The Purpose of Music Videos

Music videos are something we take for granted in recent years but they have only been around since 1975 when the first “real” music video was released by Queen with their song Bohemian Rhapsody. Since then the concept of the music video has taken the world by storm and nearly every band that has been signed by a record label, and even bands that haven’t are producing videos to accompany the music they make. In this essay I will be outlining who music videos promote, the strategies of marketing, how the artists and companies make their money and different media outlets.

Music videos are a massive part of the music industry as they help to promote, not only the artists, but record labels and directors too. There are many types of music videos that are made and a good example of the most popular music videos are ones that are “quirky” and “fun”. Ok Go is a good example of how a band can promote themselves but also the record label they are signed to in this case being Capitol Records. Ok Go have produced multiple videos that interest the viewer’s such as the popular dance on the treadmills video to their song Here It Goes Again. Music videos such as these interest people in the band’s music, their videos, as well as interests up and coming artists in the record labels and the director such as George Ant because they might want a music video similar to Ok Go’s video to promote themselves.

When watching a music video is will soon become evident whether or not the music is mainstream. Popular artists such as Rihanna and Justin Bieber will have very professional, polished music videos as to reflect their image. These music videos generally contain elements such as more extravagant special effects, back up dancers and a wide array of props. Usually these more well-known artists will be shown on MTV, ITunes and Spotify. Other, independent bands, will have a much lower budget to produce their music videos, they will have a much lower budget and due to this fact that they are not a well-known band they will have to upload their videos to a free video web hosting site such as YouTube to promote themselves also they won’t have as many special effects or extras, if any, to make their video look better however some low budget productions do make it to television however they don’t get shown during prime time television and are usually shown late at night or early in the morning. There is also the niche side to the music industry. Music videos such as Aphex Twins Window Licker is a video that won’t be shown during peak times due to its alternative content and videos such as these are usually shown during the early hours of the morning as videos such as these include content that is not suitable for everyone.

Payment is a big issue for record labels and artists and usually they will gain money through royalties. When an artist’s song is played on the radio or the video is played on, for example, television the artists of that particular song will be paid through royalties meaning every time a media outlet plays an artist’s song they must pay to do so. However it would be near impossible to keep track of how many people are watching a particular music video, so instead, record labels will take into account how popular a certain genre is, how well the artists earlier singles sold and other data to come up with a rough estimate of how much to pay the artists. Generally the more mainstream artists earn more money as they are played on the radio and music channels over and over again.


How we watch music videos has evolved throughout the past 10 years. Now we use the internet to view most music videos but we view them in a variety of different ways. A media outlet is the term used to describe devices such as televisions, laptops, computers, mobile phones anything that allows us to watch any form of media usually through use of the internet but also through the television as well. Due to the fact that there are now so many media outlets it allows the public to easily access music videos but also to share them with their friends also, websites such as YouTube allow new artists to publish their videos. Although it is a disadvantage that because so many people upload to sites such as YouTube every single day it’s very difficult to find those people who are truly talented as oppose to the people that do it for fun.

Synergistic marketing is a great way for record labels and other companies promote their product through the use of merchandising. A prime example of this would be High School Musical. When the film was first released it was incredibly popular and there was merchandise such as t-shirts, bed covers, posters, mugs almost anything. The High School Music producers will make a deal with, for example, a t-shirt company and say for every £5 t-shirt that is sold £2 of that price goes to the producers of the film. This is the same for music videos and tracks and for every time someone buys a t-shirt with the band logo for £5 then £2 of that goes to the record label. Synergy has been used by many other films and bands such as Simpsons, Star Wars, Batman and Pink Floyd. Synergistic marketing is a great way for companies to make the most out of their product and gain maximum profit by allowing other companies to use their brand name for a price. An example of this would be for All Time Low to allow a T-shirt company to use their band logo I exchange for payment.

Music videos have taken over since the first music video was introduced. If a song is produced by an artist now it would be very unlikely that song would be popular unless it had a music video attached to it and sometimes the music video makes the artist popular for example, LMFAO I’m Sexy and I Know It. The internet plays an integral part in the music and media industry as it allows a huge audience to view music videos at the click of a button. As well as this it encourages people to become musicians as they strive to create their own songs and videos and in conclusion the reason I think music videos are so popular is because they allow for creativity and simply they give you something nice to look at.