The 4 P's

Place

Price

Product

Promotion

a) What band/artist related products can audiences buy?
-CD's, T-Shirts & Posters

b) Where can audiences buy/listen to music/merchandise/hardware?
Shops (HMV etc), Online (Amazon, play.com etc), Downloads (Itunes etc). Merchandise can often be purchased from HMv and other music stores, or stands withing other shops e.g. topshop often have band t-shirts in a seperate section of the shop.

c) Give 2 or 3 examples of paid-for/subscription based and free products.

Free Products:
•free music downloads (often as a taster before the album)
•free episodes to watch online
•free tickets to a gig when you pre order a CD.
Paid for/subscription Products:

•CD'S
•Downloads
•music magazines (paid for and often subscription)
•Merchandise
•Subscriptions to band websites (updates via email)
d) List between 5 and 10 examples of creative music marketing strategies (including at least 3 internet based examples).
•Lily Allen’s single The Fear is being promoted via a viral music game. The instant gratification of this type of game makes it inherently viral. They are potentially reaching a new audience who are not listening to the radio or reading the music press.
•Adidas are using the famous artists and sports stars to promote their product to specific audience by showing adverts on television which has a large audience, getting more coverage of both the product and the stars. Yes, on TV between the correct shows to reach the correct audiences.
•Jamie Cullum launched ‘The Advent Cullumdar’ on 1st December which houses £20,000 worth of Christmas gifts behind its virtual windows, including AC/DC tickets, John Legend concert tickets, 10 CDs from Universal and a Nokia Comes With Music phone.
•Samsung: Bebo and Samsung are teaming up to promote their new Beat phone over the internet in a online series. It will be interactive and allow the audience to interact through blogs, upload track reviews, share music news and win chances to appear in episodes. They will also be trying to find a co-presenter for the show and are also offering live performances from White Lies and The Maccabees to promote the series
•Lenka's song The Show was the iTunes free download of the week in September 2008, which promoted her whole self-titled album, pushing up sales
2. Who is frukt uk and what is their mission statement/company ethos?

Frukt UK is an agency specialising in music marketin.

"We’re all about music and are really very fond of it. Music colours people’s everyday lives. It’s found in the mundane and the exalted. It moves us all. And it’s thriving. We help brands access the passion and the communities, the lifestyle and the artists. Music is a vast cultural space - it's flexible, it's multi-channel, it's live and digital, it unites gender, race and age and it defines the spirit of generations.You just need to know how to use it. "


"We bring communication ideas to life through music and aim to produce work that is creatively bold and distinct. Either we develop the central idea ourselves and bring it to life with our team of on and offline activation specialists, or work collaboratively with other agencies, using music to make their ideas shine."

Lyrics Analysis

What do the lyrics in Voodoo Child mean?

Baby, baby, baby
You are my voodoo child, my voodoo child

"Voodoo Child": The woman singing is a domineering she-devil. She tempts men with her sexual movements and then controls them, like a voodoo doll.


You're like voodoo baby
You just take hold
Put your cards on the table baby
Do I twist, Do I fold?

But here the lyrics contradict themselves, which is a generic convention of dance songs, as the lyrics often don't make sense and there is a bigger focus on the actual music. "You just take hold" implies that he is performing voodoo on her, instead of her controlling him. "Put your cards on the table baby" implies that her man is a mystery she needs to work out.

You're like voodoo honey
All silver and gold
Why don't you tell me my future?
Why don't I sell you my soul?
So here it comes, the sound of drums
(Here come the drums, here come the drums)

This section attaches a sexual feel to the idea of domineering and being domineered: she wants to tame him but also wants to tempt him and "sell" him her soul. This creates a feeling of lust and mystery, as she is not just giving up herself, she's tempting him to control her by asking suggestive questions.

[Chorus:]
Baby, baby, baby
You are my voodoo child, my voodoo child
Don't say maybe maybe
It's supernatural, I'm comin' undone


Here we return to the idea of her controlling him, giving him a clear instruction: "don't say maybe". The word "supernatural" gives us an insight into her mind, as we imagine all the weird and magical things that she may want to do to him or have done to her. Also the sound of the word supernatural as it is sung in the song: superNATural, where the emphasis in on the third syllable, is fierce and sexy, and again encourages us to use our imagination...

[Chorus]

You're like voodoo baby
Your kisses are cold
Feel your poison running through me
Let me never grow old

This verse focuses on the magical aspects of the song, with "poison", and the last line worded like a spell..."let me never grow old". She is taunting and insulting him by saying his "kisses are cold", but also attaching sexual meaning to the "posion" line by saying it's running through her body. She wants to be young forever to taunt and tease him.

You're like voodoo honey
My pictures you stole
You play me like a puppet
Sticking pins in a doll
So here it comes, the sound of drums
(Here come the drums, here come the drums)

He is in control in this verse, but the lyrics are so that although he seems to control her, she has tempted him to do so and she herself is clearly in control. His actions are incredibly sexual ("sticking pins in a doll"...."my picture you stole") and she is highlighting how desirable she is to him, how he can't resist her.

