Marketing and Distribution

Usually, both marketing and distribution aspects are left to the record label rather than the direct members of the band. Wikipedia says "marketing" is a business term referring to the promotion of products, advertising, pricing, distribution channels, and branding. The term developed from the original meaning which referred literally to going to market, as in shopping, or going to a market to sell goods or services.

With music it can essentially be seen as an extension of the artist/band's work; it can portray them as certain image/brand to make sure the right audience are finding out about them; this includes things such as their advertising,online presence, press etc.

For this they could contact companies such as Drowned in Sound, NME or Pitchfork for music news, and album and gig reviews, and of course create profiles for themselves on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr (and maybe Myspace?) possibly linking fans to free downloads at Soundcloud.

To make sure they are getting listened to it is important that at they are distrubuted correctly; a huge portion of the music industry is solely on the internet now so it would be important for any emerging band to try get on internet radio stations, adding an album to spotify for the public, etc.  To get online sales they could go with a lot of different distribution plans with their record label.





Source: David Byrne at wired.com

I think "my" band could if first starting up would try go for a profit sharing and self-distribution model, as at first it might be easier to allow the label to help distribution  though it would be more independent if they could sell their own music, on websites such as bandcamp, letting the fans pay as much as they want, like what Radiohead did to sell In Rainbows.

http://www.unsignedbandpromotion.com/resources-marketing-music/

Advertisement/Album Art Idea

Recently, I found an old receipt that I had accidently got some perfume sprayed on it, it left little purple-y black marks where it had hit. I kind of experimented more with this and got lots of cool effects. 

(Taken with my webcam, so not the best quality)

I researched it and apparently it is due to the chemicals reacting with the ink as it is thermal paper, it also occurs if you hold a lighter underneath it. I'm trying out lots of different effects at the moment. I like how it looks and it does seem to link into some of the black and white, abstract looking album covers I've looked at; I think it could also continues a kind of dark theme, without getting too caught up in the aesthetics that heavier bands use.

Sprayed with perfume then scrunched up (left), folded and a lighter led underneath (right)

Location Ideas

I decided I was going to look for kind of grungy, industial streets to film in around Nottingham city centre. At the moment, I'm exploring around streets surrounding Maid Marian way, mainly, using the Street View tool on Google Maps. Though I've taken into consideration it might be a little different as some of the image dats are 2008, so they might look cleaner or a bit different now.

 

I'll use this as a kind of log to come back to and edit, a list of all the street names I've found so far that I could use. (Use the map in the corner and zoom out  to see the other points on the map that I've made.)

 

View Filming Locations in a larger map.

"Dead End" by Reptile Youth

I just came across this video on Tumblr and thought it was cool in a really disturbing way. It's pretty much a compilation of creepy moments in culture, mixed with lots of strange imagery; kind of interesting though totally unrelated to what I want to do.

I know I couldn't really do anything like it, as it's all found footage, from films mainly but I just thought I'd put on here as some possible inspiration for later on maybe.

Ideas III - Video Plan

Over half term I continued to look at ideas for videos, and a little on band logos. Feeling I had lost some direction in my ideas, so we started to just reiterate my ideas as of yet and looked at breaking up my given song into sections so it was a little less intimidating and more apporachable. :)

 

Here are my ideas so far,

 

Actors - Male performer, possibly two male performers, one to be the vocalist, one for the narrative sequence.

I think I have got people to be in my video, I have a friend who does drama at college and she may be able to ask some of the guys in her class to help me out. If I find out soon, I'll give the song to them so they could learn the lyrics to be able to lip sync more realistically.

 

Locations - Darkened room in which the vocalist (focus on shadows and silhouettes).

                 - Nottingham -> Urban/industrial settings

Maybe some back streets so I can still film parts of what the audience could imagine were office buildings or the like, so show the character is on the out side of that scene.

 

Ideas/Themes - Anti-capitalist aspect

                        - Grungy dark colours/ low temperature filming.

