Tuesday 28 February 2017

Website Changes

In this post I will be going thought some changes I have made to my website. I have added some more merchandise, added a twitter feed, edited my menu bar.


Doing some some research on artists websites. I figured out that Mailing List is not something used that common. Looking at Bruno Marss' exist I thought that its better to name it "SUBSCRIBE" rather than "MAILING LIST".
This is my old menu bar

This is a new menu bar


Bruno Marss' website menu bar.
I have also worked on my "STORE" page, where I have added stickers of my artist and made it half price. I worked on the image using Photoshop, for this effect I have used a double exposure technique. I have added a sticker on the right side. To create an accent on  half price of the product. 




I have worked on Halseys autograph collection and I have added a cap with an option to have it in baby blue colour or baby pink. I have used colour correction on Photoshop to create the two colours.



This is a tutorial which I have used to Photoshop the cap for my merchandise. 

Friday 17 February 2017

Lyric Video

Why Lyric Videos?

Before lyric videos people had to go on a websites which provided them with lyrics but in fact not all of them had the right ones. It was always hard for the fans to sing along with their favourite band. But now we are able to enjoy the song while reading the lyrics.

YouTube is a large producer of lyric videos. However, this is not a new concept it George Michael and Price both were familiar with this concept in 1980 and early 1990s. This concept now is carried on to the fans and inspires them to create their own for their favourite artist.


        
Katy Perry has done a lot of lyric videos, but as you may see in this video she uses a quite unusual way of presenting the lyrics. She has a small dollhouse and lyrics written bellow, in pink font and it was a small animated hamster jumping from one lyric to another to keep a track of the works.

This is a great use of marketing as it allows the artists share something with their fans and get them involved. Bellow I have created a lyric video, for this video I have asked fans to send me their photos with the lyrics. Each fan took it differently. Some took a photo of themselves and added lyrics later on, some held up paper with the lyrics in front of them. I have tweeted and posted on Facebook and Tweeter asking my fans send the lyrics.



Wednesday 15 February 2017

How Music Industry Works?

Who are these "Big Three"?

While researching on how the music industry works I came across "The Big Three".
  • Universal Music Group - 29.85%
  • Sony Music Entertainment - 29.29%
  • Warner Music Group - 19.13%
If we look at EMI Group with a 9.62% of a market share. EMI was once a part of the "Big Four" which is now "Big Three". It used to own EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records and Capitol Records. It faced financial tributes and debt of USD $4 billion. Later was sold to Universal Music Group for $1.9 billion in November 2011. EMI's parent company is the  conglomerate Universal Music Group.
Major labels such as EMI used to rule the music industry. They manufacture, promote and distribute the music of people under contract.




One of the differences between major and indie labels are the contracts they sign with the artists. Major labels would not let the artists to keep rights or control over their music. Where as an Indie label would let the artists keep their rights on their music.

Digitalisation had brought a major impact on independent record labels. The internet meant that independent companies would be able to advertise their artists better. This also mean that both groups were abled to put on their demos of the music or videos on YouTube and other such as websites.
Digitalisation allowed conglomerates such as Sony Music Entertainment to promote their artists in a better way. Sony Music Entertainment  and well as Universal Music Group  and previously EMI has a partnership with VEVO.
VEVO hosts music videos on YouTube and use adverts at the start of each video to produce revenue. It is beneficial for music companies as it allows them to regulate the online distribution of their music video and make profit out of them. VEVO also has application for a lot of devices such as Apple, GoogleTV and Android Market. This allows them to gain much more audience and to access the content. This is also an example of convergence of technologies.



According to Henry Jenkins, convergence it is when old and new media collide.

iTunes became the biggest music selling in 2008. But in 2008 iTunes took a fall of 5%in their yearly sales because the market seems to be giving way to the video. This is why Sony invested in VEVO as its website is more accessible as it is available in multiple devices. Also VEVO is surrounded by advertising and related videos. This is an example of synergy because iTunes are going to make money out of Sony's worldwide artists because they each have a large fan bases and therefore there will be a to of downloads.
If you look at the graph above you may see that the YouTubes' market share is 69.2% one of the reasons why it has the largest on the graph is because of the accessibility to their website. YouTube has a website and an application which is suitable for any smartphones including Apple and Android. YouTube is also great for the indie labels who would like to adverse their artists. Websites such as YouTube may also put a question on whether artists still need record labels? They can now film and export their music and video online to their fans and they would all be able to reach it. 
Artists are now able to create different media platforms because of digitalisation. They could create a Facebook page, YouTube channel, Twitter in oder to advertise and promote themselves. 

