Contemporary Context of Music Videos and the Music Industry (Industrial Context)

 

In the music industry in contemporary society, there are three main conglomerates that take up around 70% of the market: Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. Artists under these conglomerates commonly fall into the mainstream, popular music genres, such as pop, rap, and rock music. Artists that don’t fall into the 70% commonly make alternative and non- English based music.  Artists under these large conglomerates have the financial resources to higher promotion, leading to a higher budget of music videos - influencing music videos of artists under this 70% (as they may have higher access to better and more advanced technology, access to actors, etc.)

HOW MUSIC VIDEOS PRODUCE, DISTRIBUTE, AND REVENUE.

PRODUCE:

Music videos gather the funds for the production of a music video through their Music Label - this means depending of the wealth of the Label itself, the music video will be of higher quality or lower quality depending on the label the artist is signed to. Those apart of Sony, Warner, or Universal will have better quality videos than those of independent labels. The production of music video differs depending of the Genre of the video, production may include animators if it is a cartoon, etc. The process of producing a music video involves 8 main steps: 

Conceptualisation of the video 

Storyboarding and minor planning 

Scouting for locations 

Planning shots and scenes 

Gathering equipment  

Casting of actors and crew members 

Filming the music video 

Editing and colour grading.

DISTRIBUTION:

Music videos distribute by distributors such as Symphonic Distribution,  DistroVid and Ditto, who send artists music videos and allow them to be published on streaming services such as VEVO, YouTube, and as of 2024, Spotify. The potential circulation of a music video is heavily reliant on this step in the process of a Music Video, as depending on the wealth and popularity of a distribution service, the viewership rate of the music video may be limited or open to wide audiences. Artists commonly aim to distribute music videos on YouTube due to the high interaction rates, which allows audiences to distribute music videos themselves by sharing the post to their relatives, friends, etc - increasing viewership of the music video. Though many artists also aim to distribute on TikTok due to the highly audience guided algorithm, maintaining and attracting audeinces.

REVENUE:

Artists and labels profit of music videos mainly from advertising on streaming sites, where royalties will be split between label, streaming channel, and artist (with the artist profiting the least.)  Other ways music videos profit labels, artists and streaming channels is through digital downloads, Merchandise sales directly linked from music video captions, etc. Of course, the revenue the label and artist get from music videos can also be indirect, as due to music videos promotion of the artists song, music videos may lead to an increase in streams, sales, leading to more indirect revenue.