4Ps

1. Summarising in your own words what the 4Ps of music marketing are. Use the following categories:

a) What band/artist related products can audiences buy?
Other than the obvious of CDs, and Deluxe Editions of CDs, there are DVDs (often Live or documentary). band merch including t-shirts, bags, outerwear, shorts, hats, shoes, the like. Posters, some artists do biographies. Digital media like mp3 albums, music videos, podcasts.

b) Where can audiences buy/listen to music/merchandise/hardware?
Audiences can buy in physical format (Disc) from music shops (e.g. HMV, the late Zavvi), online from sites (like Amazon.co.uk, Play.com), General Stores like W.H.Smith sell CDs. You can buy music in digital format from iTunes, also sites like Amazon sell MP3 albums. Merchandise can be bought at live shows (including CDs) or on the bands personal merch store, often linked to from their personal site (such as MySpace/Facebook).

c) Give 2 or 3 examples of paid-for/subscription based and free products.
Free downloads off of the bands site. Mailing lists (such as Metallica's "Metal Militia" which shows the progression from physical mailing to digital mailing).

d) List between 5 and 10 examples of creative music marketing strategies (including at least 3 internet based examples).

Slipknot - Before world tour 2008, posted videos on their websites promoting the tour in their typical stage costume telling fans to "be scared", "be warned" and "don't come to this tour". Form of reverse psychology.
Muse - New single "United States of Eurasia", put USB sticks in capital cities of the world with sections of the song in. Fans had to find the USB sticks and post the clip online so that eventually the whole song would be pieced together. Promotes them of album/song and also gets fans involved.
Architects/Elliot Minor/Your Demise - Get fans in music video. 15 seconds of fame principle. Fans feel involved with the music and the band. Band can get away with not really showing anyone in it but the fans feel like they have a personal connection to the video, song, band. Fans will tell friends about the video, good promotion.
Saosin - Send in text messages to a number, your name posted on the album artwork in the thankyous. Makes fans feel part of the production and connected to the band.
Radiohead - Album, In Rainbows. Sold online as an auction style thing. Fans pay what they want for the album (or free). Still managed to make more money than any other one of their albums, despite the unconventional release. Fans can relate to bands anti-establishment style attitude through their choice to sell independently.


2. Who is frukt uk and what is their mission statement/company ethos?
"We’re all about music and are really very fond of it. Music colours people’s everyday lives. It’s found in the mundane and the exalted. It moves us all. And it’s thriving. We help brands access the passion and the communities, the lifestyle and the artists. Music is a vast cultural space - it's flexible, it's multi-channel, it's live and digital, it unites gender, race and age and it defines the spirit of generations.

You just need to know how to use it.

That’s where we come in."

Frukt come up with marketing strategies based around music and use them for bands or products and create case studies out of them.

Treatment Reflections

Having just finished our treatment and pitch to the class I am pleased with how it went. We recieved mostly positive feedback. We had called our music video performance/concept based on Goodwin and this didn't fully come across in our pitch. We explained that our concept is the performance itself, and is shown as the energetic performance matches with the lyric 'Start Something'.

The main change we made was to replace Nick with Simon as lead vocalist, with Nick moving to guitar. This is especially significant to me, as it means I will have to do the majority of camerawork for the group. This could prove difficult, so I will need to be at the top of my game.

All in all, I'm excited about the start of another phase of the project and I look forward to starting production.

'Destination Calabria' - Alex Gaudino ft. Crystal Waters - Goodwin Theory

This video, for Alex Gaudino's Destination Calabria is a performance/concept based video. It is very characteristic of its genre; dance music, in that it doesn't feature the main artist, and uses attractive models in a voyeuristic fashion, such as the 'Call On Me' Video by Eric Prydz. It could be said there is a minor relationship between lyrics and visuals, as the girls are marching, but to no real destination, mirroring the lyric, 'destination unknown'. The video cuts to the beat a lot, and when the music goes a little offkey at parts, the visuals match this. There are many close-ups of the 'artists' but as they are not stars, it is not quite a star image motif as Goodwin would say. The video is very scopophilic, and the low angles and lack of direct eye contact with the camera give a feel of looking on the girls in a voyeuristic fashion. There are no intertextual references in the video, despite Goodwin saying these are common, especially in the genre of pop/dance.

