Throughout this post I will be discussing what I think the "state of music video" actually is, via content in the article.
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In my opinion, artists make music videos to portray a clearer image of what the particular song message is about. Listeners can sometimes judge a song without knowing the real meaning, and there are artists that are stereotyped for songs in particular, and this could deeply effect their image and portray them in a particular light that isn't well loved with some audiences. Music videos are a great way of promoting an artists' identity and brand within the record they are trying to sell. It's more or less a given now that 90% of music videos are to a single that artists are releasing, thus giving them more exposure and recognition. With the record itself only available to listen to on things like iTunes and Spotify, music videos give the songs an extra platform to be viewed on, such as MTV (Music Television), Vevo and YouTube.
The Creative Review article states a number of facts about the music directors importance and what they're expected to do for the artist, producer and record label. Sarah Nixon, head of music video at Partizan, who represent several leading music video directors, explains it this way: "I think the state of the business has never been worse. What labels expect for what they pay is huge. A director no longer has any freedom - even with no budgets."
In this industry, beggars can't be choosers. You can't expect a director to create this amazing video with unlimited technology and computer generated graphics, for free. With a few honourable exceptions, most music directors have to have a second job to have a decent lifestyle. In late 2002, it was estimated that music directors in the USA made approximately $800,000 a year. This going rate has significantly dropped in the past 5 years and music directors are now struggling to cope with the downfall in profits. "More people than ever want a visual to go with the music. Artists want a visual to go with the music. They need to express themselves, to lift the song, to feed the internet", explained Liz Kessler, head of music video at Academy Films.
In terms of music video budgets, we're looking at less than 10k nowadays. "It's not 30k for an artist anymore - it might be 5k", confirms Mike O'Keefe, head of video at UK major Sony BMG. "Gone are the days of 150k budgets. Those jobs are now at 80k - but we expect the same production values as before, and that's obviously difficult." It's difficult for experienced music video directors to work with such a low budget when they've been used to working with sometimes three or four times of the amount in previous years. Taking it on the other hand, new and upcoming music directors are more experienced with working with extremely low budgets.
Take David Wilson for example. He is an English music video director and animator from Wells in Somerset, currently living in London. David has been responsible for directing and creating a number of music videos, from The Bay to the ever-famous Titanium, with the original song being produced by David Guetta. Wilson has a number of artistic processes that he undertakes when directing and animating music videos. "What I aim to do is respond as personally as possible to music. I work mainly with music videos, so it's mostly about trying to find those right projects where a musician will give me free reign to feel and respond as appropriately as possible to the music."
The Creative Review article states a number of facts about the music directors importance and what they're expected to do for the artist, producer and record label. Sarah Nixon, head of music video at Partizan, who represent several leading music video directors, explains it this way: "I think the state of the business has never been worse. What labels expect for what they pay is huge. A director no longer has any freedom - even with no budgets."
In this industry, beggars can't be choosers. You can't expect a director to create this amazing video with unlimited technology and computer generated graphics, for free. With a few honourable exceptions, most music directors have to have a second job to have a decent lifestyle. In late 2002, it was estimated that music directors in the USA made approximately $800,000 a year. This going rate has significantly dropped in the past 5 years and music directors are now struggling to cope with the downfall in profits. "More people than ever want a visual to go with the music. Artists want a visual to go with the music. They need to express themselves, to lift the song, to feed the internet", explained Liz Kessler, head of music video at Academy Films.
In terms of music video budgets, we're looking at less than 10k nowadays. "It's not 30k for an artist anymore - it might be 5k", confirms Mike O'Keefe, head of video at UK major Sony BMG. "Gone are the days of 150k budgets. Those jobs are now at 80k - but we expect the same production values as before, and that's obviously difficult." It's difficult for experienced music video directors to work with such a low budget when they've been used to working with sometimes three or four times of the amount in previous years. Taking it on the other hand, new and upcoming music directors are more experienced with working with extremely low budgets.
Take David Wilson for example. He is an English music video director and animator from Wells in Somerset, currently living in London. David has been responsible for directing and creating a number of music videos, from The Bay to the ever-famous Titanium, with the original song being produced by David Guetta. Wilson has a number of artistic processes that he undertakes when directing and animating music videos. "What I aim to do is respond as personally as possible to music. I work mainly with music videos, so it's mostly about trying to find those right projects where a musician will give me free reign to feel and respond as appropriately as possible to the music."
In a recent interview, David Wilson stated that his video Titanium for artist David Guetta was completely his idea and he was given no direction from Guetta. "Their brief was, 'We want a David Guetta video that doesn't feel like a David Guetta video.' I wrote a very different script before submitting this one," explained Wilson. "Up to then, they had been only doing David Guetta: the featuring artist, always in it. David would be there on the decks, the lady or man vocals would be dancing in front of the camera - it would also need to orientate around a performance."
