The record label I have researched is the one we chose for our artist; Atlantic Records. We chose Atlantic Records as similar artists to ours are signed to them such as Ed Sheeran and Plan B. It was a toss up between Atlantic Records and Island Records (Rizzle Kicks' real label) but we chose the former as they seemed to have less big artists, which means they would concentrate more on the ones they do have.
Atlantic Records' parent company is Warner Music Group, whom are widely seen as the second biggest record label in the world and are constantly in contention with the other 2/3 major labels; Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and EMI who prior to late 2011 would be regarded as one of the major labels, but maybe not now, as the latest yet to be approved list just contains Sony, Warner and Universal respectively.
Atlantic Records is an American label founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. It was in 1967 that Warner became their parent company. The label are most famous for being host to many major rock acts over the years such as Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, and also helping the evolution of African-American music, as they held such talents as Ben E. King (best known for 'Stand By Me') and Ray Charles (best known for 'Hit The Road, Jack') in the prime of their careers. Currently their most popular artists are of the urban genre, as their website mainly promotes rappers; Wiz Khalifa (similar style to our artist) and T.I as well as RnB star Trey Songz.
Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Album Art Research On Similar Artists
This album by The Streets shows Mike Skinner, the main artist standing alone at a bus stop. The scene is something that would be seen in everyday life, which represents the album's content as he raps about daily activities and thoughts. The fact that he is standing alone also represents the album's content as it tells a story of his trust issues and how at one point he feels betrayed by all his friends and feels alone.
This album cover shows the artist; Chipmunk as this promotes his image. The artist's name is clearly visible along with the name of the album. He chooses to show his tattoos in the picture quite clearly as they may tell his story. The inclusion of his tattoos seems to be loosely linked to the album title as he has changed his style and sound from his first album 'I Am Chipmunk.
The album 'Black And White' by Wretch 32 shows the artist centred. the name and album title are clearly visible. The concept of the cover match the album title as the colour has been removed so that it is 'Black and white'. The artist is wearing traditional 'urban' clothing with the fashionable scarf and varsity jacket his swagger reflects that of his music which is hip hop based.
*This task was completed by myself and Josh (50/50)*
Monday, 12 September 2011
Snoop Dogg - Image
This is how Snoop Dogg first appeared, as a gangsta rapper from the streets of south central LA. At this time he was popular among people from his own background and was popular as a pioneer of 90's rap, but was seen as a poor role model by society and he was widely feared due to his criminal record. During his first visit to the UK he was seen as a real threat to people's safety even though he was just doing music and had no harmful intentions.
Snoop Dogg's gangsta image became less prominent as his popularity increased, and he realised that he needed a more friendly and commerically acceptable image. The above image shows him in the video for 'Beautiful' which is a RnB/Hip Hop song featuring Pharell. His image went from gangsta rap to mainstream rap.
The above still is taken from Katy Perry's 'California Girls' video. Snoop Dogg features in the song with a clean rap about California. By this stage his image has completely transformed. After first being seen as a threatening young and violent gangster, he is now seen as a friendly and humorous man, shown by his willingness to be part of a pop song and to dress in a silly outfit for the video. He even has his own reality show about his life as a family man now.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Marketing Strategies
One marketing strategy I have come across, used by the Arctic Monkeys, is a rather common one. This involves releasing 3 singles in the months building up to the release of a new album (Whatever You Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, 2006). The singles are usually available after around a month of airtime on radio and television, and usually can be purchased as a hard copy or on iTunes a bit later. The single would usually cost between 59p-99p alone, but sometimes they come with a bonus track or instrumental and are sold for around £2, something which the Arctic Monkeys did for their debut single 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor'. The Arctic Monkeys raised awareness of their work originally in 2003 by handing out CDs at a gig they performed in Sheffield. Their later work under their label was publicised on a Myspace page (www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys) which was actually created and run by a fan.
Another strategy I have come across is a sort of reverse of the aforementioned strategy. This was used by Snoop Dogg when he released his latest 2011 album, 'The Doggumentary'. This strategy involves releasing an album, before selecting the more popular songs from the album and releasing them as singles. This strategy often helps to revive album sales after they begin to drop, as people who didn't purchase the album hear the content in the form of a single, and want to hear more from the artist. Snoop Dogg promoted his lates album through all social networking sites. His Myspace page (www.mypsace.com/snoopdogg) has a very professional and advanced layout, his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/snoopdogg) has over 10 million 'likes', and he has over 3 million followers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/SnoopDogg). He gained more 'likes' on Facebook by offering to lower the price of a cologne he sponsored, the more people joined the page. This incentive was introduced around May 2011 and would help him to gather more fans to be subjected to his promotion by following his page.