 

Narrative - I'm not certain of any story or focus in particular other than a man walking about on industial sort of back streets of a city, looking alone. I'd still like to include some sort of intra-intra diagetic scenes on fuzzy screens and things, but i'm not sure how I'd include this at the moment. I might look into being more influenced by Massive Attack videos, in particular Intertia Creeps where the singer is looking at the screen. I'm not sure yet.

I'm creating what will be a really detailed filming plan, at the moment it's just breaking the song into sections where it sounds similar, and working out what sort of thing will be shown at this part. This is what I have planned so far:

 

 

I've came to a kind of halt with writing this at the moment as i need to work out what -in more detail- to include in my narrative, I'll working on developing that this week.

Later I hope to link this in with the lyrics, making it more detailed so I'll know exactly what I'll need to be filming.

Ideas II - Camera and editing

Today, when pitching my ideas as of yet to the rest of  the class we talked about some of the more technical aspects of my video, as I have a (kind of) idea what it could be like aesthetically; I spoke about having a man feeling out of place in a corporate world, city type surroundings maybe; which we decided might suit an instrumental part midway through the song filmed kind of jittery and spinning around, possibly slowing down.

π (1998) trailer, with Boards of Canada too :)

I could possibly take some inspiration from the beginning part of this trailer for the film Pi.

Digipaks

In my previous post, I briefly looked at the aesthetics of album covers in the genres my song falls into, of course with this I will have to create the rest of my digipak so I decided to get a bit of information about them.

A basic digipak

A digipak is a style of packaging for a CD or DVD, they usually consist of a book-style fold and often used for singles and Special Edition copies. Digipaks can vary in how many sides they have (usually depending on the amount of discs included) , sometimes forming cross shapes or simply opening out as a line.  

The general conventions of a digipak are similar to any music packaging: album cover, track listing, band information such as website, thanks to anyone else involved, lyrics (maybe), music publisher and information, the record label and other legal information. A digipak may consist of more album art, and more than one CD. 

Looking at some similar band's digipaks may help me think about what images as well as information I will need to include in mine.

Album Covers

Looking into album covers in preparation for the creation of one of my ancillary tasks: to make a digipak for the given artist. It looks like it will be quite hard to create my own being inspired by others because unlike some music videos fitting genres, a lot of album art within the same genre still varies lots! However, so far I've looked at the likes of Radiohead, Massive Attack, Tricky, Tool, Placebo, Portishead, Sneaker Pimps etc.

An example of a pop/rnb cover

I've already noticed I naturally pick pictures with a colder temperature and darker rather than warm ones, so that might give me a place to start, if I look at ones like that.  :)

In comparision pop or r'n'b albums seem to hold a lot less focus on selling the idea of the artist's face/body, and rather on matching artwork to the music. The images are be darker, blurry and seemingly unrelated to the title of the album.

From looking at these, I think I'd like my album cover for my digipak to remain quite dark, and perhaps take a still from my video or something similar and mess with it on photoshop to look blurry, alternatively I could look into making the album cover just the band's logo and simplistic design like Burial's albums and the single for Stupid Girl by Garbage.

Record Labels I

In preparation for creating the brand that will be "my band", how I would plan to market or distribute them I needed to look into record labels that my band would be signed to. First, I'll look at popular record labels spanning the alternative or indie music, and genres the song fits into, then research smaller, independent kind of labels that would sign my band. 

Brief look at 'The Big Three' and labels such as Warp, 4AD, Rough Trade, Nothing Records and Mute:

Record labels from Ashleighhh-x

Ideas I - Lyrics

Recently I've felt like I've not applied the information I'm gathering back to the track I'm actually looking at, so taking the focus back to that,I thought I should look at my song in detail again: ("Track 19" for now) get a better idea of what I want my music video have in it. I decided to look at the lyrics in more depth to draw out any imagery or themes I could focus on. 

