2. Industry

Understanding the music industry is another key factor in the research and planning of my music video, as I must follow certain industry conventions for my artist to be successful.

My music video will be distributed by the Universal Music Group. UMG has distributed the works of thousands of talented artists, and co-created the hugely popular site, Vevo. Whilst only available in 14 countries worldwide, Vevo has been hugely successful, drawing in millions of views every day. However, only admins can upload to Vevo, and the site only publishes music videos, severely limiting the content on Vevo, in exchange for exclusivity and the ability to avoid copyright problems.

In contrast to this, YouTube is open to everybody, meaning everyone can upload content of any type, not just music videos. YouTube recives billions of views everyday, and Vevo has created a YouTube channel, which features the music videos created by smaller production companies and music artists. Vevo has a large prescence on YouTube, with 6 of the top 10 most viewed YouTube videos being produced by Vevo artists.

Because the music video I produce will be comissioned by UMG, it will also feature on Vevo, and therfore YouTube. As a result, my video must be suitable for broadcast on YouTube, and feature content that at minimum is suitable for 16 year olds and above. This is because the video needs to be suitable for my target audience, of which the youngest age is 16.

Ownership
Mainstream music production is usually carried out by major record labels, such as the Universal Music Group. Songs produced by their artists are promoted on mainstream radio broadcasts and platforms dedicated to music, such as Vevo or Spotify. Smaller, independent production companies, without access to the array of resources available to major record labels, usually rely on smaller platforms, such as podcasts, blogs, streams and occasional promotion on larger platforms like Spotify and YouTube. As a result, artists promoted by major record labels are able to reach a much larger audience, as a result of wider-scale distribution. Mainstream music production also usually involves a much larger production budget (upwards of $200,000) as a pose to that of a smaller, independent production company (around $2,000). This results in a large gap in quality between mainstream and independent music videos.

Trends
This year, a lot of popular music videos have been based around tackling discrimination, such as racism, homophobia and sexism. For example, one of 2018's most popular music videos was Childish Gambino's 'This is America', where the artist portrays racism and police brutality, hitting the audience hard with a very visual performance on this issue. Another popular example video from this year was Janelle Monáe's 'Americans', which talks about a variety of discriminatory issues within America, from black shootings to gay rights.

Future of the music industry

The music industry has been in decline in recent years. With the internet becoming more and more integrated into the music industry, people no longer need to buy artists' albums, instead streaming on sites like Spotify, or illegally downloading tracks.

The stats above  indicate a massive decline in physical sales over the last 10 years. Although digital sales have increased, the diagram does not indicate the billions in total digital revenue lost to illegal downloads and copies of an artists work. The music industry unfortunately shows no sign of stopping this decline, with the Recording Industry Association of America estimating a $12.5 million economic loss in the USA due to piracy.