INDUSTRY: The Big 3

1. Universal Music Group
is an American global music corporation that is a subsidiary of the French media conglomerate Vivendi. UMG's global corporate headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California. UMG have many subsidiary record labels such as Astralwerks, Island Records, Interscope Geffen A and M records, Capitol Music Group, Republic Records, Def Jam Recordings, Caroline Recordings etc. 

Some examples of artists with UMG are Halsey, Astrid S, U2, Elton John, Lorde, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Post Malone, The Weeknd, Kanye West, Sam Smith, Logic, Katy Perry, Imagine Dragons, Lana Del Rey, Shawn Mendes etc. 

2. Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group (WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate with it's headquarters in New York City. It is the third largest record label in the global music industry, next to Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME), being the only American worldwide music conglomerate. It was formerly owned by Time Warner. The company was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange until May 2011, when it announced its privatisation and sale to Access Industries, which was completed in July 2011. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world.

The company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful record labels in the world, including its subsidiary labels: Warner Bros. Records, Parlophone Records, Atlantic Records. WMG also owns Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's largest music publishers.

Some examples of artists with WMG are Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Charli XCX, Skrillex, Clean Bandit, Anne-Marie, Bruno Mars, Rita Ora, James Blunt, All Time Low, Charlie Puth, Melanie Martinez, Wiz Khalifa etc.

3. Sony BMG
Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a multinational record label, which was a 50–50 joint venture between the Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann Music Group. The revived Sony Music Entertainment, is 100% owned by the Sony Corporation of America, following Sony's buyout of the remaining 50% held by Bertelsmann AG. BMG was instead rebuilt as BMG Rights Management on the basis of 200 remaining artists. It's headquarters are based in New York City, USA. 

It has ownership and distribution of it's subsidiary recording labels such as Arista Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Mchenry Records, Jive Records, RCA Victor Records, RCA Records, Legacy Recordings, Sonic Wave America etc. The merger affected all Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group companies worldwide except for Japan, where it was felt that it would reduce competition in that country's music industry significantly.

Some examples of artists with WMG are Justin Timberlake, Camila Cabello, Meghan Trainor, G-Eazy, Foster The People, The Chainsmokers, DJ Khaled, Christina Aguilera, A$AP Rocky, ACDC, Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix, Britney Spears, Bring Me The Horizon etc.

Labels outside of these three major labels are referred to as independent labels (or "indies"). 

PODCAST 7: Production Schedule Update 6

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19/12/17

Hi I'm in England now as you know! Today I plan to film the bath scene with the main protagonist in the bath. I plan to film her face underwater looking upwards at the ceiling, her legs/feet underwater in the bath, her cuddled in a ball all sad in the bath from behind and from the front and her shooting upward forcefully after lying down underwater. I decided that it would be better to film the bath scene here in England rather than at my house in Luxembourg because the bath in this house I am staying in now, I thought, looked more idyllic and right for the vibe I wanted to create in this bath scene which is old fashioned but plain white simplistic with white small square tiles on the wall. Also, it is more convenient for filming since it is a bath stuck to the wall so, there is a really good place to put the camera (in between the two faucets and the place on the sink behind the bath). If I don't manage to get some of the footage right the first time I can always re-film it since I am staying in this specific house until the 27th of December. 

I have also been coming up with ideas of posts for the social media accounts for my artist, Astrid S.

SHOOT PLANNING: Storyboards

COUPLE SCENES STORYBOARD:

LIP SYNCING SCENES STORYBOARD:

UNDERWATER SCENE STORYBOARD:

TECH TIPS: How To Set Up Camera + Tripod

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ASTRID S: Media Appearances

For audience and artist research I have looked into some magazines that have featured Astrid S. I typed in google 'Astrid S magazines' and I found LOTS of magazines that featured Astrid S in an article etc. I have looked into the genre for all these magazines and that has helped me determine Astrid S's target audience as being young adults or adults (16-24) primary. 
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Coup de Main Magazine

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Atwood Magazine

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W Magazine

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Wonderland Magazine

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Scan Magazine

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V Magazine

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Noctis Magazine

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Paste Magazine

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The Fader Magazine

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Ellipsis The University of Liverpool's Arts and Culture Magazine

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Nordic Magazine

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Clash Magazine

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Also, when I searched in google images 'astrid s magazine' there were many images of Astrid S on the front cover of magazines such of 'Elle', 'Teen Vogue', 'Costume' and 'Coup de Main'.