Serj Tankian - 'Empty Walls' - From the Album 'Elect the Dead' - 2007

This is the Video for System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian's second single off his debut solo album 'Elect the Dead'. This is possibly one of my favourite music videos, it combines an electric perfomance, unconventional camera and editing techniques, a mad, funny concept and an underlying, serious, political message.


The video opens with a felt Homeland Security Advisory System scale (accompanied by a seal reading "U.S. Department of Playground Security"), followed by a young girl building two towers of blocks. A boy by what appears to be accident launches a toy airplane into the towers, knocking them down and upsetting the girl.
Various scenes in the video refer to the War in Iraq: the children preparing for play war, a teddy bear being pulled down (referring to the symbolic pulling down of Saddam Hussein's statue), a presidential figure with a sign declaring "Mishin Akomplishd", an imitation of the capture of Saddam Hussein, a child in a cage reminiscent of one of the Kenneth Bigley hostage videos, the aforementioned collapse of the block towers, a child dressed and positioned in imitation of a published picture of Satar Jabar from the Abu Ghraib prison, and several children pulling another from a toy house to play execute him with a can of silly string (in reference to the Hamdania incident). A boy inside a toy car puts on goggles and is driven into a plastic ball pit wall to cause a burst of confetti, symbolic of the many suicide bombings at US Army checkpoints. The children performing acts similar to those of the US military are clearly distinguished by wearing helmets reminiscent of soldiers' helmets.

Meanwhile Serj, dressed in a top hat and suit, sings as they play. The video concludes as the children all look out the daycare window and solemnly watch a Marine Corps detail load a flag-draped casket into a hearse.

I adore the visual theme of this video, aside from being very politically charged and intelligent, it's chaotic and vibrant and the kids do an amazing job in acting out the atrocities of the Iraq War in a very unique and playful way. I think we could use themes like this in our final video...

I think this video could also be useful in inspiration for a possible treatment for our chosen song Start Something, i'll refer back to this post in some parts.

Location Plan B

On searching FilmLondon for a secondary location in case our current one has any problems, I found another larger warehouse, in the same location in Edmonton!

It might not be free, but the fact is it's just as convenient and nearby. I'll look into it if the other location flops.

http://directory.filmlondon.org.uk/locations/locview.asp?dsref=l3837431400&sp=1&kw=

Dizzee Rascal Marketing Case Study

1. Summarise the changing image of the band/artist as it has developed over time. It might also be useful to summarise the music genre also.

Dizzee has progressed from a grime genre, and is now seen as a garage/hip hop mix. He has incorporated more dance inspiration as seen in his collaborations with such artists as Calvin Harris, Arctic Monkeys and his support slot on his recent tour with The Prodigy. He has gone from being an independent to a more mainstream sound. This has expanded his fan base to more than just his original demographic of hip hop youths in London town. He has been quoted as saying he is “leaving his grime roots behind” in favour of more mainstream pop.


2. Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?

The hip hop and grime genre has a history of a predominately black fan base. This is due to most of the artists being black themselves and that they come from similar social and class background, thus appealing to the demographic. They are like local heroes in a way. However, with the genres becoming increasingly more mainstream, the audience is becoming a much more mixed bag. This can be related to the more frequent appearance of rap artists in festivals, and the charts, thus making them more accessible for a larger, more mainstream audience.

In this case, the record company is Dizzee himself, as he produces and records his own songs and albums on his record label “Dirtee Stank”. This means that he is in complete control of how he brands himself and how he appeals to his audience, which he does through his genre and fashion.

By producing all his own music, Dizzee, or as I like to call him, Mr. Rascal, has stayed true to his independent roots by not relying on some fancy pants record company.


3. What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of stategies can you list? (above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.

Dizzee’s first album, “Boy in da Corner”, was the first rap album to win a Mercury Prize. It has been voted one of the top albums of all time by MTV Base. This shows how Dizzee has embraced his grime culture and mixed it with mainstream to produce an album that was marketable to more than just the standard rap demographic.
During his time in the Roll Deep crew Dizzee was stabbed six times in a live show due to a rivalry with the So Solid Crew (there was some bottom pinching involved). Although this is obviously bad it brought about a surge of press, getting Dizzee’s relatively unknown status brought in to the limelight. This is akin to the gang rivalries of the 90s seen in West Coast and East Coast rap in the US.