Moves and clues we're owed our dues there's no doubt about it that all above is about wanting to live long enough

Beats and freaks my mind reaps seeds sown and grown I've blown a whole in my soul oh no blow a hole in my soul too slow

cos I'm prepared to declare that every one of these scenes only means that only one of my eyes does disguise that I'm heading for surprise no more lies and no ties

As I defend to the end I don't depend on those rules and the fools who try and tell me how to be how to see it's not me cos i'm free

Look at the path you're on
Out of the way of shelter
Stranger days will come
Words are over
Strange strange days i'm not crazed i'm not fazed by laws .. I am the one who deplores all war you know you got to breathe not deceiveI pledge to the edge cannot censor my speech I need to teach that we are going down we're going down no sound

and the clues are clear

don't live in fear

And the words are strong

And you need to learn

Your time has come

It's the path you're on

Look at the path you're on

Out of the way of shelter

Stranger days will come

Words are over

I create I debate I don't hate all those vibes but the lies they make me want to leave not believe in all the good misunderstood you know you should and I would

So don't show don't blow don’t be weak and don't defeat all you meet your inner intent don't relent i'm hell bent...to stay alive

I adore my freedom's why I never wanted to try nine to five ain't ever gonna be part of this machine never will I be seen not to dream

Seasons fly they kinda make you feel old and tired try and let them make you young and wise try to let them make you breath - you're alive

The song seems to be about someone wanting to be free and to not conform in society; not depending on censorship, laws and rules; and how he does not want to be part of a corporate "machine" working a "nine to five" job.  He talks about how "stranger days will come" reminding people that one day people might realise they're "free" and "alive", as he says he is.

Tool's Parabola

There is not much direct imagery for my music video in these lyrics, but a lot I could make into a concept video of someone looking at business men separately from him as though he's an outcast from society already, it could maybe contrast with his idea of being free and how it's better as the audience could see him alone from them and perhaps struggling. They could see how it's his own choice and he thinks it's a positive thing.

Or, as he says he doesn't want to be part of a machine it could kind of be set in a really depressing, industrial landscape, like in Eraserhead (something else, can't remember?) and everyone around the main character is a 'mindless drone'. I'd have to contrast it with something really different though, else it might be too dark for the kind of song it is, actually.

Obviously these are all just super brief ideas for now but it could be a good way to incorporate both the ideas of cold colours, stony and metallic imagery to contrast with grungy, dirty kind of images. The latter being his life and the first to suit the clean cut kind of life which the people working "nine to five" might live. Perhaps I could include fast shots of birds or something to fit the theme of freedom but that might be really cliché, I'm not sure yet. 

I feel like the "beats and freaks" part might be talking about the beatniks and how their lifestyle is influencing him/making him want to feel "free" and "alive" with a bohemian kind of life style which might be quite interesting to look into, too.

The use of screens, TV static and CCTV images




From Sonic Youth's Little Trouble Girl

I started to look at genre conventions in the videos, though it seems like a wide genre the videos usually had similar themes, I'll start looking into the idea of screens, TV static and CCTV-like footage because it seems to be a strangely prominant feature within a lot of the videos and possibly something I could do myself.

This could link to Goodwin's theory in music videos as it is a notion of looking and/or intra-intra diagetic gaze which gives an apparent sense of voyeurism and creepiness. This can be seen in Inertia Creeps by Massive Attack dir. "The Wiz", a person watching and rewatching a footage of a woman, and a few other people previously in what looks to be the same room as him. The idea of being watched and screens (also the male viewers smoking cigarettes cigarettes?) reminded me of the video to The Space Inbetween by How To Destroy Angels which made me think it might actually be a kind of prominant feature in these kind of music videos.

The video for Inertia Creeps uses this effect a lot

 

The of most the effects in this video I feel I could recreate quite easily, using televisions or computers to screen old film for someone to be watching -if I used an old, glass screen I could also get that flickery effect which might work well too-; if I could get some of my film on VHS or something that looks similar and TV static I could also get a similar effect. (Also, I found a website called DIYmusicvideo which looks as though it might be really helpful later on in the production of my final product with offering tutorials, ideas etc.)
 

The Get Out Clause promoted themselves through the novelty of their video Paper in which they actually performed in the streets, and using the Data Protection Act, requested copies of the CCTV tapes.