Music Video Purposes Analysis

Comment on the following aspects in relation to PURPOSES and BENIFITS for artist/band and target audience

Provide an explanation in relation to benefits (promotion, extension of income & outlets, synergy opportunities and strategies used by producers to benefit label and artist)

Provide any research evidence you can find that supports explanations of benefits for artist, record label and audience

Promotional Since Lil Wayne is a massive mainstream musical idol, anywhere he advertises he will gain publicity. His target audience is young teenagers/adults, and the most effective way to reach them will be on TV or Online (social network sites).

His main audience is within America, and a popular drink with the target audience is “Mountin Dew” so he played a role within a TV ad with a few other famous role models. What this meant was he was able to gain publicity with his target market as people viewing that ad to see the drinks ad, will also see Lil Wayne. Also, since it is with other famous people a wider range of people may watch the video for them, and then will see Lil Wayne, which gains a new audience.

A good way of promotion is with clothing. Good fans will buy shirts, posters ect. And what this is able to do is other people will see the shirt, and may buy one themselves or search on “Google” the logo, icon or Lil Wayne himself (whatever is on the shirt).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElDVzaswK7k – Mountin Dew is a popular young people’s drink.

- VEVO (the main music institution on the internet) has banners on all there “channels” promoting major artists, and Lil Wayne on the left is a main on, and will be promoted on ever other “channel”. (http://www.youtube.com/user/LilWayneVEVO + http://www.youtube.com/user/EminemVEVO + http://www.youtube.com/user/DrakeVEVO)

- Clothing site (YMCMB) advertising Lil Wayne’s album upon the background (http://www.ymcmbofficial.com)

Music Video Purposes Analysis

VEVO is a major online record label, merged with all the top record labels. What this allows to happen is free publicity on a major scale. VEVO want to promote their most valuable artist signings.

- popular singers signed to VEVO

- Advertisement under a video signed with VEVO promoting a new song, in this case Rihanna, but it can be Lil Wayne when he brings out a new song.

Extension of incomeA big income for artists and record labels now, that wasn’t around a few years ago, is YouTube. It allows record labels to out adverts before the music video.

Income from physical sold copies, CD from HMV. They sell more or less every album by Lil Wayne.

Electronic copies of songs or albums on sites such as iTunes, Amazon MP3, ect…

Money is also made by selling products other than music. For example, Lil Wayne is part of a brand call “Young Money Cash

- View count and “subscriber” count, high income from advertisements on his videos. (http://www.youtube.com/user/LilWayneVEVO )

- His own online store selling shirts

Music Video Purposes Analysis

Money Billionaires (YMCMB)” and there is a clothing range, ranging from hats, shirts, shoes, and posters and keying’s. What this allows to do is compete with stores and to create their own popular brand. And fans will buy 1 or more products from YMCMB because they are fans and would want to have it on a shirt, poster ect.

What sites like iTunes, Cloud and Amazon MP3 allow to do is let the audience buy a virtual copy of the album. It tends to be a little cheaper than an actual CD as it has no physical packaging. Doing this allows the audience by single songs if they want, and no need to go out to the shop to buy it then can do it from home, and that allows more people to buy it. - HMV online site selling many Lil Wayne CD’s

- Amazon MP3 selling albums and singles of Lil Wayne

Music Video Purposes Analysis

- record label Lil Wayne is signed to, promoting his album on the home page (http://www.cashmoney-records.com/index-takeover2.html)

(Also iTunes, as below)

Extension of outlets Online on the internet is the biggest place now for outlets of music. The biggest example of major outlets to listen to music for free is YouTube. Lil Wayne has 825mil video views, and 835k subscribers. What this means is that this many people have had to option to click on an ad put there by VEVO to go to a site (iTunes) to buy the single or album. And a small percent will do this, and with 825mil views that can be millions.- iTunes- Amazon- YouTube

There are also the stores to go to buy products of the whole range of Lil Wayne’s

- iTunes (Apple)

Music Video Purposes Analysis

products. HMV is a good example of this, it not only sells his music, but it sells shirts, pens, badges and posters. This can be ether bought going to the store or buying it on the stores site. There can also be offers to get whilst buying products, for example buying 2 CD’s for £10.

A main outlet for Lil Wayne’s music is iTunes, since Lil Wayne is a worldwide singer, he tends to always be in the charts, and since iTunes shows the charts it promotes Lil Wayne, gaining more publicity and buying his music from there.

External sites such as Cash Money Records where you can buy his singe/albums. (As Above)

(As Above)

Synergy Cash Money Records, iTunes, YouTube and Lil Wayne all link together to try and sell Lil Wayne’s album as best as possible as they all will gain an income from it. – Lil Wayne produces the album, YouTube is used to let the target audience view the songs, Links are used with the video for the audience to go to the record labels site; from there the audience is able to buy the album from iTunes.

Music Video Purposes Analysis

Twitter and Facebook are also used to do the same thing as YouTube, since all 3 are used worldwide; it has the target audience using them also. Under the video in YouTube, or on iTunes, it gives the option if you want to share it on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. If shared, people who see the share can click on the YouTube link; and the cycle repeats.

Producers strategies In conclusion YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Producers, Stores and iTunes are all important strategies that Lil Wayne’s producers (label) (Cash Money) took on in order to ensure Lil Wayne gets the best possible attention. These websites, places and “Apps” had a huge effect on the way that Lil Wayne is seen, therefore giving their producers more opportunities. The 'internet generation' has always expected things to be instant, the producers had to keep up with the growth in popularity of the websites to ensure that they were doing all they could. So timing is everything, since all sites more or less link together, it is vital to advertise/promote/sell in order.

http://www.cashmoney-records.com/index-takeover2.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/user/LilWayneVEVOhttp://www.ymcmbofficial.comhttp://itunes.apple.com/album/tha-carter-iv-deluxe-edition/id459904774?ign-mpt=uo%3D4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsRV2lc3gKQ&feature=plcphttp://hmv.com/hmvweb/simpleMultiSearch.do?searchUID=&pGroupID=0&adultFlag=false&simpleSearchString=lil+wayne&primaryID=0