Another strategy I have come across which seems consistent in the UK urban scene, is a mix of the above strategies. This strategy is used by artists such as JME, Skepta and Wiley. They release around 2-3 singles in around a 12 month period prior to when their album is scheduled for release, and after they drop their album they select another 1 or 2 singles to release based on which singles were popular. JME released 'Over Me' in August 2009, 'Sidetracked' in October 2009, and 'CD Is Dead' in May 2010, before releasing his album 'Blam!' in October 2010, which included all 3 singles. Following the release of the album, he dropped another single from the album individually; 'Jme' in February 2011, and is due to release one more single in the coming months, before moving onto his next project. This strategy is very flexible and is possible because he is on his own independent label and has 100% control. Skepta is in a better position as he is also on this label and has complete control of his releases, but his distributer is 'All Around The World' records, and he can reach a wider audience than the 'Boy Better Know' label. JME promotes his music, offering music on his Myspace account (http://www.myspace.com/jmeserious), and promoting his work on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/jmeserious) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/JmeBBK). His Facebook page has over 100,000 'likes' and he occasionally talks to fans, as you can see him replying to me on one of his statuses from 21st June which reads "WHAT'S YOUR TWITTER NAME FAM?". However JME is most famous for his Twitter account. He has almost 100,000 followers and is one of the most popular users in London. He is a very regular user and replies to fans everyday and has inside jokes with them. This makes him more popular, and earns him more fans, which consequently improves his album sales.
Another strategy I have come across is a sort of reverse of the aforementioned strategy. This was used by Snoop Dogg when he released his latest 2011 album, 'The Doggumentary'. This strategy involves releasing an album, before selecting the more popular songs from the album and releasing them as singles. This strategy often helps to revive album sales after they begin to drop, as people who didn't purchase the album hear the content in the form of a single, and want to hear more from the artist. Snoop Dogg promoted his lates album through all social networking sites. His Myspace page (www.mypsace.com/snoopdogg) has a very professional and advanced layout, his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/snoopdogg) has over 10 million 'likes', and he has over 3 million followers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/SnoopDogg). He gained more 'likes' on Facebook by offering to lower the price of a cologne he sponsored, the more people joined the page. This incentive was introduced around May 2011 and would help him to gather more fans to be subjected to his promotion by following his page.
Another strategy I have come across which seems consistent in the UK urban scene, is a mix of the above strategies. This strategy is used by artists such as JME, Skepta and Wiley. They release around 2-3 singles in around a 12 month period prior to when their album is scheduled for release, and after they drop their album they select another 1 or 2 singles to release based on which singles were popular. JME released 'Over Me' in August 2009, 'Sidetracked' in October 2009, and 'CD Is Dead' in May 2010, before releasing his album 'Blam!' in October 2010, which included all 3 singles. Following the release of the album, he dropped another single from the album individually; 'Jme' in February 2011, and is due to release one more single in the coming months, before moving onto his next project. This strategy is very flexible and is possible because he is on his own independent label and has 100% control. Skepta is in a better position as he is also on this label and has complete control of his releases, but his distributer is 'All Around The World' records, and he can reach a wider audience than the 'Boy Better Know' label. JME promotes his music, offering music on his Myspace account (http://www.myspace.com/jmeserious), and promoting his work on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/jmeserious) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/JmeBBK). His Facebook page has over 100,000 'likes' and he occasionally talks to fans, as you can see him replying to me on one of his statuses from 21st June which reads "WHAT'S YOUR TWITTER NAME FAM?". However JME is most famous for his Twitter account. He has almost 100,000 followers and is one of the most popular users in London. He is a very regular user and replies to fans everyday and has inside jokes with them. This makes him more popular, and earns him more fans, which consequently improves his album sales.
Monday, 13 June 2011
Research Task On Arctic Monkeys
'Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m not' was the name of the Arctic Monkeys first album.
| Genre: Indie rock, psychadelic rock | |
Domino is their label.
Other examples of artists signed to the label: Franz Ferdinand
They became well known through their first album and the single 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' which reached number 1 in the UK singles chart, gaining more recognition and popularity for the Indie genre. They are now a landmark band of their genre.
They became well known through their first album and the single 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' which reached number 1 in the UK singles chart, gaining more recognition and popularity for the Indie genre. They are now a landmark band of their genre.
Charts (2005) | Peak position |
1 | |
18 | |
7 | |
18 | |
12 | |
15 | |
100 | |
99 | |
14 |
The video is a live recording of the band playing the song in a studio with a small audience watching with both the video and audio taken live. The video was shot using television cameras from the 1970s to give it a more aged effect. American band The Strokes had previously made a similar music video for their single "Last Nite", Arctic Monkeys are known to be fans of The Strokes.
There were 6 covers of the track. Tom Jones sung a version at a concert in 2007.
On 23 February 2006, the track won Best Track at the 2006 NME Awards - one of three awards won by Arctic Monkeys.
The marketing strategy used involved releasing 3 singles, the aforementioned one being first, on the 17th October 2005, before the album was released on 23rd January 2006. The single was available for digital download on iTunes as part of an EP with 2 other songs on the 29th November 2005, just after a month after the physical release.
One of the b-sides, "Chun Li's Spinning Bird Kick", was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental performance in the 2007 Grammy awards.
*We had to copy the chart positions and genre boxes from Wikipedia as we did not know how to create them but don't worry the whole thing isn't from Wikipedia!*
The marketing strategy used involved releasing 3 singles, the aforementioned one being first, on the 17th October 2005, before the album was released on 23rd January 2006. The single was available for digital download on iTunes as part of an EP with 2 other songs on the 29th November 2005, just after a month after the physical release.
One of the b-sides, "Chun Li's Spinning Bird Kick", was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental performance in the 2007 Grammy awards.
*We had to copy the chart positions and genre boxes from Wikipedia as we did not know how to create them but don't worry the whole thing isn't from Wikipedia!*
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