In today's music industry some people believe that the music label companies are needed as much as they used to be. During my research i came across this article that i found very useful.
In this article the writer tells us that label companies in the past years have changed dramatically, being much smaller but more effective in promoting and marketing their artist. It also tells us that artists who have no knowledge in selling their music without a record company and don't know what they are doing suffer greatly. Overall from this article i have learnt that there is a great feud between social media an record companies as more and more artists are promoting themselves through sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Research shows that from the resent increase in digital sale, record companies have been seeing an overall decline in revenues. An example of this is in the U.S, revenue dropped by over half, from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $6.3 billion in 2009.
So overall the role that music labels have in the music industry today is to promote songwriters, live music and new up coming albums, It is also to financially help there costumers so they can get their music out into the public and get as many fans to get an income.
For research into music labels and bands with in the genre i am looking at i have contacted Nuclear Blast, a label company that hires bands in the metal genre.
I then went and contacted a similar band to Ravenface named Sylosis, who's label company is Nuclear Blast and asked them how they contributed to their own marketing and branding.
We have now decided on what song we are going to use from Ravenface's resent album. The song is called This is Annihilation and this is how it sounds:-
We have decided on this song because it has triggered some interesting ideas and we liked the overall sound and feel that it created.
For our music video, as we our group is looking at a heavy metal genre band we knew that for our performers, thy would have to look the part. Here are the chosen four:-
Dean Cummins- Vocalist
Jake Goodridge- Drums
Stephen Mackie - Guitarist
Perrin Sharp -Guitarist
We have used an all male line- up as Ravenface are a male band. We have also used these people as they all belong to the alternative sub-culture and look like a stereotypical band. They also have experience in playing there chosen instrument.
For research into branding and marketing bands/artists i have come across a very helpful slide show that was great for me to get a small understanding of the difference between artists genre's and how the branding and marketing differs for each genre.
This is a good example of a Band logo. This is the logo for Linkin Park and if you look closely you can see the L and P that have been cleverly put together to create this logo.
Today's music industry expects that musicians have a deep knowledge and understanding of marketing, otherwise they don't get very far. To start marketing a band has to have a brand identity that defines them, using colour, design, a logo, name or symbol that put together distinguishes them for their chosen audience. Establishing a brand identity takes a lot of careful thought and consideration, as the public will be judging the band as a whole from this. Another important aspect of marketing is to know exactly who the bands target audience is so you know how to promote your band to certain people. Bands have to consider:-
Age
Gender
Language
Income/ Social class
Country
Hobbies
Bands should also take social media as an advantage as it is a free way to get their products to fans. Bands have websites where they explain their music and style, they blog to show pictures of tours and message fans, have Facebook to create a fan page, and updates from the bands page will show up on fan's walls for friends to see, passing information on to a third party. Finally MySpace is another useful site for marketing as it is often the first place for people to look for tour dates.
This is Rise to Remain's Official Band page on Facebook.
However, today there are a few problems in the music industry online and in general, especially for unsigned bands because of :-
Lack of money to record and promote new CD's
Small income from gigs and tours
fans have begun to illegally download music from the internet, and few dedicated fans to buy CD's and see live performances.
On the other hand, in my research i have come across many help websites for bands that give them useful pointers on what to do to promote and market themselves such as the following link:-
In class we started to look at how we can brand and market our chosen artists or band. To did this we started off with a small task to re-brand a jaffa cake. After studying the product my group came up with a name: UFO - Utterly Fantastic Orange. We thought this because of the shape looking like an alien space ship. Next we thought of an audience an thought that it would be sold to people in the C-D-E group in the social class pyramid and would be fun for all the family. Finally we thought of marketing with the product sponsoring the TV programme 'My Parents are Aliens'. We would have a Facebook page and Twitter page. We would make an ad for Youtube and TV, and would have bill board ads. Finally we would have promotions in supermarkets and competitions, mainly focused at younger children.
We then thought of how Branding and Marketing will be applied to our artist or band:-
We then looked at a great example of a new artist from today that had to be Marketed. We looked at the artist Ed Sheeran, who has been described as not a typical looking music artist, with people thinking he doesn't look appealing but has a good voice. To get his music out his label company ( Warner Music Group ) came up with this music video:-
This music video "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" was first released onto Youtube in July 2011. The music video was directed by Emil Nava and features 17 year old signing actor Matthew Morgan who signs the lyrics to the song. The genre of this song is hip hop soul, funck rock and R&B.
This music video is very intreresting as there are only fleating glances of Ed Sheeran himself, giving a scence of enigma. The video is filmed entirelly in Black and White, keeping details to a minimum. Overall the basic idea from Ed Sheeran's music label is to not show him as much as possible (in fact he is only shown 13 times in the whole video) and to focus mostly on his music.
From this, in class, we decided that Ed Sheeran's record label hold most of the power in the decision of creating his music videos and how Ed Sheeran is portrayed in them. However we were later shown this article:-
In this article, we are told that Ed Sheeran started off with his producer and were able to attracted a fair amount of fans and get very high into the charts without a record label however it is plain to see from his first set of music videos (such as 'The a Team' and 'Lego House') that if Ed Sheeran had any freedom and creativity in making his own music videos and having a say in what happens with his music videos that, surly he would be shown in them more frequently and in more detail, rather than almost being hidden from the viewers because of his image that some people would say as not complying with the main stream look of indie/folk/acoustic genre that he is classed as.
