MAS110 Media Convergence Essay
Music Videos are a stark example of a media
form that has been forced to adapt in order to survive. Numerous methods at
adaptation have been attempted by artists and record labels, in order to
achieve survival in a changing, converging media landscape. One of the most
effective and successful methods is the creation of Vevo, particularly as it
has partnered with YouTube and used its tremendous influence to reach a far
wider audience than would otherwise be possible.
Vevo is a joint venture music video
company, a peculiar alliance between three of the “Big Four” record labels
(These three are Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Media Group and EMI), as well as Abu Dhabi Media.
The Vevo site itself is an attempt to
recapture the content, if not the scheduling, of the Music Video shows that
these companies (and artists) used to depend on for their revenue.
Contained on the site are premieres of new
music videos, interviews with artists, recordings of live performances, and
even experimental attempts at new original shows, such as Stylized, a show that examines the style (musical and visual) or
artists such as Selena Gomez or Labrinth. These combine to create a culture of
the “Life and Times” of individual artists, providing content on them which
goes beyond the actual music. This is a response to the oft-used ability of the
viewer to exclusively follow a single artist throughout the site, rather than
waiting for their favourite band or singer to perform their new single on a
typical morning’s episode of Rage, as was the case when options were more
limited.
Orgad refers to this when discussing
not just Music Videos but TV in general, as the concept of “TV Anytime,
Anywhere”. The effect is described as one that “emphasizes users’ novel capacity to extend reach and range and
to control… what content to consume, when, how and where.” The consequence of this today in regard to music videos has been
that today’s music video viewer focuses more on individual artists than on the
pleasure of a morning show’s diverse and often unexpected lineup.
In the previous format, the viewer
would have to watch the whole show and experience every artist. During the
viewing some artists would certainly stand out more than others, but all were
ultimately a part of the experience of the show. Vevo caters to this new
individualistic desire and magnifies the viewer’s interest in their favourite
artists by providing them with more in-depth knowledge of and access to their
lives, commodifying not only the performance but also the performer.
Of course, Vevo’s success would have been
quite limited if not for its relationship to the online video-sharing colossus,
YouTube. The sharing of music videos across YouTube has been common practice
for a long time, and the record labels involved have usually retaliated with
innumerable claims of Copyright Infringement, resulting in thousands of videos
being removed, and thousands more put up in response to fill the new void in
YouTube’s extensive archive.
Regarding this response by the YouTube
community in opposing the record labels, Hilderbrand has remarked, “Expectations
for access have developed into a sense of access entitlement” (Hilderbrand,
p50). YouTube’s users have become so accustomed to being able to access their
favourite videos online, that they believe nothing should be allowed to deplete
their online video repository, or restrict their access to it. The vital
question of “Who owns the data?” (Meikle & Young, p66-67) is of no concern or interest
to the YouTube community as long as their access is unimpeded.
Due to the sheer size of YouTube’s online
community, attempts by the record labels to shut down all cases of Copyright
Infringement became more and more ineffective and exhausting, until finally a
remedy was proposed. Vevo opened its own YouTube Channel. Rather than shutting
down the infringing content, Vevo’s YouTube Channel opted instead to provide
the same content in far superior quality. Hilderbrand has noted, “In a word,
YouTube clips look and sound terrible. Off-air recordings get compressed, and
source webcams and camera-phone images look blocky and jerky from the moment of
creation” (Hilderbrand, p54). Vevo can therefore place their own original music
videos online in their original, excellent quality, naturally attracting
attention away from the low quality, poor-resolution counterfeits.
In turn, when users view Vevo’s music
videos, they are presented with a series of advertisements around the page
which can range from a tour or album promotion below the video to a brief TV ad
before the video itself, to a showcasing of new talent on the label in the
“Related Videos” sidebar. YouTube has assisted Vevo in becoming the online
music-video giant it was always designed to be, and this fact has not been lost
on YouTube’s owner, Google, who accordingly claims a portion of Vevo’s
advertising revenue.
The effect of YouTube and Vevo’s
collaboration has been largely positive in regard to larger labels and
better-known artists, but lesser known artists experience positives and
negatives. On the one hand, it is now easier than ever for an artist to get his
work out into the public eye. On the other hand, it is now harder than ever to
get the public eye to actually look
at said work. In the absence of the older Music Video Show format still
practiced by the likes of Rage, viewers have no obligation to take risks any
more in discovering new artists, and are free to stick to their own little
niches of preferred music.
The chief source of success in this area
seems to come from either a talent scout from a large label (Such as in the
case of Justin Bieber, whose online videos propelled him to fame when noticed
by Scooter Braun of RBMG) or by Music Video Companies such as the Ark Music
Factory (Such as in the case of Rebecca Black, whose video ‘Friday’ [Placed below]
propelled her to widespread internet infamy). So, it seems that up-and-coming
artists must wait for discovery, or find a new method, adapt to survive, just
as their more well known counterparts have been forced to do.
The creation of Vevo can clearly be seen as
a conclusive victory in the attempted transition of Music Video from TV to the
Internet. A victory further bolstered by a partnership with YouTube that has
now evolved into an advertising powerhouse benefiting both parties, highly
impacting artists both famous and unknown (although not at some cost to the latter), and allowing the public the content
they desire legally and at a high quality.
References:
Meikle, G. and Young, S. 2012, Media Convergence: Networked Digital Media
In Everyday Life, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp 59-78
Hilderbrand, L. 2007, “Youtube: Where
Cultural Memory And Copyright Collide”, Film
Quarterly, Vol. 61
Orgad, S. 2009, “Mobile TV: Old and New In
The Construction of an Emergent Technology”, Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media
Technologies, Vol. 15
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