[Chorus][x2]

Woo!
Here come the drums, here come the drums

[Chorus]

Baby, baby, baby
You just take hold
Don't say maybe, maybe
Do I twist do I fold?

FINAL DESICION

.....Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders!!! I'm excited about this. I wouldn't have thought of it as a song choice but thinking about it now it presents really good filming oporunities, as well as styling/ costume. Here are what I'm thinking for some 80's/60's/disco looks and costumes in the video:

Narrowing it down...

Here are my three final choices:
Nu:tone: System (Matrix and Futurebound remix)


Nneka: Heartbeats (Chase & Status remix)


Rogue Traders: Voodoo Child

Music Industry Marketing

Focus Band: The Streets

1. Summarise how the image has changed/developed over time, and the music genre.

Mike Skinner, the creator and lasting member of The Streets, has always made hip-hop and garage music, but when success came in 2000, the music changed to adopt an indie feel, however always maintained many garage beats. Skinner made a point in 2008 to highlight the new "peachful, positive vibe" to his new LP, Everything Is Borrowed, in comparisson to 2006's The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living. Skinner said that the fifth record would sound like the city of Berlin, and that the album will be "ravey".

"The final Streets album (the fifth one) will be dark and futuristic. This could not be further from the album you're about to hear, but it's what is on my mind at the moment. I feel inspired by the synthesizer exhibition we just visited in Austria after the gig we just did. Skinner says that the final Streets album will be "one more banger" and will be "dancing music to drink tea to".

2. Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?

3. What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of stategies can you list?(above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.

Ideas Development

So far, I've looked at:

• The genre of Dance music


• How music is currently break genre boundaries (dubstep and through remixes etc...)


• Furturistic music videos
  

Now I need to become more focused. We have been set our groups and my group members are Charlotte Cooper, Amelia Conway & Laura Allen. Here's a quick review of our first group meeting...:

1st Group Meeting, Tuesday 8th September

• We decided to look at and research further the dance-music-sub-genres of Drum and Bass and Dubstep. This being input from me and Charlotte, I will look at this on my blog and review it for the group. But we decided to only look at specific songs that have lyrics and only sung by female singers. These are my first ideas regarding these two genres:

High Contrast: If We ever (drum & bass)


Chase & Status: Heartbeats (dubstep)


Nu Tone: System (drum and bass/liquid)


...None of these songs have music videos as of yet, which is consistent with most songs of these two genres, and this appealed to us because it gives us more of a chance at being unique. We thought thse sorts of songs would be good to work with as we could have an energetic, individual video and at the same time focus on the passionate, female lyrics. But these are just initial ideas...

• We also decided, on the total flipside, to look at mowtown songs and think about putting an 80's bassline behind one (very exaggerated and techno). This is a way of combining our group love of mowtwon music and 80's style. this idea mostly originates from Amelia, who will be looking more closely into it on her part. Songs by artists like The Supremes, Prince, Patti LaBelle, David Bowie and Blondie are what we're thinking, as we all said we could visualise a more girl-band-like video with a lot of outfits, make-up and dance routines reference=ing the 80's style.

Lipsync Practice

Jocelyn Brown: Somebody Else's Guy


I really enjoyed making our lip sync video as it was a song I loved and is good experience to have, as in our real music video, we have all decided to act in it. At first I found the act of lip-syncing extremely difficult; although I knew the song very well, it was hard to keep in time to the music and on more than one occasion I messed up the lines. But then half way through Amelia told me to start actually singing the words and this helped greatly, so in our actual project, I will deffinitly sing the words aloud. In preparation, me and Amelia practiced singing the song to each other and I listened to "Somebody Else's Guy" on my iPod on the way to school a few times, so that I could remember the lyrics.
With the actual acting, me and Amelia discussed how we wanted to present ourselves. We wanted to be very over the top and expressive, and I think this comes across well. I think we would have benefitted from more than one take, however, as there are not enough close-ups ("money shots") of our faces and this would have made a nice contrast to all the Mid-shots we had. My favourite part of our video is the very beginning, which is very slow and the part where we are most enthusiastic. For future shooting, this has taught me that we need to leave enough time to take more footage, and that practicing beforehand is very worthwhile.

BLK feedback

Excellent research posts so far Holly, a great start to your background work for this project. I love all your analysis work on music videos, and your research into genre and so on. You are rather behind on some of the work required from last term though, and you need to catch up fast as it will be so busy when we get back to school.

We also need to get you using/applying advanced theory more explicitly when you analyse music videos, think Vernallis for now, although you will also need to get to grips with Goodwin in the new term.

For now, your short term targets are:
1. Link your lip sync and workshop video to your blog
2. Post your workshop and lip sync evaluations
3. Post the work you have done for Miss T on Vernallis (see her post on the main music video blog for specific details)
4. Post any further track research/ideas - what you have done so far is really excellent
5. Sort out your blog navigation – you need to link to the main music video blog for example
6. We need a photo please!

All instructions are on the main blog if you are not sure what you should have done. There will be a lot happening when term starts so the sooner this outstanding work is completed, the better.

Great effort so far, keep up the good work and see you soon!