The Music Industry

Music Videos

• Music Videos are short films that incorporate a specific song and imagery. This is primarily used for promotional/creative resolutions.• Modern music videos are created as a marketing

tool, encouraging fans of the video to buy the single/album.• They came into prominence in the 1980’s but

the origins of music videos date back much further than this.

Record Labels• A record label is a brand that is connected with the

marketing of music videos. Most frequently, a record label manages such brands, as well as, coordinating the production, distribution, promotion, application of copyright on music videos, and maintaining contracts between recording artists and their managers etc.

• Major Labels are the biggest, most successful record label of the time, they are always changing. The big 3 labels since late 2011 are:

Warner Music Group• This is the third largest business group and family of record

labels in the music industry, making it one of the big three.• It was founded in 1958 as Warner Bros. Records. In 1971, the

name was changed to WEA, and in 2004, it was changed again to WMG.

Many big artists are signed to this record label, including:

• Basshunter• Green Day• George Harrison• Bruno Mars• Dido, etc..

Universal Music Group• UMG is a multinational music company. It is the largest of the big three

companies by its leading market share and its host of global operations. It is exclusively owned subordinate of French media conglomerate, Vivendi. It owns the music publishing company, Universal Music Publishing Group.

• The company’s headquarters are based in Santa Monica, California, United States and it was founded in 1934.

UMG supports a wide range of music artists including:• Blink 182• Bon Jovi• Eminem• Justin Bieber• J-Lo• Johnny Cash, and many more...

Sony Music Entertainment

• This is the second largest global recorded music company of the big three record companies.

• It is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subordinate of Japan’s Sony Corporation.

• It was founded in 1929.

Some of the artists signed to this label include:• Alicia Keys• Avril Lavigne• Beyoncé Knowles• Britney Spears• Glee• Jimi Hendrix, etc…

Music Video Directors

• Three Music Directors that I have researched are:

Chris Applebaum Shane Drake Jake Nava

Chris Applebaum

His StyleEarly on in his career, he seemed to work mainly with bands and covered styles such as pop, rock, indie rock and hip hop. It was only in 2002 when the majority of artists he worked with were solo acts. In this year he worked with Britney Spears on two of her hits which became moderately successful.

He was also behind Rihanna’s song ‘Umbrella’ which became a No 1 hit immediately and made Rihanna into the immensely successful and famous artist that she is today. He won an MTV Video of the Year award for it. This was the first of Rihanna’s many singles that turned her from teenage role model into a highly provocative act.

After this he went on to direct Mariah Carey, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez. These acts are firmly based within the pop genre.

Shane Drake

His StyleLike Applebaum, Shane Drake seemed to make his mark by

directing music videos by bands rather than solo artists at the start of his career. He seemed to stick within the genre of Rock.

Unlike Applebaum, he still mainly directs bands or multiple solo artists collaborating on the same song. He has also directed music videos for other genres like; Pop, alternative hip hop and country.

He recently directed Kelly Clarkson’s hit ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ (Stronger). This went platinum in Australia and gold in New Zealand.

Jake Nava

His Style• Jake Nava started directing music videos in the 1990’s. He didn’t

seem to stick within a genre, preferring to direct for all types of music artists. The genres he filmed within the 1990’s included; R’n’B, electronica, Pop and hip hop.

• He directed Beyoncé's No. 1 hit, ‘Crazy in Love’. This song took the world by storm and propelled Beyoncé into superstardom. The music video caused a lot of interest as Jay-Z was featured in it and speculation was mounting as to whether they were a couple or not. Their closeness in the video only encouraged the fan’s interest in them. The video is widely recognised as one of her greatest and most notable.

• After this success, Jake continued to work with Beyoncé on 5 more of her songs, including ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)’ this also gained worldwide recognition for the video. Many people believed she was promoting female empowerment, while others felt it was more the exploitation of women that it seemed to be endorsing.

From this:

• After completing this research into the music industry, I feel that I have a greater understanding of it. For my music video I will try to use similar techniques that Applebaum, Drake and Nava have used that has made their videos interesting and fresh and apply in to my project.

• Researching the companies has helped me in that if I were releasing this music video, I would know which ones are the best for my artist and why.