CASE STUDY:

MUSIC VIDEO
ANALYSIS
Sony Music Entertainment
Thriller & 80s Mercedes

A presentation by Taylor Torres-Griffin

AICE Media Studies Period 4
November 18, 2016

SONY MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT

HISTORY OF SME

Operates as a music publishing company

Founded in 2004 and is headquartered in New York, New York
(Additional offices world-wide: from Australia, Brazil, and
Portugal, to the United States and the United Kingdom)

Chain of Historical Events

1. First founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation

(renamed Colombia Broadcasting System in 1938)
2. Bought by Sony Corporation in 1987 and renamed Sony
Music Entertainment in 1991
3. In 2004, SME and the Bertelsmann Music Group merged
to become Sony BMG Music Entertainment
4. In 2008, Sony bought out BMGs stake, and the company
stood on its own as Sony Music Entertainment

HISTORY CONTINUED
SME is considered to be one of Big Three Record Companies

-Second largest after Universal Music Group

-Ahead of Warner Music Group
The graphics and charts shown on the following slide supports the Sony
Music Entertainment Companys position between Universal Music Group
and Warner Music Group. Statistics derive from 2012 Global Market
Share from Sony Music: Entertainment investor day- music segment

2012 Global Market Share

SME
Universal
Music Groupl

Warner Music Group

TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION & IMPACTS

Important evolutionary steps made by Sony (starting from 2004)

May 2004: develops new 4K SXRD high-resolution LCD panel, the industry's first LCD device to
meet advanced digital cinema DCI-recommended specifications of 4K (4906H x 2160V) *set
global standard for digital cinema projectors*

September 2004: development & production of world's first mercury-free button-shaped

silver-oxide battery

October 2004: Sales launch of HDR-FX1- world's first consumer use digital HD video camera
recorder

2005: sales launch of the world's smallest digital HD video camera recorder Hi Definition
Handycam HDR-HC1 & sales launch of new BRAVIA brand HDTV-compatible flat-screen TVs

November 2006: Releases first Blu-ray disc (BD) titles

September 2007: Sound Entertainment Player "Rolly" released

October 2008: releases digital SLR Camera "900"

December 2008: Introduces Blu-spec CDs

October 2009: High frame-rate single lens 3D camera technology, developed

December 2012: Introduces Blu-spec CD2

Blu-ray is an optical disc format designed to display high definition video and
store large amounts of data.

The standard was developed collaboratively by Hitachi, LG, Matsushita

(Panasonic), Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson. -(WhatIs.com)

DIVERSIFICATION &
CONVERGENCE
As of present day, SME owns a total of 12 different labels:

Columbia Records

RCA Records

Epic Records

Arista Nashville

RCA Records Nashville

Columbia Nashville

Legacy Recordings

Sony Music Latin

Masterworks

Vested in Culture

RCA Inspiration

Provident Label Group

SME, along with any of its 12

different labels have been fairly
successful over the years. For
example, Fifth Harmony partnered
with Epic Records and were able to
successfully release another album.

DIVERSIFICATION &
CONVERGENCE
CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA and Sony Music Entertainment Enter into Joint Venture
(April 12, 2016)

SME partnered with CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA into a joint venture to provide ticketing
services in Latin America. The JV operates locally under the EVENTIM brand and benefits
services related to concert promoters and venues. Customers can buy tickets through
different mediums, including online and mobile apps. The JV will leverage both EVENTIM's
technology platform and SONY MUSIC's broad range of Latin American relationships, music
assets, and marketing reach. The JV began its course in Brazil, and hopes to spread to other
countries world-wide.

Verizon and Sony Music Announces Multi-Year Agreement to Distribute Slate of

Original Video Content Programming from Sony Music Through the go90 Mobile
Platform
(January 7, 2016)

Through this partnership, go90 (a mobile video service and social entertainment platform), will
feature new original series from Sony Music, in addition to special live events and
performances.

PRODUCTIONS

Sony Music Entertainment has an endless amount of talent signed

on its Complete Artist Roster. SME works to represent, publish,
and record artists to ensure they remain a strong hold in the
global music community.

Just to name a few artists signed with SME:

1.

John Legend

2.

The Chainsmokers

3.

Fifth Harmony

4.

Meghan Trainor

5.

DJ Khaled

6.

Sia

7.

Beyonc

8.

Bob Dylan*

9.

Elvis Presley*

10.

