There are three types of 'producers' in the music industry. The "major label", the "independent label" and the "self producer". Different producer's have different strategies which work well for the type of artist they are promoting.
Major Label Producers
Major Label producers normally work with mainstream artists. These artists normally have their songs in the charts a lot and sell lots of records, which results to touring and merchandise. These producers normally have large budgets as well to use for promoting the artist with music videos and tours. Most of these producers work with Pop and R&B style artists, mainly because they are more popular then other styles.
Example:
Example:
Independent Label Producers
Independent Label producers work with smaller music labels and aren't as popular as the major record labels. They generally have a smaller budget when it comes to promoting an artist with music videos, tours, merchandise etc. They generally target audiences who enjoy other genres of music e.g. indie, folk, and sometimes dance. Producers from these record labels are prepared to use less experienced directors for a music video, proven that they have a creative background. Directors in these videos are willing to be experimental in this videos because they know that the audience will not be large.
Example:
Example:
Adele is signed to XL Recordings.
Self-Producer
Self-producers are people who are the artists and produce their own music. Some artists might decide to make their own videos because they have their own unique style for a video and want it done exactly the way they want. Because most of them are unsigned, they use a video as a promotional tool to gain fans and exposure and hopefully lead to signing with a label. They normally do this because their budget isn't very big and they don't have the funds to hire a huge crew. The self producers normally like having an artistic control over the visual content which sometimes presents their creativity to future record labels.
Example:
Example:
Against The Current are an American band who have not been signed to a record label yet. So to get themselves exposure, one of the band members Dan Gow, produces most of their music videos.
There are many different types of producer strategies and different producers will use different strategies depending on the music or the artist or the style. Below are some strategies that producer's use to create a music video that will bring in a bigger audience.
Image
A different image in an artist can change an awful lot to the success of an artist. Sometimes it depends on the style of music and sometimes it can be because of the target audience. At times in an artist's music career, they can get tired of the style of music they are used to and want to change. Fans, however are so used to the image they started in, it can take a lot to change their look and have people view them in a completely different way. One prime example is American singer Miley Cyrus. She started out starring in the Disney sitcom, 'Hannah Montana' which was targeted at young children from around 8 - 15. It lasted from 2006-2011. After the series ended, Cyrus wanted to change her image. She brought out a new album, but all she changed was her style of music. So to change even more, she got rid of her "goody-goody" role and completely changed her look. She went for a more explicit genre of music and a more provocative style of clothing. Since she made this change, she has had a lot of controversy towards her new choice, but she has become richer, because she has had the word of mouth around about her new image.
Narrative
Some producers will use the narrative of a music video to gain more fans and get some good exposure to the audiences. When people watch a music video, they are generally interested by the artist or the storyline. So producer's use this to their advantage and create expensive productions of performance and narrative because they know the fans of the artist will be interested. One of the best examples for this was the music video of "Take On Me" performed by A-Ha. There were two versions of the music video; one released in 1984 and one released in 1985. The 1984 version involves the band performing in front of a blue background. The 1985 version is known as one of the best narrative music videos of all time. It has won countless awards for best video. The producer obviously knew that he had to change the idea of the music video and hired Steve Barron to be the director.
Controversy
Some producers purposely create music videos that have a sense of controversy because they know that it will draw in more viewers. Even if half of the audience are not pleased with the idea of the music video, it is still publicity and the video becomes popular through word of mouth. A good example is of the 2013 single by Robin Thicke "Blurred Lines" featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams. The video portrays men who like to lead a 'bachelor' style of living where they look at women as sex objects. There was an awful lot of controversy towards this video but it has now been stated as the most downloaded single in UK chart history.
Budget
Having a big budget to a producer is very important. It normally shows how much power and success you have in the industry. As you can imagine, the most expensive production of a music video is the highest grossing music video. The artists were two of the most famous artists in music history. It was "Scream" by Michael and Janet Jackson. The overall production budget was $7,000,000 and the inflation profit was $10,834,025.
Michael Jackson - Scream from Proseador on Vimeo.