The purpose of a music video

The main purpose and objective of a music video is to sell products. The main product to sell is the song that is featured in the video. There are other products which are wanted to sell as well such as; the album the song is featured on, the film the song is part of the soundtrack for, an upcoming tour by the artist and merchandise like t-shirts. Music videos can be an unusual form of maketing as it allows the audience full acces to the product. When a music video is shown the audience can hear the song and see the video so they are getting the product being promoted.

Prior to the digital age, allowing the audience full access to the product in the marketing was not too problematic. the song was only available at specific times and places which were approved of by the record company, such as on weekly television chart countdown shows like Top of the Pops (1964-2006). Now the new media age has come along the music videos and the songs are more widely available at any time. Videos can now be uploaded on to sites such as YouTube and can be viewed by media technology such as mobile phones and Itouch devices, this allowed the full product avilable for the customer at any time.

The invention of these new media technology has been problmatic for the music industry as audiences are now less likely to buy a physical copy of the song due to the fact they can acces it for free online. Record companies started to attempt to prosecute those who uploaded videos onto YouTube for copyright infringement. But they realised this was to expensive and time consuming. Record companies now allow their artist's videos to be online under controlled conditions. The videos which are on site's like YouTube have link's to iTunes, this enables audiences to purchase the song or album online.