Michael Jackson*

MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION PRACTICES

Content Marketing: A type of marketing that involves
the creation and sharing or spreading of online
material. It doesnt explicitly call out a brand, but
attempts to generate the interest of the viewer.
SME utilizes social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and
Facebook to reach out to the public.
In some countries (less technologically advanced as in
comparison to the USA) use mailing lists, subscription
services, iTunes, and other streaming platforms such as
Spotify and Deezer to reach out to viewers.

MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION PRACTICES

According to Adriana Palmer, a Digital Marketing Specialist at Sony Music
Central America & Caribbean:
Through social media we can create and reinforce brand awareness,
advertise and promote our products (music content), capitalize and engage
our followers, create a sense of music community, communicate our events,
our contests and connect to media partners with the ultimate goal of selling
our artists and their products.
Distribution:
Under the terms of a multi-year agreement, SME will deliver digital content
from Wind-ups (a privately owned company) extensive artist
rosteracrossall commercial channels and on a variety of digital platforms,
includingonline and mobile.
www.sonymusic.com

TWITTER ACCOUNT

INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT

THRILLER
MICHAEL JACKSON

BASIC INFORMATION
The first hit song with year-round appeal containing lyrics about
creatures of the night who terrify their victim!
o

John Landis, who worked on the 1981 movie An American

Werewolf In London, was brought in to direct the music video.

The music video is considered the most famous music video of

all time - the Library of Congress added it to its National Film
Registry in 2009, the first music video in their registry.

A British songwriter named Rod Temperton wrote this song

The video won for Best Performance Video, Best Choreography,

and Viewers Choice at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984.

Filmed in California at the Palace Theatre in downtown Los

Angeles, a street junction in East LA, and in a house in the
Angeleno Heights neighborhood

14-minute-long musical horror film

At the time, the video was the most expensive video ever made

MARKETING &
DISTRIBUTION
The video distribution deal was through a company called Vestron, who approached
John Landis about selling the film directly to consumers, which turned out to be very
profitable. The timing helped, as the video was released a few weeks before
Christmas.
o

Released on November 30, 1982 by Epic Records

Recording sessions took place from April to November 1982

Production budget of $750,000, assisted by producer Quincy Jones

MUSIC VIDEO: THRILLER

Link to the music video on Youtube:
https://youtu.be/sOnqjkJTMaA

MARKETING, DISTRIBUTION, &

EXCHANGE

Most important market strategy for Thriller:

MJ himself; at the point in time of MJs career, he made sure he was

already well-known in households and in music players everywhere.
Since he was so commonly known, his fans awaited the release of his new
album and the Thriller music video

80S MERCEDES
MAREN MORRIS

BASIC INFORMATION
80s Mercedes' was a music video in my mind from the day we
wrote it. I wanted the visuals to feel really neon, hyper stylized
and fun. Like a graphic novel on acid. Alon's vision matched the
song perfectly and I couldn't picture a more fitting representation
of the song! Maren Morris
o

The video shows Morris driving the red mercedes benz for a
spin through a backdrop of glowing sunsets and neon lights.

Got the inspiration from a trip to LA and from a conversation

with Audra Mae who used the phrase "80s Mercedes" in their
conversation, and she thought it would be a good title for a
song.

Released in June 2016 as Morriss second single

Contains a faint reference to Don Henleys song The Boys of

Summer

Listed in her album Hero

Genre: Country and Traditional Country

MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

o
o
o

Production Company: Columbia Records

Distributors: Columbia Records (2016) (USA) (all media)
Much of Morriss marketing for this video and song came from
social media ads on her Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

MUSIC VIDEO: 80S

MERCEDES
Link to the music video on Youtube:
https://youtu.be/m9md97nN_SQ

MEDIA, DISTRIBUTION, & EXCHANGE

*The song has sold 158,000 copies as

of October 2016

WORKS CITED PAGE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Music_Entertainment
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?
privcapId=13515033
http://www.sme.co.jp/eng/history/
https://ttlarry.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/case-development-and-analysi
s-sony-music-entertainment/
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Blu-ray
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/history.html
http://
engage.scribblelive.com/Article/1040699-Sony-Musics-Adriana-Palma-Gives
-Proven-Content-Marketing-Tips
https://www.sonymusic.com/sonymusic/sony-music-entertainment-announce
s-digital-distribution-agreement-with-wind-up-records

WORKS CITED PAGE CONT.

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=422
http://
mentalfloss.com/article/71786/21-thrilling-facts-about-michael-jacksons
-thriller
http://
www.rollingstone.com/music/news/12-thrilling-facts-about-michael-jack
sons-thriller-20131029
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088263/companycredits?ref_=ttfc_sa_4
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=40239
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80s_Mercedes#Music_video