VODCAST 3: Website Top Links

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SHOOT PLANNING: Equipment List

1. GoPro 5 Hero Black


2. GoPo 4

3. Sony A58 Camera


4. Amazon Tripod - Pistol Grip



5. GoPro 5 Hero Session

6. Osmo Dji

7. Arespark Selfie Stick

8. GorillaPod - for GoPro and Sony A58

9. iPhone 6S


10. Halogen Lights


11. 2 LED Lights

12. Greenscreen

13. Manfrotto Phone Stand

14. SD Cards



15. Canon 

SHOOT PLANNING: Permissions

To use footage of cast:
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PENDING
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To film in a nightclub:
1. Melusina
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On Friday the 1st of December, I sent a message to the nightclub, Melusina, in Clausen, Luxembourg, about whether I could film in the nightclub on Friday the 8th of December. They replied as said I can't film on that date but instead they said I could on that night (1st of December). Obviously this was too soon for me to collect all the cast and people to operate the camera and to book the trip there. 

After this message I decided to ask whether they would let me film on the Saturday night (the 9th of December) instead of the friday night or the next friday (the 15th of December). They have still not replied back yet.  








2. M Club 
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Since Melusina did not reply back yet, I decided to ask another nightclub in Luxembourg, called M Club, whether I could film on the 8th or the 15th of December. They have still not answered back and it's already Sunday night so I don't know what's going on there, I will just wait and see or if not I will email them instead.  

I plan to ask a few other clubs too just in case so Byblos Club, Luxembourg and White Club Luxembourg. 

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I have found out that I can film in M Club now after many days of waiting for responses back. They asked me what kind of music video it was and who's the artist. I explained the whole story of what I am doing for A2 Media Studies and how I wanted to film a club scene of some sort for my music video. 






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To film in a swimming pool:
1. Les Thermes Strassen, Luxembourg
The script on the phone:
Hello there,

Do you speak english?

My name is Evie Gibbons and I am a student from St Georges International School of Luxembourg.  My school is under the british system of A Levels and for the A Level subject of Media Studies there is coursework involved which includes me making a music video for an already existing artist, Astrid S.

For this music video I have to film some underwater footage of just myself and one other person with clothes on in a swimming pool (with no one else in the footage). So, I was wondering whether it would be possible for me to come and film in the swimming pool at les thermes? I understand the issues this may cause and am willing to work around things for your convenience.

I am willing to come during a time when there are very few people at the swimming pool. Could you recommend when it is best to do this?

Also, I will be coming with just two small cameras and a small tripod so it will be very discreet and non-obtrusive.

Also, I will show you the footage I have filmed afterwards to make sure you are okay with it. The footage will only be seen within a school context.

Hello there,
Do you speak english
I rang here earlier to ask about filming, the woman i spoke to said I should ring here at 5:00 to ask about filming in the swimming pool at les thermes.

ASK FOR NOTHUM - Friday the 19th of January at 9:30 for 15 minutes.

MOODBOARD 4: Target Male Audience

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MOODBOARD 3: Target Female Audience

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PODCAST 6: Production Schedule Update 5

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To summarise, in this podcast I will be discussing these points:

• 20 minutes ago found really good solution to casting problem - decided to ask my friend who was in my AS production to be in this production too. 
• Had long phone conversation with him 20 minutes ago and he said he can do it. 
• Idea for casting of the female main protagonist - I would act this role as well as the singer role with someone else filming me. 
• Idea that my friend Serge would do the filming for me - I would film the evidence of directing on my iPhone and prepare the call sheets, storyboards and shot lists myself obviously. 
• If Serge isn't available for some shoots, I'd ask my Media classmate, Richard to do the filming instead. 

