Marketing and Promotion

Music videos, CD covers/artwork and websites play a large role in the marketing and promotion of the artist and their music:

The music video shows the artist and allows another viewpoint of the song used. The artist can be shown in several different lights dependent on the video and the song. The CD covers and artwork can have another style to promote the artist, the artwork can link to the album or can be completely different. The cover can either focus on selling the artist or the music. The website can link everything together, tying the music video and the artwork together and giving a bigger picture of the artist.

Originally music videos were just the artist being filmed singing, they then progressed to further sell and promote the artist. Early music videos were recording of live performances before they moved onto being like mini-films, used for entertainment as well as promotion.

In the 1960's, there was an increase in having people TVs in their household, this meant more people were watching TV meaning more content was needed to be made. The original purpose of having 'music videos' was to sell the records. The 1970's saw a start in artists recording videos to go specifically with the song. These videos could be produced as video equipment became portable and the video was produced to sell records.

MTV was launched in the 1980's, a whole channel dedicated to music videos. MTV needed music videos to be made for content and artists suddenly couldn't go without a video. Videos became bigger and artists spent more on them. Hard disk editing came around in the late 80's/early 90's making video editing easier. Videos would eventually be taken off MTV to make way for the new videos that were being produced. This meant that if people wanted to watch the videos again, they would have to buy them on VHS or DVD if they wanted to watch them (Pre-YouTube)

The 2000's saw the continued expansion and experimentation of form. There was a rise in auteur directors and the music video started to become as memorable as the song. There was a rise in the amount of hardware and the hardware was becoming cheaper making videos easier to produce.

The invention of YouTube meant that videos could be shown online constantly. The music video can be shown online forever rather than disappearing after being shown on TV. The videos we see today are still to promote the artist, but they can also have other purposes such as raising awareness of a charity the artist is associated with, promoting a film or to just give the viewer a different opinion on what the song is about.

An example of music videos giving completely different views into what a song is about is when YouTuber, Gabbie Hanna, released her first single 'Out Loud' in 2017. Hanna first released the song allowing people to believe it was about a break-up, she then performed it live at a YouTube event and everyone then believed it to be about her mental illness. When the music video was released it showed a woman mourning her boyfriend who had died. Although this wasn't the true meaning behind the song for Hanna, she said on her Vlog channel that she wanted to give different perspectives to the song and wanted everyone to be able to relate to it rather than allowing it to be about one thing.