Research: Changes to the Music Industry.

I have done some additional research into the decreasing popularity of physical album sales, and the increase in digital single downloads, as part of my research for the digi-pak task and CD magazine advertisement.

I found that there has been an increase in the popularity and importance of single download sales which has undermined the need for physical album purchases.

 Changes to the Music Industry.

There has been a fairly significant decrease in the number of album sales in recent years, both in physical sales and more recently in digital album sales. Factors such as problems such as the on-going recession are factors likely to be causing this decrease- with people choosing to not prioritise music buying; however there are other factors such as an increase in a desire for single collections as opposed to album’s. This has resulted in artists focusing more on promoting single releases rather than prioritising album promotion, as the music industry is going through a change that has created the image that the chart positions of singles are becoming as important as the chart positions and sales of the artists album.

With this change, the consistent good quality of songs on an album is becoming les regular as there are often 3 or 4 really good songs, with additional ‘filler’ songs, due to artists realising the popularity of single downloads as opposed to album downloads as a whole, which is further decreasing the popularity of albums.

The image below is a chart of CD sales, and album & single downloads in the U.S up to 2009, with predictions of the following years. As the image shows; in 2009 Album downloads were at 76,163 sales and predicted to increase slightly, whereas Cd sales were slightly higher at 295,237 but sales were expected to decrease, and in 2009 single download sales were increasing on 1,159,174.

(The graph and some information is from this article.. http://www.fastcompany.com/1672447/the-state-of-internet-music-on-youtube-pandora-itunes-and-facebook)

The influence of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

With the popularity of social networking sites such as twitter and Facebook increasing significantly in the last few years, many artists popularity is measured on the amount of followers or 'likes' as an indication of how many fans the artist has.

Artist such as Lady Gaga, who has 450,551,445 views on her YouTube video of Bad Romance, as well as having nearly 200 million followers on Twitter, and being the most ‘liked’ artist on Facebook; are all statistics that imply the immense success of Lady Gaga.  

There has also been a change in the way music video's are being premiered for the first time. In previous years new video's were premiered on television music channels- with channels such as MTV having the exclusive 'first play'. However, many new music video's are now premiered on YouTube or VeVo, as well as on the Artists own website; Which also shows the change in promotion strategies.

Images for Digipak

These are some images i have taken of my performer as possible images i could use for sides of my Digi-pak or magazine advertisement. I am unsure about the first two shots, as the performeer looks slightly awkward, however i like the setting and spacing of the image as long shots. I think images 4,5, & 6 are good shots, as i used  aslightly low camera angle and side shot of the perofmer, which i think would work well as an image the digi-pak.

I chose to have the photo's in a nature setting, as i think it creates an image of simplicity rather than having a bright background that could attract attention away from the artist.

Costume for video and CD images

These are images of the costumes i plan to use for my performer when filming the video. The top image is the clothing that will be mostly used, as well as the white zip up jacket.

I chose the leopard print jacket, the black dress and the pink top as i think they add to the image of individuaty of the performer that i wantd to create. Whereas i chose the ripped jeans and white zip up jacket to create the insecure and vulnerable side of the performer's character.

CD cover analysis

Adele  - Turning Tables. 

I researched single and album covers of artists that I think convey a similar style to the song I am using for my music video. I looked at this official single cover for Adele’s Turning Tables from her second album ‘21’, as I think it conveys a vulnerability similarly to how I wish to promote the artist for my video.

The cover is a single image of just Adele herself, with the image being taken using direct eye contact and eye level with the camera, which is used to create a connection with the artist and the audience.

The clothing Adele is wearing is a large, purposely oversized woollen cardigan that is wrapped around her neck; this conveys a vulnerability about the artist and suggests the tone of the song, along with the fact that she is not dressed glamorously, which will make the audience able to relate to.

The choice of colouring effect of the cover also suggests that the tone of the song is a low tempo song, as the image itself is tinted black and white, and the text used for the song title and artist name is white and light green, which adds to the simplicity of the cover, also further connoting the tone of the song.