As the audience can see, David Wilson stepped away from the stereotypical Guetta video and added his own stamp and trademarks onto it. The video opens in a deserted, destroyed hallway with the main character sitting on the ground. The main character is ultimately running from a SWAT team and ends up in the woods. The boy is caught, but the video ends with the boy using supernatural powers to push the men away in a burst of power. It's all very far-fetched compared to everyday life but that's what makes it so watchable and enjoyable.
The Titanium music video was very popular on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook in terms of its originality and had over 3,000,000 hash-tags dedicated to it within the first 12 hours of the video being released. This just shows how much social media makes an impact on how music videos spread around the world and how many people they reach within such a small amount of time. Most music videos released in this day and age are bound to reach 1,000,000 in a short amount of time, all due to people sending them to their friends, and so on. By putting a link on Twitter, it could reach a vast amount of people in a short space of time due to the power of re-tweets.
Top US director Chris Milk, states that "It's always the intention for people to forward it to their friends. The main distribution of videos is the internet, and the demographic becomes the distribution channel. If they like it, they distribute it. You've got to do something better than just shoot a band playing." What's more, this tailored distribution system is now also starting to reap financial dividends. YouTube is now signing deals with all the major labels, offering per-view percentage points - very small, but representing a proper revenue stream when it reaches significant views. This gives the artist a platform to upload their music video for free, and earn money, therefore earning a larger profit than what they would without a music video. "YouTube is fantastic for videos", declares Mike O'Keefe. "With the sheer volume of people watching them and distributing them. The number of people watching videos must be greater than even MTV at its height."
Through personal experience, I use YouTube as a viewing platform for music videos more than any other. I very rarely watch Music Television, and the only time I do is when I have company at home, and we need background noise. I don't sit there watching it, because watching numerous music videos on repeat does get really boring. I use Twitter pretty much every day, and if there's a new music video that I haven't seen on my news feed, then I'll watch it. I have sent videos to various people before, and the most recent one was Taylor Swift's Blank Space. This was a recent world-wide phenomenon. Trending for over 48 hours, the hash-tag #BLANKSPACEMUSICVIDEO was the pinnacle of the success of this video.
Ultimately:
Yes, the music industry does still need music videos, as artists need more platforms other than iTunes to promote themselves, and they like to have visual representation of their lyrics.
YouTube is the starting line of music videos' success, with them being able to spread easily on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and added benefits are artists being paid for their videos per-view.
- O
{Sources:}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_(song)
http://www.intuition-online.co.uk/article.php?id=3207
As the audience can see, David Wilson stepped away from the stereotypical Guetta video and added his own stamp and trademarks onto it. The video opens in a deserted, destroyed hallway with the main character sitting on the ground. The main character is ultimately running from a SWAT team and ends up in the woods. The boy is caught, but the video ends with the boy using supernatural powers to push the men away in a burst of power. It's all very far-fetched compared to everyday life but that's what makes it so watchable and enjoyable.
The Titanium music video was very popular on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook in terms of its originality and had over 3,000,000 hash-tags dedicated to it within the first 12 hours of the video being released. This just shows how much social media makes an impact on how music videos spread around the world and how many people they reach within such a small amount of time. Most music videos released in this day and age are bound to reach 1,000,000 in a short amount of time, all due to people sending them to their friends, and so on. By putting a link on Twitter, it could reach a vast amount of people in a short space of time due to the power of re-tweets.
Top US director Chris Milk, states that "It's always the intention for people to forward it to their friends. The main distribution of videos is the internet, and the demographic becomes the distribution channel. If they like it, they distribute it. You've got to do something better than just shoot a band playing." What's more, this tailored distribution system is now also starting to reap financial dividends. YouTube is now signing deals with all the major labels, offering per-view percentage points - very small, but representing a proper revenue stream when it reaches significant views. This gives the artist a platform to upload their music video for free, and earn money, therefore earning a larger profit than what they would without a music video. "YouTube is fantastic for videos", declares Mike O'Keefe. "With the sheer volume of people watching them and distributing them. The number of people watching videos must be greater than even MTV at its height."
Through personal experience, I use YouTube as a viewing platform for music videos more than any other. I very rarely watch Music Television, and the only time I do is when I have company at home, and we need background noise. I don't sit there watching it, because watching numerous music videos on repeat does get really boring. I use Twitter pretty much every day, and if there's a new music video that I haven't seen on my news feed, then I'll watch it. I have sent videos to various people before, and the most recent one was Taylor Swift's Blank Space. This was a recent world-wide phenomenon. Trending for over 48 hours, the hash-tag #BLANKSPACEMUSICVIDEO was the pinnacle of the success of this video.
Ultimately:
Yes, the music industry does still need music videos, as artists need more platforms other than iTunes to promote themselves, and they like to have visual representation of their lyrics.
YouTube is the starting line of music videos' success, with them being able to spread easily on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and added benefits are artists being paid for their videos per-view.
- O
{Sources:}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_(song)
http://www.intuition-online.co.uk/article.php?id=3207
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