If you want, you can have a look at the script I made for this podcast below under the read more link:

PODCAST 5: Production Schedule Update 4

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To summarise, in this podcast I will be discussing these points:

• Getting another back-up for the characters of the couple - my sister and her boyfriend.
• The issues around them being the couple characters. 
• In course of making the podcast, got a reply from the other couple I asked, the answer is a no, therefore have to ask one of younger couples in my school. 
• Been updating my blog alongside all this.
• Been doing research into digipaks and their conventions - in process of making separate vodcasts on general and electropop digipak conventions.
• Created some initial ideas for my digipak from images I took in the summer of singer, Astrid S. 

If you want, you can have a look at the script I made for this podcast below under the read more link:

INDUSTRY: Streaming Revenue Controversy

I have done lots of research into music streaming revenue controversy. I found an article on the Guardian which discusses how much musicians really make from Spotify, iTunes and YouTube. This article puts some figures on how revenues have collapsed from physical media sales and also on the explosion in streaming and associated revenues, by using an infographic. 

For Spotify Premium, it costs £9.99 or $9.99 per month. There is a free option but this option  means you have to listen to advertisements all the time, you can only listen to the music with internet, the audio quality is low, you can't pick any track you want to listen to and you don't have unlimited skips. 

This infographic on the left, suggests that to earn the minimum USA monthly wage which is $1,260 an artist which is signed, in terms of physical sales, would have to sell 105 self-distributed CDs, 547 album downloads on iTunes, 1,826 single tracks on iTunes and 457 Retail Album CDs. 

Secondly, in terms of streams would have to get 1,117,021 plays per month on Spotify, 4,200,000 streams on YouTube, 172,206 plays on Google Play, 1,260,000 plays on Deezer, 180,000 plays on Tidal, 663,158 plays on Rhapsody and 420,000 plays on beats. 

In terms of Spotify that means that every individual stream or play of a track earns $0.0011 for the artist. 



To conclude, the main point that I am trying to make is that physical sales earn an artist a lot more revenue than streaming sales do. 

As for my artist that I have chosen (Astrid S) I have looked at her Spotify and picked her most streamed track - 'Running Out' which she only actually features in because it is actually Matoma's track. It states on her profile that she has 5,698,455 monthly listeners on Spotify. 








I would like to make the point that the traditional music industry model has been through disruption from digitisation (though it hasn't rebalanced the competition in favour of Indies), so labels are looking for new revenue sources. Merchandise is a key factor - for example I went to see Ellie Goulding in Luxembourg in 2011, she was selling posters, T-shirts etc. at the gig venue and lots of people at the end of the concert wanted to buy this merchandise. 

Dua Lipa VIP packages

After looking at multiple electropop genre website examples, I discovered that on Dua Lipa's website she was selling VIP packages for her gigs. 

The basic breakdown is clear though - most major artists (Indies too) will gain more money from tours than album sales. It is the same case even combined with streaming (which is now bigger than physical sales and download sales combined). 







A good example I would like to discuss about steaming payments controversy is One Direction. I found an article on Music Business Worldwide which discusses that their latest album, Made In The Am, was a big success,

"selling just over 1m copies across the UK and US in 2015 after being released in November 2014. Judging by the 2014 calendar year performance of its predecessor album, Four, it’s a fair bet that the newer album sold around 3.2m units across the world before last year was finished. At an average US sale price, you’d therefore expect it to have grossed somewhere around $36m – although that is without streaming revenue. Being generous, adding in streaming and single sales, let’s round it up to $50m.The fact that this total is approximately one sixth of the size of 1D’s 2015 tour gross probably tells its own story.
The fact it’s less than half of the band’s secondary ticketing gross alone tells another". 

To summarise, One Direction's latest album 'Made In The AM' sold over 1m copies across the UK and US in 2015 after being released in November 2014. This album overall, made an estimated $50m, made up of streaming and single sales. $36m of this total was physical sales and $14m of this was streaming sales. This was basically approximately one sixth of the size of One Direction's 2015 tour gross.