What Record Labels still have to offer? 
Although you could advertise your music now online without spending extra on record companies they can still offer a variety of things. 
There include an international distribution, legitimacy and reputation, this is because it would be much easier for people to recognise you through the labels reputation. Artists would have wider audience and would be associated with that record company and other artists from there making the new comers of the similar level as the worldwide known artists. These record companies could take care of the artists manufacture, promotion and distribution

Genre Conventions


Genre conventions from admusics

On this slide show I went through general genre conventions of an electro pop music video.  

Tuesday 14 February 2017

Industries

"Big Four" conglomerates  controlled about 88% of the market.

"Big Three" music labels are:

  • Universal Music Group - 29.85%
Subsidiaries: Interscope Records, Republic Records, Island Records
  • Sony Music Entertainment - 29.29%
Subsidiaries: RCA Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, Syco
  • Warner Music Group - 19.13%
Subsidiaries: Atlantic Records, Warner Bros. Records,  Parlophone
  • Independent Labels - 12.11%
This image was sourced from Wikipedia page.


Consolidation when you go from several to a fewer competitors. Which is what happened to Universal Group where they have consolidated their market share. 

HPO has no advertisement. Therefore their shows are considered as moral and violent. Therefore the advertised Tv channels would not be airing such as shows.Their brand is safe, family friendly and considerate. 

Madonna did a video called "Like a prayer". She had a multi million sponsorship with Coca Cola. There is a statue of Jesus. Controversiality that Jesus was "black". Controversial for american audience. She lost millions of pounds as Coca Cola dumped Madonna because they did not want to be associated with Madonnas brand.

Parent companies are very common to do just dump one of their subsidiaries if they do not follow the parent companies image and reputation.
PMRC Parents Music Resource Centre formed in 1985 stated the goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music demo have violent, drug related or sexual themed.via labeling album Parental Advisory stickers from now day comes from campaign from1980.  Freedom of speech- Ice-T. 
Sex Pistols were working place released in the week of Jubilee celebration where they waved two fingers towards the politicians and the queen with God Save the Queen in 1977. The song is called EMI which is a name of a very conservative record company with a 13.4% of a market share. Why God Save the Queen was banned is an example of an upsetting element was that they were working class people who dared to speak up. There are fewer and fewer actors in UK with the working class background with Private schools and specialised degrees. Filtering remove critical movements. 2 live crew banned in USA.



Beggars Group:

Is the biggest indie group in the world. Owns and distributes several other labels, including 4AD, Rough Trade Records, Matador Records and XL Records. Beggars was found in 1977 in UK. 

Disruption is caused because of digitalisations. This was a big change to the industry. Spotify is a current major disruption in music industry. The Sales of the digital music is falling down and people argue that  digital music may just disappear of the music sales. The element of disruption which suggests that Big Three would not sustain. With digital online distribution costs are much lower. Which sounds great and many people just go with that. Since Chris Anderson came up with his theory that digitalisation is great and everyone is able to compete with each other. 

Creating My Digipak

This is sticker is used to warm the audience, introduced by Recording Industry Association of America. Almost all digpak covers have this sticker in order to inform the parent of there is any bad language of reference was used. 
This is Astralwerks logo which I have used at the back and on the spine of the digipak. After looking at Halsey's album cover I Found that she used it on the back cover and spine of the digipak. 


This is the original image I have used for the back of the digipak. 

Targets exclusive sticker for the albums which feature extra songs. 




This is the message she wrote to introduce her new album "Badlands". 




Sunday 12 February 2017

Digipak Front Cover Ideas

These are some ideas for my digipak front cover. The first cover is of my artist placed in the centre with a few overlays placed as a background. The second image is the original image of Halsey placed in the centre creating a direct eye contact with the audience, with simple title with a glitch effect. Finally the third one is of Halsey sitting on the stairs looking into the camera with several overlays of the album name 




Wednesday 1 February 2017

Green Screen Filming

This week I went on a media trip where they have provided us with a green screen. I have filmed my performer and demon character in front of the green screen.  I thought it is a great opportunity to share something with my audience, I have asked her to take selfies so I could post them on Halsey Instagram.
This is an image I took of my Instagram where I was able to share the green screen filming with the audience. 



I thought asking the character with a mask making a piece symbol would interact with the audience better and create a special connection with them. Looking the "scary" character look simple and comedic would interact with the audience better. I have therefore posted this image on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.