“Marketing is the process of identifying needs and satisfying these needs with suitable goods or services, through product design, distribution, and promotion…” (Dictionary of Marketing, 1996).
-The 20th century was the beginning of broadcast media and also the time when media's power over society, economy and politics was growing. It is also important to acknowledge the importance and impact of technology on marketing strategies in the music industry.
For example, radio was invented in the 1890s and popularized in the 1920s and the 1930s was 'The Golden Age of Radios' which decreased the price and value of phonographs. Since the 1890s, the cost of a phonograph had decreased to around 40$, and around 1905, standard record prices dropped to 36 cents. As a result, due to the high prices of radio, the cost of phonographs had declined which made phonographs more common and reach a wider audience of different classes to access music of different genres in their homes.
'While phonograph technology increased the amount of music heard in homes on a regular basis and increased the size of the listening audience, radio's influence on the size of the listening audience would eventually far exceed that of the phonograph.' (Radio's Inflfluence on Music from 1919 to 1926, Aaron Hawley) https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1116&context=honors_theses
Radio reached a larger pool of audience and allowed to transmit live performances in music halls to the homes of thousands, the increase in accessibility of music had made it more popular. Soon there were stations especially made for music and this became crucial in marketing music due to introducing new artist but mostly promoting famous artists which encourage the audience to attend live performances if they were to be 'in town'. Especially because the entertainment content was favored over political and educational information (audience seeking for escapism and distraction from the hardships of their lives--the war).
Artist websites
Ariana Grande
The advantage of having an artist website is it creates a unified platform with the professional information and details of the artist, as opposed to an artist's social media page which would likely include daily life sharing. This allows fans to easily find and/or purchase items from the website, thus more straightforward and organized.
The Weeknd
The 'News' section on the website keeps fans updated on the artist's future career plans, including tours, album or song releases and therefore, music marketing.
The 'Store' section. Just as Ariana Grande's website, there are different categories on the site.
Engaging media content--Easter egg
-Taylor Swift is known to leave 'Easter eggs' in photos or music videos which hint at her coming songs.
For example, in the music video of 'You Need To Calm Down' there is a scene where Ellen DeGeneres gets a tattoo saying 'Cruel Summer' which is the name of Taylor Swift's other song in the 'Lover' album.
In the 'ME!' music video there is also a neon sign for 'Lover' which is both the name of the album and a song from the album.
Furthermore, this scene with Taylor in her suit foreshadows her song 'The Man' as part of her 'Lover' album.
The Easter eggs embedded not only hint at Taylor Swift's future songs but also private events in her life. In the music video, Taylor Swift is proposed and she refuses the first two attempts using a ring and flowers, but accepts the third proposal with the offering of a cat.
After the release of this music video Taylor Swift confirms the arrival of her third new cat.
These Easter eggs not only indicate Taylor Swift's future events but also pays respect to her own past.
In Taylor Swift's new music video 'Anti-Hero' there are three ghosts which appear and each one of them carries an iconic symbol from her looks in her past albums, this ghost in particular represents her 'Red' album.
Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero Easter Eggs Explained
Leverage Spotify playlist
This marketing strategy is less explicit and is especially helpful for musicians with low publicity.
1. The idea is to create a playlist based on the vibe/theme/genre of the songs the artist makes
2. Add songs which fit this category.
3. Include the artist's own song into the playlist.
This helps raise awareness and hits to the artist's own work.
Inviting influencers to use the artist's music---starting a TikTok trend
A recent example of this is Meghan Trainor's new song 'Made You Look'
Montage by me, Nu Er de Biolley
A dance compilation of some TikTok videos following the #madeyoulook trend.
The above our the popular ways artists market their music, so...
How do big labels market music?
First, one must know what purposes the record labels serve:
A record label focuses on selling the brand of the artist, which includes manufacturing, distributing, and promoting the recordings of the musician.
Currently the four largest record labels in the industry are: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group.
There has been controversy surrounding whether a musician needs a record label since the 2010s with the rise of internet and social media, however record labels do hold the majority of revenue generated in the industry and therefore have power and impact on the economy.
In terms of marketing and music video, a record label would have a professional design team to create visuals for the musician's music video and record labels would have the capacity to pay for advertisements and play listing.
The record label has experience and can plan a clear strategy to market the artist's brand, such as establishing a fan base and interest around a single or album. Large record labels can use their industry connections to find opportunities for artists to perform or cooperate which is likely to drive exposure and popularity.
Nowadays, record labels tend to have social media accounts and they promote artists by posting content based on them, when people see a big record label company like Sony Music Entertainment or EMI post information about a new artist, they would already have some trust in the artist due to the record label's popularity.
Take Sony Music Entertainment for example, on YouTube they have a country-specific account which is based on the user's geographical location. This provides more opportunities for less internationally--known musicians providing them with a larger platform.
The image below shows the 'Highlighted Artists Channel' section.
To summarize, some of the different forms of media which can be used to market music include:
Social media (e.g: Instagram, Facebook)
Artist websites
Online articles
Online newspapers (e.g: The Guardian)
Magazines
Music apps (e.g: Apple Music, Spotify)
Entertainment apps (e.g: YouTube, TikTok)
Comments