From the album cover it is hard o distinguish who the direct target audience is aimed at, but due to the lack of bold glamour, it would suggest the general target audience is people of a mature age, as opposed to young teenagers, that most pop music is typically aimed at. However, we know that Adele’s music is bought in the masses by younger generations (as the album from which this single came from ‘21’ has sold one copy every 7 seconds since her Brit Awards appearance in 2011) showing she appears to have no specific target audience. 

Shooting schedule change and Health & safety considerations

Due to obstructions with my performer not being able to perform when i first made plans to film, the schedule for filming has changed to Friday 9^th to Sunday 11^th of March, and the following weekend, the 17^th & 18^th. I realise this leaves a short time frame to edit and construct my video, however I am confident that my planning of how I will construct the editing will allow me to finish the video in good quality on time, with the use of my storyboard and analysis of previous videos.


EDIT: The filming on the first weekend was successful and I used several of the scene concepts from my storyboard and used all the areas of location for filming that I had planned, with also filming some unplanned scenes that I felt would fit with the storyboard. However, I still had some important scenes to film, which were shot on the following weekend. I filmed all planned shots and included some additional scenes in new location areas that I felt fitted with the concept of the video.
I think my filming is complete now and I am satisfied that I have enough good quality material to produce the video with.


HEALTH AND SAFETY

When i started my video research and preperation i didnt believe there were any considerable health and safety considerations i needed to consider as i planned to use my garden, a footpath, rooms in my house and a field to shoot scenes and there are no particular scenes which i thought could impose issues of safety. However when i looked into health and safety guidelines to consider i realised there were a few, although only minor issues of safety in the locations i had planned for filming.
The most significant issue i could find was the issue of safety for both me and the performer when filming on the embankment scenes, as i took several low and high angle shots from the slopes of the embankment which could have created issues of injuries if i had slipped and fallen down the hill.
I don't believethere are any other significnt issues that could become an issue of health and safety on further filming.

Performer for my video.

For my video i have decided to use my sister Emily as the performer i will use.I will only be having one performer for the full duration of the video and i felt that she will portray the characteristics well that will convey the song correctly.

Other videos - influence for character

Demi Lovato - Skyscraper 

I looked at other current videos that also have a similar tone/mood like the downbeat tone of the song I am using for my own video I looked at the way these videos used the artists expressions and extreme close ups as well as long shots.

One video in particular that has inspired my ideas is Demi Lovato's 'Skyscraper' video, which as the images show, uses long shots, to show the artist walking, and reflecting- to fit with the mood of the song, which is an idea I included in my storyboard. I like the way the costume and setting of the video are using light colours which conotate a peacefulness/innocence that the song promotes aswell. In addition to this, i also like the caemra angles used in the video, the use of the high angle long shots that work well to convey a vulnerability,which is one aspect of the video i will take inspiration from for my own video. The pace of song, including the movements of the performer being slow, and the use of several shots of the performer walking as a way of conveying the performing is reflecting on something, in a similar way to Adele's - Someone Like You video, are other aspects of this video that i will take inspiration from.

alternate versions of performance & styles of my chosen song.

When doing my research, I looked at the promotion of the album titled 'Cinderella eyes' where my chosen music video song comes from, and although the song was never released as a single, and remains only as an album track, the song was performed acoustically for promotion - which is shown in the video above, for several music shows such as 'The Album Chart Show; This performance has given me additional ideas & inspiration for the tone and mood I will aim to convey in my video.

Researching Promotion strategies of new music releases.

I wanted to research the image of the artist that was created to promote the song i am using for my video, so I looked into the ways this was done by first looking at the artists website, finding articles on her explaining the concept of the album and specifically talking about overcoming bullying - which co-insides with the song 'Sticks & Stones' (see a previous post for link to the article/interview video).

I then looked at the promotional photos used to promote the song and album, observing how the artist is conveyed as vulnerable and timid, which the 'Girl Allowed' image and the mirror reflection image (which is also used in the official lyrical video for the song) both show. This image not only promotes the album 'Cinderella Eyes' but links specifically to the song 'Sticks & Stones' which is based on overcoming the vulnerability that bullying causes.

These promotional strategies and the image used for the song have further influenced my ideas on the style (such as costume, make-up) and the character that my performer should aim to convey in my music video for this song.