In 2004, Dizzee Rascal made an international endorsement deal with urban brand Eckō and designed his own shoe with Nike in 2005.






http://www.dizzeerascal.co.uk/

http://www.myspace.com/dizzeerascal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizzee_Rascal

Start Something: Possible Treatment

Start today, now show us how you feel

Make your way, it's time to choose

Have my say, I know, I know what I see

Have my say, they think you'll lose

For all this to mean so much to me

For all this, you make a move

Pass you by, it's all in this life you have

Pass you by, goodbye to you

[Chorus:]
1, 2, 3, 4 Move
If you don't stop there, you'll make it through.
Stop dreaming, start something
When it's in your hand just start anew

It's ok to use your ability
You must know, it's hard to choose
Time will tell, it's hard that the way you feel
means you always seem to lose
Seize the day, the one that you left behind
It seems so strange that you don't move
Frozen still in front of your own lights
Win or lose, its time to choose

[Chorus]


I have been thinking about a treatment for our chosen song, and I have come up with the idea of having the band performing in a nursery/indoor adventure playground, such as Clowntown http://clowntown.co.uk/ (there are two branches nearby, which would be perfect for filming + I have contacts working there) The band would perform in the ball pit, whilst a mosh pit of young children occurs in the playpen. The whole band would be joining in, and various slow mo shots of balls from the ball pit flying around and people sliding down the slide. In addition the frontman of the band would do battle with a giant Lego man. The camerawork and shots are going to be similar to the Serj Tankian video 'Empty Walls', with the lead vocalist lying in the pit for money shots with all the balls on his face. The editing would be frenetic, matching the beat exactly, and this would be disjointed by the slow motion parts. The theme would be fun-filled and chaotic and it would tie in with the lyrics; 'Move' and 'Start Something' and would meld with the central theme of laziness and going nowhere in life, the band are just big kids...


Advantages
Possible, location is easily had
Very unique look

Disadvantages
Morally grey

Working with kids can be difficult and unpredictable

Location Recce Impressions

This Tuesday we took a short bus ride down to a potential location, only about 20 minutes away. I was taken aback by the suitability for our music video, the scope for visuals and all in all the availability, flexibility and friendliness of the owners! This all bodes well and we will arrange a test shoot soon to see if it really is suitable... In the meantime we will be looking for Plan Bs as it always pays to be prepared.

Song Choice Reflections

I am overjoyed with our choice of song! I think it fits the criteria of being part sung/part screamed and I am a fan of the band also. I think its perfect in terms of a strong memorable beat, a progression and variation of the song, and the catchy chorus and bridge.

Can't wait to treatment it :)

BLK feedback

well done Ben - this blog is looking very healthy! :)

Enter Shikari - 'Labyrinth' - From the Album 'Take to the Skies' - 2006

Lyrics:


HELP!!!

The air turns black
The birds drop from the sky
This eagle has landed
I'm choking on your pride

But the walls are closing in
And you don't appreciate
That in my hands tonight
Is where your fate lies
Her face drains...

Stand up, take a bow you have
No reason to celebrate
Your lost in the labyrinth
Scream now it's not too late

HELP!
The air turns black
The birds drop from the sky
This eagle has landed
I'm choking on your pride

But the walls are closing in
And you don't appreciate
That in my hands tonight
Is where your fate lies
Her face drains...

Stand up, take a bow you have
No reason to celebrate
Your lost in the labyrinth
Scream now it's not too late

Nothing seems to break the walls down
Break the walls down
Nothing seems to break the walls down
Break the walls down

We'll break the walls
We'll break the walls
We'll break the walls down

We'll break the walls
We'll break the walls
We'll break the walls down

[Spoken:]
Well, it looks like the end of tonight for our
friend here
He's finding it hard to keep his head
Especially with his girl screaming in his ear
We've gotta ask ourselves, do they deserve this
you've got a minute to make your minds up otherwise
Speak now or forever hold your peace

(Stand) Stand up
Will he make it out
I hope he makes out (Your)
He's gotta make it out
He's gonna make it out

(Stand) Stand up
(Your) Your lost
Get up, stand up


This is another possible song choice for our group. We all like the track and for me the strong lyrics could create a great concept. At the moment, I visualise a hugely claustrophobic video, utilising tight, extreme angles and choppy editing. I think, as the title and lyrics suggest, a strong concept would be to have the band sprinting through a seemingly endless maze of stacked amps. The tight corridors and keyframed shakes of the camera with every bass beat would create a very oppressive visual look. In addition to having the band running around (possibly chased by Simon dressed as a Minotaur of ancient Hellenic legends) there would be some central perfomance shots, in the 'centre' of the Labyrinth, with a high stack of amps surrounding the band, who will face the walls. As the lyric 'we'll break the walls' sounds, the bands movements will explode, in both the performance and the concept, and they start to thrash at the walls of the maze, literally bringing the walls down. (We could achieve this with cheap/already broken amps).

