Industrial Context - Sony's Values and Purpose

 Values:

• Dreams and Curiosity - pioneer the future with dreams and curiosity.
• Diversity - pursue the creation of the very best by harnessing diversity and varying viewpoints.
• Integrity and Sincerity - earn trust for the Sony brand through ethical and responsible conduct.
• Sustainability - fulfill stakeholder responsibilities through disciplines business practices.

Purpose: "Fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology."

 How I will adhere to Sony's values and purpose:

• Have a diverse cast of actors in my video to portray the band and other characters.
• Produce my video ethically and sustainably and promote that fact on my website in a sincere manner.
• Promote creativity through my story line and though the use of various shot types, for example a rack focus.

Industrial Context - Sony as a Brand

Sony Music Entertainment is the second largest record company in the world, and Sony/ATV or Sony Music Publishing is the largest music publishers in the world. These two merged to create Sony Music Group. They comprise of a variety of record labels that provide a variety of genres. such as rock, pop, hip hop, R&B, classical. So they are a brand that caters to large audience.

Sony Music Entertainment Labels:

• Columbia Records
• RCA Records
• Epic Records
• Arista Records

Notable Sony Music Entertainment Artists:

• Black Eyed Peas
• Little Mix
• Adele
• Chris Brown                               

These videos are featured on Sony's website :   

"Oh My God" by Adele

 "GIRL LIKE ME" by Black Eyed Peas and Shakira                                                                                   

"Iffy" by Chris Brown

All of these videos have these conventions:

• A performance aspect of the artist as the main focus of the video.
• Stylised mise-en-scene.
• Diverse cast of actors/dancers, mostly by ethnicity, a diverse range of ages are featured in the Chris Brown video.
• A dance section is featured.
• Special effects are used. 
• A narrative is used in the Adele and Chris Brown video.
• The artists are presented as glamourous, via wearing nice dresses, being shown in or next to expensive cars. 
• Women are explicitly sexualised in the last two videos and arguably sexualised in the first video.

Industrial Context - Contemporary Context

The Largest Record Labels in the Music Industry

Finance: Music video production is financed by the record label the artist is signed to, as those labels are beneficiaries of the royalties that come from those music videos. Ways in which music videos make money is via, advertising, sponsorships, video sales (through digital downloads) and so on. Putting a music video on YouTube can be very lucrative for companies and artists, with 1 million views equating to between $1000 and $2000, and in 2018 20% of all views on YouTube went towards music videos.     Record labels can get artists the best directors and producers for their music videos and will help to promote the video.

Distribution: Digital distribution is the main way in which music videos are distributed. Music videos are now distributed through digital distribution companies like Ditto will sign deals with record labels to allow them to sell their music videos on many different platforms such as Vevo, Apple Music etc. This middle man distribution method allows music videos to be accessed by more people, meaning more money is to be made from using these distribution companies. Some distribution companies won't take royalties from the songs revenue and some platforms won't need a distribution company to share the music video.

Industrial Context - History of Music Videos

 A Brief History:

• In the 1960s music videos were more like promotional videos. The Beatles are one of the famous examples of using 'promotional videos'. With songs such as "Strawberry Fields Forever" which featured slow motion fades, camera filters, slow fades etc. 
• In the 1970s "Bohemian Rhapsody" hit number 1 and was scheduled to make an appearance on Top of the Pops, where the songs preformed were usually accompanied by the band and dancers as a performance. Instead of doing this, Queen sent in a video featuring them performing the start and end of the song, but in the middle a collection of visually stunning visuals using the latest technology.
• In the 1980s music videos came into popularity with MTV - music videos existed before MTV but very few were successful. MTV which started in 1981 and played a constant 24 hour stream of music videos. The first music video to feature on MTV was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles. Pop songs like these were usually performances and helped the artist to sell their records. But the video to change that was "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, which was a 13 minute screenplay which told a story rather than just a performance and this was incredibly successful.
• In the 1990s "Baby One More Time" by Brittany Spears was released and instead of using lots of special effects, it was a perfect example of the synchronicity between the song and video. The video had strong direction, interesting choreography and naturalistic costumes. This video was a big success on MTV.
• In the 2000s with the arrival of YouTube, and MTV starting to air more reality content more artists started uploading their videos onto YouTube and it quickly became the most popular medium for sharing and accessing music videos. With music videos like "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga finding great success on the platform.

With technological advancements, the way people access music videos has changed. People used to have to watch music videos on their televisions, but know that technology has become more compact people can access music videos on their phones, tablets, laptops etc. This coupled with the main platform for music videos now being YouTube which is free, people can access music videos instantly and anywhere, making the popularity of music videos rise. This is also great for music video producers and artists as their videos/songs will get more exposure to an increase the audience, with the top 5 most viewed videos on YouTube being music videos.