Purposes of Music Videos

Promoting a single release ( most videos do this) - Ed Sheeran (Don't)

Singles are normally song recordings that are sold separately from an album. Mostly, more popular songs have their own individual release than being released with the album. For example, Pharrell Williams' 'HAPPY' got its own individual release because it was such a big track that was very popular compared to its album, GIRL with other releases from the artist. The single gets promoted by having its own individual release, some artists like to promote their singles on television and radio as adverts to motivate audiences nationwide and worldwide to buy their individual singles. Some artists like to promote their new singles over social networking sites, for example Facebook and Twitter which would normally get fans excited. Then this single would begin to be made so that the single would be broadcasted over YouTube.  

The purpose of this video is to promote the artist's (Ed Sheeran) new single, Don't from Ed Sheeran's new album X. The artist helps to promote his new single by portraying himself in the video, but not as the main character, but as a person in the background. The single also promotes the album as the album is seen at the end, telling audiences to go and buy the album. The whole video seems to be shot in the USA when he went over for a tour and was part of the inspiration behind this video. The song mainly illustrates him being heart-broken over one of his girlfriends cheating on him with another man. Since this was broadcasted in August 2014, this video has been watched 17,492,335 times. It has also hit number one on the singles charts in the UK many times. Fromm 2:00 to 2:02, we see a close up of the artist's face, to show to the audience that this is a person that wrote the song and is singing in the background. The whole video shows a dancer going to poverty when he was younger (living on the streets, (0:00 to 0:51) to being wealthy when he was older (living in a mansion, (3:33 to 4:36). Ed Sheeran does make a brief cameo appearance as he is driven to one of his gigs on his tour of the USA.

Promoting an album ( explicitly shown in  video or youtube link ) - Fall Out Boy (Centuries)

Albums are normally a collection of songs compiled onto one whole CD. These are extremely popular among teenagers and young adults as if they had wanted to buy something associated to their favourite artist, then this would be ideal. Audiences would get treated to listening to their favourite songs and then listen to the other songs that are on there by the same artist.

The purpose of promoting an album is to invite audiences to go and buy the track that is featured in this album. For this, I picked out Fall Out Boy's Centuries because the album is promoted at the end of the video, when the album name is grafted on the wall to show that there is a new album out and is available to buy. I think this particular video directly promotes this album because this music video's name is also the name of the new album Fall Out Boy are making. I would say that because the artist has not yet released the album just yet, audiences would get excited because they get to know that there would be a new album on the way. Since this was broadcasted in  This video has been seen on September 2014, this video has been seen on YouTube over 6,543,544 times. This was not the official video to the song but a prequel to the release on October 17th. The artists are not shown in this video but a graffiti artist is shown from 2:47 to 3:36 to inscribe the artist's new album name on the wall to illustrate that there is a new video coming soon.

Promoting a new artist - George Ezra (Blame it on Me)

The purpose of promoting a new artist is to promote new and young talent in the music industry. George Ezra (above) is a new artist that has got over 1 million views on one of his first singles, Blame it on Me in the opening 2 weeks for when it came out. This helps promote him as an artist as well as his music. His single was incredibly popular that his music was featured in ITV's 'Autumn Drama' trailer, which helps promote him more as more people would want to listen to his music more in the future after watching the trailer. Since this video was broadcasted in August 2014, this video has been seen on YouTube over 3,600,077 times which shows his popularity for one of his first singles in the music industry. He was first seen in 2013 when he played at the BBC Introducing Stage, in which he played one of his hit singles, 'Budapest'. Later on that year, he received airplay of his song on BBC Radio 1. This wold promote him more because BBC Radio 1 was one of the most listened to radios in the UK. George Ezra's music video illustrates the message to the audience that he is having a bad day. From 0:55 to 1:00, we see a full head shot of the artist to show to the audience that this is what the artist looks like. From 2:48 to 3:00, we see a long shot of the artist at a distance and where he is. Normally this establishes where the video is taking place.

