Promotion of Artist

The sole reason for the production of music videos, is simply to promote the artist. The record label will intend on making a unusual, memorable music video to influence the purchase of every song to come. Lady Gaga's first video had to catch the attention of the audience in order for her fan base to become as big as it is. Lady Gaga is well known for her unusual fashion sense that is shown in her videos, without which her image wouldn't be advertised meaning her fan base may not be as big as it is. If an artist did not make a music video, they would not be keeping up with the current expectations of music, the artist would not be as popular because they would not be featured on music channels e.g. UK top 40. The audience enjoys to see their favourite artists singing rather than just listening to them. The promotion of the artist and the song through music videos is crucial to the success of music artists because they would not be as well known without them, which is why record labels invest so much money in the production of music videos because they are certain they will earn it back. The artists will gain more fame, resulting in more money and the record label will also profit due to high record sales.

First Lady Gaga video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Abk1jAONjw

This music video promotes the artist to the audience, showing them what to expect in future Lady Gaga songs and videos. In the hope that this will

artist. One way in which a record label pay for the production of a music video is through the use of product placement. This involves another branded good featuring Product placement hope that it will achieve attention and interest causing an in the music video in the increase in popularity for the brand, product, label and lastly the artist themselves. For example if 'Marshallamps' wanted to feature their amplifier in a music video being played by the artist then they would pay the record label to do this. The audience would then assume that their favourite artist uses this amplifier and might immediately go and purchase it. In some cases the use of product placement can pay for the entire video, sometimes resulting in profit for the record label. An example of the use of product placement is seen most significantly in Lady Gaga videos, in particular the video for the track 'Telephone'. In this video there are 9 different product placements ranging from Heartbeats earphones, Virgin Mobile, Diet Coke, HP laptop, Plenty Of Fish dating site, Chevrolet, Polaroid, Wonderbread and Miracle Whip. The fact that there are 9 different uses of product placement in the Lady Gaga video would most likely mean that the record label would earn their money back because of the amount of money invested from the product placement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U There are several downsides for the use of product placement, the first being the fact that the brand, logo, label or product will have very little power of when, or how they are featured in the video. This could result in negative product association and little gain for the brand. Another negative outcome of product placement could be the fact that the music video could be unsuccessful and might not earn the company or the record label the amount of money that they wished. In cases such as Lady Gaga, her success is expected because of her fan base. They are guaranteed to buy her music, however less popular artists may not be as successful and the record label could suffer in the end if they do not earn as much money out of product placement as they would have hoped. But in order to promote their own artist and

Synergy
Synergy funding is another way in which a record label would be able to promote their artist through their music videos. Synergy funding is the way in which two production labels work together in order to promote and advertise their product to the best possible standard, which is perhaps not as achievable if they were to do it separately. The music video would be created involving the combination of the two products or companies. They would each achieve success through the video because they are featured equally. One example of a synergy music video is the track 'Black Suits Comin' by Will Smith. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RVRCd6J2NA This is a synergy music video because it is advertising the film Men In Black simultaneously to advertising Will Smith as a separate artist. The video includes characters, clips and costumes from the actual film which will ultimately increase popularity for the film, sales figures for the song and audience for Will Smith as a singer as well as an actor. This is seen again in the Twilight film in which Paramore provides the soundtrack. This is again a synergy music video as Paramore feature in it the video as well as clips from the Twilight movie. They are therefore each advertising each other through the music video. Paramore gains popularity with being related to the extremely successful Twilight franchise and the film Twilight gains a bigger audience because it is related to the musical popularity of Paramore and their huge fan base. The song and film may not have been as successful if they had not collaborated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvnkAtWcKYg

Income extension
Income extension is another reason why record labels produce music videos, it is again just to extend the amount of money they earn. The artists song will be released which will earn the label a fair sum of money, the label will then release an official video which will also amount to more money. In doing this they expect their audience to first purchase the song, then later the video separately either on iTunes or other websites. This means they earn extra money as the audience has purchased the same track twice. The release of the video will attract a wider audience, which means more will buy the song, causing the artist and the record label to extend their income by a substantial amount. Their video would feature on Youtube and channels such as MTV, this will again reach out to a larger audience. Every time the video is shown on a music channel then the artist and label are paid, without a video they would not earn extra income because music channels would not have a video to play if it was just the track alone. When the video reaches Youtube and gains a large amount of views, it is likely that other companies and brands will pay to advertise down the sides of the video so that they also earn money when their product is purchased. This means that the record label is paid a percentage for others' Youtube advertisements. Therefore, the production of music videos earns the record label and artist a severe income extension, the release of a track without a video would not be as popular and not as many people would buy it so in producing a music video they are appealing to more fans

Extension of outlets
The extension outlets means to feature a music video, the outlet, in as many places as possible in order to gain a wider audience. In some cases the content of a music video becomes more well known than the song itself, so it is crucial that the music video is produced and is a success because the track might not be as popular on its own. The music video can be viewed in so many different ways, whether it be on the television, the internet or a DVD, these are all direct means of outlets. The video would be featured on channels such as MTV, regular viewers of this channel would watch the video without knowing who the artist is and they might become a fan of the artist because the video attracted them before the song as a video has the ability to connect with a more diverse audience compared to the track alone. Once this music video has been officially released it will spread throughout the internet through places such as Myspace, Youtube or Facebook. Just by a single person providing a link on Facebook to a song on Youtube could lead to their whole friend list watching it, meaning the song becomes more popular. These are direct outlets, if the record label continues to extend its outlets then it will result in a larger fan base, and a larger amount of money earned. Some record labels may create DVD's of live performances of the artist to earn more money for tracks that have already been released, this will again expand the audience. Some artists gain popularity through recommendation of other people, if one person tells another to watch a certain a video then the word would spread and the amount of views would increase along with record sales, despite this being an indirect outlet it will still be successful in expanding the audience of the artist or even the director of the video. Alongside popularity growing for the artist,