Marketing in Music

Most record labels will have a specific target audience. They want to reach out to their existing audience as well as new audiences. For example, for niche audiences, music magazines like Kerrang! can be used for promotion. Kerrang! is for rock and punk etc.

Mojo is another example of a music magazine. It has a classic rock aesthetic normally and covers both popular and cult acts including The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

A lot of bands also advertise new music and videos through websites. They can do this by putting behind the scenes stuff and also sneak peeks. Another popular thing they do is promotional photo shoots which can then be turned into posters and adverts.

Some artists also promote their music by giving out free things so people then go on to buy additional things. For example, Adele threw a free concert in New York two days before her 25 album was released.

Another way of marketing is by creating buzz or doing something that will go viral. For example, Adele went undercover in an Adele impersonator contest which really helped her gain buzz especially after her break from music. 

Some artists collaborate to create buzz for example in Taylor Swift's Bad Blood music video, she got a lot of other famous musicians to join her so she could reach her own fans as well as the other artists' fans.

Lots of music videos are creating buzz by using new technologies to draw people in. The Weeknd used virtual reality for one of his videos in a collaboration with GoPro. Lots of people watched the video because they were interested in this new technology.

Drake's Hotline Bling video is another one that went viral. This was because the colourful backgrounds in the video and the rest of the content was cut into gifs and eventually made into memes by fans and new audiences. For example, the meme has even gone onto Christmas jumpers.

Marketing is also down now by getting YouTubers to mention certain artists or songs or to do covers of them. For example, some YouTubers get paid to do advertisements or to mention certain products or songs. Also, fans are sometimes encouraged to make covers to create buzz. This is a good example of how a lot of audiences are now produsers.

Marketing in music videos is really important because it brings in new audiences and makes current audiences aware of new stuff.