Showing  a change in musical direction or image for an artist - Miley Cyrus (We Can't Stop)

The purpose of showing a change in musical direction of image for an artist is to show the artist taking a different change to their style of music. For this, I have chosen a most recent change in the music industry, Miley Cyrus and her song, We Can't Stop. This shows her being changed from the 'Hannah Montana' character that appeal to more 9-10 year old girls to a more part late-teens teenager which would appeal more to 16-20 year olds. This songs also presents a change in her personality as well as it shows in the video all of the things she likes to do now, for example: partying and drinking, that message is portrayed to the audience. From her previous songs, for example 'Party in the U.S.A' and 'Best of Both Worlds', you could see that she was more appealing to early-age teenagers. When we roll forward to present day, her videos are more appealing to those of an older age. Since this video was broadcasted in June 2013, this video has been seen on YouTube over 461,849,882 times.From 0:08 to 0:17, we see the new image Miley Cyrus that she has portrayed herself as a close up. From 1:37 to 1:44, we see a long shot of some of the action that is surrounding her. From 3:01 to 3:06, we see a tracking shot that is shown on an object that is in motion. In this shot, it is focused on Miley Cyrus fighting with the other partygoers.

Promoting another media product ( e.g film or TV programme) - Linkin Park (New Divide)

The purpose to promote another media product for film and TV is to motivate audiences to go and watch the certain film that their music is featured in. For this, I have chosen Linkin Park's 'New Divide' that promotes Michael Bay's 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'. This music video shows clips of the film that helps promote the movie even more. Since this video was broadcasted in June 2009, this video has been seen on YouTube over 174,848,633 times. Music videos can also advertise another product as well. In this case, I chose a music video that advertises a film because films can be very popular amongst audiences worldwide. As you could see from the views this video has, this video encouraged audiences worldwide to be motivated and watch the film they are advertising. This music video also helped in the way that more audiences went to go and see the film and a record $836,303,693 was made worldwide with helping hands from this music video. This music video was also set on the set of 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'. From 0:02 to 0:10, we see where the film is set. The band's bodies are portrayed to be as the desert islands where most of the movie is set. From 0:45 to 0:50, this is known as a close up as the camera zooms in to the singer's head, which is the only thing we could see at this point. At 0:53, this is known as a long shot which shows the band all in one space as they are playing 

Increasing the income for the record company - Justin Timberlake (Tennman Records)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennman_Records

This is an example of a song that can increase the income for the record company. I chose Justin Timberlake's Tennman Records. Tennman Records benefits from one of these many singles because it features one of the most famous musicians which would mainly benefit because then more people would look to buy the single and therefore more profit for the record company. I decided to choose FreeSol's track 'Role Model' that features Justin Timberlake as the music that would increase income for the record company. As Justin Timberlake is featured in this single and music video, he benefits more because he owns the record label and therefore benefits entirely. Since this video was broadcasted in October 2011, this music video has been viewed over 2,533,149 times on YouTube which shows that this particular video became popular pretty quickly and as the video is copyrighted by Tennman Records, this would increase sales of this song and therefore more income for his record company.

Examples of artists using social media to promote a song - Ed Sheeran (Thinking Out Loud)

https://www.facebook.com/EdSheeranMusic?fref=ts

On one Facebook message from Ed Sheeran on October 7th, we see that his new single, 'Thinking Out Loud' will be out on YouTube 'drops in 1 hour'. Using social media is a good way to promote a song because audiences would get to know when a song would come out. In this Facebook status written by Ed Sheeran, we hear that his album would be out in 1 hour and over 60,000 people liked his status. This status came out on 7th October which releases all of the details audiences would need to know on when the music video for his new single would come up. His profile picture, (top left) also promotes his new album, X as audiences would get to know what his new album would look like. Although he does not show a link to YouTube, he does tease and excite the audience with his upcoming music video. This is the video that he was promoting on Facebook:

This music video came out on the same date as Ed Sheeran's Facebook status. This music video has had 12,215,889 views on YouTube since its release date this month.