online and YouTube, both online and on the app, and would either be a 12, 15 or 18 rating.

Due to my brief, there is a requirement for distribution that my "content must be suitable for broadcast on streaming sites such as YouTube and age appropriate for young adults from the age of 16." I think this is to ensure that my video is suitable for the whole age range of my target audience, from 16 to 25 year olds, as they may not want to watch it otherwise. Therefore I need to ensure that my video is rated 12 or 15, or is deemed suitable for all ages.

The BBFC considers the following elements when classifying music videos:

Although I do not think my video will be deemed unsuitable, I have made myself aware of the 15 rating and written a comment about how this will affect my planning process.

• Drug taking is permitted but shouldn't promote or encourage drug misuse
• Strong language is allowed but the judgement on very strong language's inclusion is dependent on its frequency
• I will only be using the audio from my chosen song 'High Five' and therefore will not have any strong language
• Strong threat and horror is permitted as long as it isn't a sustained focus in the content
• As a whole my video should not "endorse discriminatory language or behaviour" although there may be discriminatory themes such as racism or homophobia

After looking at the BBFC guidelines I definitely believe that my video would be suitable for all ages or at most have a 15 rating, therefore abiding by the brief.