I'll pitch this half-formed treatment to the group and see what they think!

Liquid in Music Video

While looking around on the world wide web, I've found a fair few music videos with some rather artistic uses of liquid... If mastered, it looks like it could be quite a useful technique.

Funeral For A Friend - Into Oblivion



In this video, which is a wholly perfomance based offering from Welsh post-hardcore band Funeral For A Friend, we see the band performing in front of a screen, showing various freak weather conditions. As the video goes on, rain starts to fall, and the images of the back screen and the rain start to merge, as though the band were immersed in an electrical storm. This provides a memorable chaotic image and makes the perfomance, which would be tame alone, all the more exciting.


Foo Fighters - The Pretender




This video uses liquid in a different but equally exciting way, combining concept with performance. The video begins with an empassioned performance by Dave Grohl and the rest of the Foo Fighters. As the performance continues, riot police gradually appear at the venue. As their numbers swell and the performance continues, the police begin to charge at the Foo Fighters. Suddenly the inconspicuous red background explodes, sending a cascade of liquid at the riot officers, halting their charge. This creates a beautiful visual effect of the liquid crashing forth, obscuring the performance. All in all, it's a highly memorable visual hook, that comes completely out of the blue.





Here's a great making of video showing how the video was set up. Unfortunately it doesnt give any clues to the logistical methods they used, but serves as a lovely compliment to the piece. It all looks very familiar and it's eye-opening seeing the process is almost the same when done professionally.




Paramore - Pressure



Here's the video for Pressure by Paramore. It too has a novel use of liquid, at 2.30 into the song, the music quickens and a valve is pulled which releases all the water built up in the water pipes surrounding the band onto the performance. At the same time the sprinkler system engages in the narrative sequence, leaving the main boy and girl character to be reunited. The performance really changes and the band are given a chance to really 'rock out' and have fun with the water... It must have been very fun to film!

All in all, the use of liquid may be a bit ambitious for our own use, but it's nice to dream. We could possibly impliment some of the more basic effects into our own video however, as the visual effects created truly are stunning.

Architects - 'Hollow Crown' - From the Album 'Hollow Crown' - 2009

I decided to post this due to our groups enthusiasm for the band Architects and as a indicator of what we seek in a track for our video. The main issue with the songs we have found so far is that they contain a great deal of 'screamo' lyrics, which can be difficult to understand to the untrained ear. This song shows that Architects, and many other bands of the same genre CAN also sing.



Now all there is to do is to find a song with the right balance of edgy screamo and conventional sung lyrics.

The Search is on!

The Dillinger Escape Plan - 'Milk Lizard' - From the Album 'Ire Works' - 2007

Lyrics:

My thick tongue hangs down low to the ground
Licking up the sweat coming off of her heels
She wants my teeth to wear
She wants my hell to bear
Well missy it's a lock for load
If you wanna grind hips don't do it alone
Don't save no dance no not for me
Just cut me out
You crept up like a disease looking like a girl only trying to be saved
Your heart was trying to bleed and you're taking the right road if you're talking to me
Well you thought you'd tear my skin from bone
Just cause it was cold and you needed a coat
Don't tease me just start digging the hole start digging
Oh you're getting so sleepy tonight
And you wanna go home but you don't have a ride
No time just taste won't touch for free
My salt your sweet
And you were there
And I was every question that never had an answer
I see right through you
We never even noticed that
There always was a reason
That we were never meant to be left alone
This feels like neverending

This is a great song from Mathcore band Dillinger Escape Plan, more well known for their heavier song, similar to Architects. This song has a very different sound to the majority of their work, even incorporating some trombones! It's balance of screaming and singing is about 50/50.

It's lyrics have a very angry feel. I see them as being bitter towards an ex-girlfriend and the singers continued strength and resilience against her, despite her manipulative feminine wiles. This suggests our video will be heavily narratively influenced, which I think will be difficult to pull off seriously and this is a flaw. However the unique sound and energy could lend itself to an exciting performance based video.

Even if we don't pick this song, it's a step in the right direction in finding a song with enough of a balance in the sung/screamed vocals and will help me to continue my search.

