Universal Music Group is the record label for my artist and has commissioned my independent production company in order to make a 3 minute music video to promote my song.
Universal Music Group is an American based company that is a subsidiary of the French media company, Vivendi. Universal Music Group, along with Sony Music and Warner Music Group are all part of the "Big Three" record companies. This title is obtained, as they make up 80% of the music market in a year.
Vevo announced their partnership with Universal Music Group to launch the music video platform on April 9th 2009. This therefore also promotes the feature where the fans can favourite their tracks with the "Click-to-buy" option.
Mainstream music production is led by major record lables and they promote their artists through big radio stations. On the other hand, independant production companies release their music internet radio stream, blogs or podcasts. This therefore highlights the difference in which companies' artists gain more recognition, as they are able to reach a wider audience. Furthermore, the distribution of the independant company happens on a much smaller scale compared to the major companies, which have a national distribution system for the products.
There is also a huge differnce in the budget for the production of the music videos. For example, the average studio music video budget was $200,000 - $500,000 as of 2010, whereas for the independant production, it can range from anything between $200 - $2,500. As a result, the quality of the music video may not always be as high quality as the mainstream production.
Difference between Vevo and YouTube
Vevo is dedicated to only music videos from artists that are under a certain record lable whereas YouTube is a platform for sharing any type of videos. Vevo is only available in the UK, US, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, whereas YouTube is available worldwide. Although Vevo does have a YouTube channel. Vevo is owned by Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. Furthermore, Vevo also has a partnership with YouTube.
Youtube has reinforced policies on the content that can be posted onto the site as it is available to everyone with an electronic device worldwide. "Youtube requires account holders to be 18+, but a 13 year old can sign up with parental permission. Despite this, there are still large, growing numbers of children under the age of 12 that has access to social media networking with or even without their parent's consent."
The most common music services; Spotify, Deezer, Amazon music and Apple music all require a subscription fee of £14.99/month. Despite this, it still generates very little revenue for the artist as, Spotify is said to pay about $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream to the holder of the music rights. This amount is also split between the record label, producer, artist and song writer.
A new concept from Youtube emerged in mid-2018, where for £11.99/month, people can get access to their new music streaming service, Youtube music. This allows people to view the videos with no ads, downloads for offline and background play on Youtube music and Youtube, which was a highly demanded feature. This therefore allows Youtube to compete between the music streaming services, as it provides the same, if not more features than the existing music services whilst being cheaper.
So far in 2018, the top music videos, to name a few, include; The Carters - "Apes**t", Childish Gambino - "This is America", Drake - "God's Plan" and Justin Timberlane - "Say something". The Carters' music video was a success as it tackles existing problems and portrays it in a dance performance. According to Esquire, an online lifestyle site, Beyonce and Jay Z "analyse cultural institutions that fail to include black artists."This was achieved by having black performers, along with the band, in front of the white artwork in the Louvre, Paris. Similarly, Childish Gambino's music video also addresses the problems within the culture, particularly in America. His video showcases the race issues and violence, and how it is normalised in today's society, through the mise-en-scene, lyrics and performance.
Predictions for the future
The music industry is something that is constantly changing in order to satisfy the audience. Technology also plays a big part in where the industry stands and where it will be, as 65% of the world owns some form of device with access to internet and this number is expected to increase. Streaming is also expected to take a turn in the future as due to the increasing numbers of consumers, more options for streaming will be available. With this all available to the audience, the artists can therefore see the trend in what is popular and try to reach that standard in order to gain more revenue and cater to a wider audience.
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