Here are the two other Music Videos that where listed about to give an example of the possible contradiction between Ed Sheeran's artistic freedom and the label companies control. :-
In the video above Ed Sheeran appears for the most of 2 minutes staring as a pedestrian that stops to talk to the main girl and give her some spare change.
In this video Ed Sheeran is hinted at quite a lot as the video portrays an obsessed fan. He is then show in physical form in the last seconds of the video.
Dean Karr from Seattle, Washington, received a Bachelor of
Fine Arts from Washington State University and the come about of the Seattle
rock scene provided him with early photographic subject matter.
Director/Photographer Dean Karr has a very unique style and has
been labelled as a ‘true original’. His signature style which is very fantasy
based or quite dark imagery and combine fashion, cinematography and
storytelling in to his work that is often copied but never duplicated, and it has
gained him international recognition.
His music videos can be found at the top of MTV play lists,
and have been nominated for major MTV, Billboard, and MVPA Video Awards. He has
worked with artists such as Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, Queens of the Stone Age and Billy Talent.
Karr started out as a photographer and was later intrigued
by the potential of the moving image so he ventured into music videos and many
of his videos have helped boost the artists into fame. This is the music video Fallen Leaves By Billy Talent and directed by Dean Karr. Fallen Leaves is the third single in Billy Talent's second album. The genre of this song is alternative rock / punk rock. The song is about one person who has gone to Vancouver, British Columbia, who becomes a heroin addict. He then loses his friends due to this addiction. The music video was released in Canada in November 27th 2006 and in the following week released worldwide.
The video starts with a close up shot of a chicken sat on a car bonnet (which is linked to one of the member's nicknames "striped rooster")with the band sat in the car. The car drives through falling orange leaved woods until they come upon a dinner party hosted by monsters and goblins. A monster tells the band to play for them and the band obey, playing the song 'Fallen Leaves'. This video can be described as very strange and discomforting, with images of circus performers such as sword swallower's and bendy people. This could help portray the overall them of being on drugs. The editing is fast paced which is to keep up with the fast tempo of the song. The camera angles and shots are quiet disorientating, also helping to build up a confused state and there are the bold colouring and lighting of golds and oranges that are then clashed with a small scene of the band walking into a dark pool like area to find a woman submerged underwater, who then wakes up and starts to panic. This could also reflect the dark side of taking drugs and the feel of being trapped. Overall this video has a distinct style that is very common of Dean Karr and reflects the meaning behind the song and shows the overall style of the band Billy Talent.
Raven-face are a relatively new band, so to get their music out to their fans they have many social media platforms to communicate with their audience. To do this Ravenface have their own Facebook page, Myspace page and twitter account, where audience can comment and message members from the band and where the band can give a heads up for on coming gigs or tours. They have also been touring a lot, with other more well known bands. This puts their music and faces out in to the music industry. You can also find live videos of the band preforming on YouTube. Their past gigs have been:-
Colours to Shame, Lost Persona, Tusk and Ravenface.
Wednesday 27th April 2011
Ravenface.
They also have interviews whilst on tour where fans can ask the band questions and the band can tell the public of any up-coming songs or tours. This is a great way of learning information about the band and any influences that i could research for genre and music video ideas. Here is an interview from the Hammerfest tour:-
A recent interview with the band that featured in Metal Hammer magazine.
Another way in which Ravenface get audience is by having merchandise such as T-shirts with their logo and album artwork and posters that fans can buy and stores whilst the band are touring. This is helpful for me as I can get an understanding of the designs that Ravenface usually use so that when I start making the CD cover I have a basic idea.
Finally and most importantly, there is the bands albums.
There first EP named Ravenface was released in 2009. The songs on this EP are :-
Everlasting
Becoming the Enemy
Bleed a Prayer
The Bittersweet Truth
Isolation
Rotting from the Inside
Chokehold
This is their second album released November 2010. The songs from this CD are:-
This is Annihilation
Deprogression
Becoming the Enemy (improved)
Spineless
The Bittersweet Truth (improved)
What Happens in Vegas
A Way Out
This Suffering
The Resurrection
Finally they have recently released a couple of songs that could be on their future album:-
Wait For No One
Beneath the Tides
Recently Ravenface have been creating some of their own music videos. This is another great example of them putting their music into marketing and fans of similar bands would come across these videos on sites such as YouTube. These videos are also a great resource for me as i can get an understanding of how they depict their own music and to see how they use conventions from music of the same genre. Here are a couple of examples of their music videos:-
This music video is a great example of a complete performance based video, as it only shows the band playing the song in a field. To keep the video interesting they have used a wide variety of camera angles and movements such as low- angle focusing on a rock with the band playing in the background.
This music video is very different from the first as is is both performance and narrative based, with a story line of a 'gang' rampaging in woodland wearing masks. Once again it is quite a simple video, but is kept interesting with the use of camera angles and interesting lighting for the performance aspect of the video as they use strobe lighting.
In this music video, it is a performance based video and acts almost like a teaser, to show fans behind the scenes and the making of the song. To keep it interesting, they have edited the video using slow motion and quick cuts, as well as interesting camera angles such as close-ups of equipment and pans.
I am currently waiting for a reply.