Muse - 'Futurism' - From the Album 'Dead Star/In Your World' - 2002

Lyrics:

Ignorance pulls
Apostasy and apathy still rules
Yeah you know it's cool
Just suck and see
A future turn us into silent gods
And I won't miss you at all

Grounded
Boxed in
Like the evil in your veins
Grounded
Boxed in
I am stuck with you

Fate can't decide
Alignment of the planets in your hands
Come on crush our plans
Just suck and see
A future that won't let you disagree
And i won't miss you at all

Grounded
Boxed in
Like the evil in your veins
Grounded
Boxed in
I am stuck with you

Feel it, hear it, apathy
See it, be it, you'll see

This is one my favourite Muse songs of all time. It's a B-Side off of their 2001 masterpiece 'Origin of Symmetry' and was included on the Dual A-Side Album 'Dead Star/In Your World' It hence has no video.

It has a very distinctive and heavy bassline and this could serve as a great musical feature of the song to edit to. The lyrics give a very claustrophobic feel, and this too could be replicated filmically. I have doubts about whether the song would be passable when lip-synced due to Matt Bellamy's very unique falsetto and this could pose a problem if we consider this as a track choice.

Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis says the camera in music video seems to mimic the way we view sonic space... do you agree? Do you think we are conditioned by music video to read sonic space in particular ways?

Like my peers, I too fail to understand what "sonic space" is, and looking online and on other blogs I've also had no joy in getting further to that elusive definintion. I'll ask Miss B.


She suggests that the jumping camera focus is like the camera in place of our eyes, doing what we do when we listen. However, this is predefined for us by the Director - we have even less choice to look away/outside of the Director's choice than we do in film - do you agree?

I do agree to an extent. In music video, the object is to set the image of the song, the director is placing his own (or the bands) interpretation for the audience on the video, and the editing enforces this, it's so dramatic and obvious that the image is really imprinted on the mind. With film, there is less memorable editing techniques, and the directors image is hence not shoved down the audiences throats, leaving a bit more room to postulate on meaning. I presume this is done to maximise its freshness in the short term memory of the audience.


She says music video is more like listening than viewing - do you agree?

I can see what she is suggesting, but don't agree fully. Music video in my eyes add something, another layer if you will to a song, this could be the bands or the directors vision. Some people enjoy the song but not the video however... so it must be said that it must add a factor the fan dislikes. However due to the unique nature of music video in that it is a compliment to the song it could be described as listening.


"We compensate imaginatively for what we do not see in the frame" - Agreed?

Much like the exercise we did with Ms T last year with the film Secrets and Lies, where we were asked to write a description of a character with just an image, and when we saw the film it was startling how much of a difference there was between our first and second descriptions. This is similar to music video, as the images are so brief we are forced to fill in the blanks.


The constant motion in a music video and the variances it shows mean that a strong CU is a stable point. The music video "brings us towards these peaks, holds us against them, and then releases us" - do you agree?

I agree. The money shot is crucial to any film. It provides a climax to the audiences titillation, seeing their idol up close is one of the main attractions of watching the video. However she does rather exaggerate the effect with flowery language.


Is the viewer "sutured (stitched) into the diegesis of the film world through the editing"?

Definately, the editing dictates what the viewer sees. They could be completely misled by editing, as it is manipulative in that it onlys shows you what the director wants you to see. The viewer is very much interwined with the video because of this.


Music video is freer in terms of viewer identification and perspective - agreed?

All in all music video gives the director more freedom, but for the viewer it's more forced upon you, and the editing is so quick and unique you don't have so much freedom to visualise.



Carol Vernallis believes the image alone cannot tell the story - do you agree?

I disagree, it can tell the story, but it will not be as complete. You lose a lot of the mise-en-scene, similarly to if a tense scene had no tense background music. You lose an element of the image of the scene, and this is similar in music video, as the narrative is weakened.

BLK feedback

Excellent research posts so far Ben, a great start to your background work for this project. Now we need to get you using/applying advanced theory more explicitly when you analyse music videos, think Vernallis for now, although you will also need to get to grips with Goodwin in the new term.

You've got some outstanding work to sort out from last term though, could you deal with this as soon as possible, as outlined below.

So for now, your short term targets are:


3. Post your track research/ideas – we need to see what you have got in mind for your own video


All instructions are on the main blog if you are not sure what you should have done. There will be a lot happening when term starts so the sooner this outstanding work is completed, the better.

Also try to make sure that you don't post any videos without some analysis/commentary to go with them

Great effort so far, keep up the good work!