Summer Homework -

Task 1 -

What do you think are the major elements of an album marketing campaign? (The different ways in which a band/artist identity is mediated to an audience)

The first major question an artist needs to ask when advertising a new album is "can the audience hear it?" The most important thing for an artist is that their target audience can listen to the music which they have created. To make this possible, artist need to use highly popular music sites such as Spotify and Itunes in order to get their music heard by their intended audience. Not only does this create an immediate bond with the fans, but it also allows the artists fan base to grow, as these particular sites allow audiences to discover new music, meaning more sales and therefore, more popularity.

The use of online sites leads straight onto the second point, an online presence. The second question an artist needs to ask when advertising a new album is "Does the audience know who we are and can they discover more about us and our music?" By having an online presence, the artist can allow their audience to discover more about the e.g. band itself, widen their knowledge on the bands music and more importantly, discover new music (the most recent album) By having an online presence, a huge amount of people are able to view the artist and can gain a clear understanding of their genre and style, as well as discover where they can see them perform live; which leads on to element number three.

Element number three enables the band/artist to promote their music to a vast, live audience. By going on tours and playing at festivals, the band/artist is able to play in front of thousands of fans, and are able to promote their music to others; this once again allows their fan base to grow. By announcing a tour, the band is immediately recognised by audiences, and many often listen to the band/artists songs before watching their shows, this is another great marketing technique, as many member of the audience feel inclined to listen to the bands music before watching them at gigs or festivals.

Another fantastic way of advertising new music is for the band/artist to release their own merchandise. By doing this, they are automatically noticeable, as fashionable items such as t-shirts and hats etc. can be viewed by vast amounts of people. This particular technique may also allow the bands fan base to grow, which will in turn boost the bands popularity and therefore boost album sales.


Task 2 -

Where have you encountered these elements in your daily life? 

I have encountered elements such as the ones listed above on numerous occasions. As a user of sites such as twitter and spotify, i am able to discover new single/album releases almost instantaneously. By using sites such as these and following my favourite artists i am able to see the album itself, research further into by using the internet, and most importantly listen to the songs which feature on it. A recent example of this occured when The Courteeners released their new album 'Concrete Love.' I discovered that the album had been released whilst on twitter, as Courteeners front man Liam Fray confirmed in a tweet that a new album was to be released shortly. After reading this, i immediately searched for the album on sites such as google to find out further details about the new album. Eventually, the album was available to stream on spotify and i was notified immediately. After reading this notification i was able to see the album cover as well as every single song, which i then added to a playlist.


Task 3 -

What factors make you like a band and therefore download their music, buy their albums and attend their concerts? How do you decide on which bands are cool and which bands are not? 

There are many factors to consider when listening to a band or artist for the very first time. The first, and most important for me is the bands music. The music is key; not only does it suggest the bands genre and style, but allows you to understand their backgrounds and personalities. When listening to a new band, i often play their most popular tracks and can therefore decide if i enjoy listening to their music and if i like their style. If their music grabs me and i find myself enjoying their songs, then i opt to discover more about the band and begin to listen to their less well known stuff, in order to further my knowledge and understanding about the particular group. Another crucial factor to consider when discovering a new band is their personality. The bands i usually listen to contain huge, influential characters who make the bands what they are. For example, the likes of Liam and Noel Gallagher were key to Oasis' success, not only because of their musical talent, but because of their quick witted humor and freedom to do, say and wear what they wanted. This brings me on to another crucial factor, the bands image. For me, the bands image is extremely important, as it relates to their style of music and culture. For example, if a band wears clothing which i like or wear myself, i am immeiatley attracted and feel as if i am part of their culture and so should listen to their music.


Task 4 -

What makes a music video unique?

From my experience of watching music videos, the most unique are the ones which are inexpiable, ones which have no meaning and no sense of reality, ones which simply do not make sense.  In my opinion, these are the most unique as they are ones which automatically stand out, and can not be recreated or copied in any way. For the video to be unique, it has to be different from anything else, whether it be past, present or even future.