Case Study #1 - The Best Mistakes

 Neil Hannon, also known as "The Divine Comedy" released a compilation album called "Charmed Life", compiling all of his most popular and favourite songs onto a 3-disk CD. During this, his aesthetic on every social media and his website changed to include aspects of his latest album release. The cover included butterflies, snails and a distinct yellow colour. This was then put on every website branded under his name. The Best Mistakes is featured on the album "Charmed Life."

Intertextuality:

This music video utilises projections and is very performance-based - unlike Hannon's usually story-driven videos, which are often abstract in nature. Every projection is a reference to a previous album cover, all of which either have Hannon's face on, or are projected over his face. The yellow flower "Charmed Life" cover is also projected onto him. This is the first music video from the album "Charmed Life".

In my music video, I'd like to incorporate aspects of intertextuality. I also enjoy the editing, as Neil sings directly to the camera. There are also performance shots of Neil not singing, but instead dancing. The separation from any sort of defined set is an interesting idea, and I'd like to explore that further, though I'm not sure how feasible that would be.

Cross Media Platforming:

The Divine Comedy has it's own website that it used to promote the release of this album, however, they also promoted it hugely on their official instagram page, and the release of the album was made into a tour. Intertextuality to the album cover and release was seen on anything Divine Comedy related. The website's newest releases all had butterflies or flowers incorporated into them, and Charmed Life CD's and LP's became the first piece of merchandise website visitors would see.

At the very top of the description of the music video, a link to the Divine Comedy's website sits, as well as the link to pre-order the album. (https://ffm.to/charmedlife). The description also features hashtags for reach, like #TheDivineComedy. 

The Instagram account also held competitions with exclusive prizes, including signed albums and test pressings. All the winners were labelled as having "unique" parts of Divine Comedy history. Posts were also made showing a "Limited Supply" of items - giving the audience an incentive to buy. These conventions are all interesting and I'd like to incorporate them onto my artist's website.

Annotation of lyrics

Initial ideas for shots and narrative after choosing "Kate" by Ben Folds Five for my video.

What does my demographic engage with?

 Pop Culture amongst 16 - 25-year-olds:

Statistics sourced from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1059462/social-media-usage-uk-age/

82% of 15 - 25-year-olds in the UK use Youtube to watch and browse videos. 

"Apart from a peak among the 16-19 and 45-54 year olds (25% on each), preference for listening to music was relatively consistent across the age groups. Viewing social media content was also similar across the age groups, aside from a slight dip among 55-64 and 65+ year olds (16% on each)" - sourced from "The overall music landscape."

- YouTube and Spotify take the majority shares of on-demand listening, with 38% and 28% respectively. Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music services followed by quite some way, recording similar shares, 9% and 10% respectively (combining Amazon Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited).

- YouTube has the highest penetration in terms of weekly reach. With over a third (36%) of participants stating they listen to music on YouTube for five minutes or more at least once a week, the video streaming platform was the leading source of music access by some margin; 15% more reach than its biggest competitor, Pandora (21%)

- Smartphones dominate younger audiences - most listeners will discover music from on-demand listening. 

- 87% of participants in the study owned a smartphone - the highest documented ownership of any generation

- 19% of participants pay for a streamed subscription, and a further 6% have a subscription service payed, just not by them. 71% of participants listen to music on ad-supported listening services, like a free spotify listening plan, or youtube music with adverts

- In 16 - 25 demographic, 34% have a paid streaming service, showing fans of this demographic are far more likely to pay for music, and equally pay for goods.

- A fifth of 16 - 19 year olds have a paid streaming service, either payed by them, a friend or a family member

"Online discovery shows its importance. In terms of online discovery, YouTube leads at 33%, as well as 15% discovering music through videos linked through the platform (recommended page, through the sidebar etc.). Streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music etc.), held firm this year in terms of facilitating discovery, with almost a fifth (17%) discovering new music through playlists on streaming services, and a further 14% discovering through ‘browsing similar artists’; a major indication of the growing influence these services have on music discovery."

Focus Group Research - Primary and Secondary

 PRIMARY RESEARCH GROUP:

Name: Henry Holland

Age: 16

Occupation: Student

Pyschometric type: Explorer

Interests: Films, television, collecting CDs/vinyl, listening to music, going on walks, making/editing videos.

What platform do you currently listen to music on? : "MusicBee/Spotify. I download my music from Bandcamp."

How do you usually discover music?: "Usually from artists adjacent to the ones I already like. Sometimes it's what's inspired artists that I already listen to, sometimes I explore music from a source I already like."

How would you define your music taste?: "Geek Rock"

Name: Euan McCabe

Age: 16

Occupation: Student

Psychometricetric type: Aspirer

Interests: Engineering, football, swimming, LEGO, watching films.

What platform do you currently listen to music on?: "Spotify"

How do you usually discover music: "Usually from discover weekly, or TikTok or Youtube"

How would you define your music taste? : "Pop Music"

Name: Kate Reeson
Age: 17

Occupation: Student

Psychometric type: Aspirer

Interests: Art, animation, musicals, graphic design and stuffed toys.

What platform do you currently listen to music on?: "Spotify, sometimes Apple Music"

How do you usually discover music?: "Either from my friends showing me music that they like, or I use my Spotify recommendations."

How would you define your music taste? : "Indie Pop/Broadway"

Name: Liza Evers

Age: 17

Occupation: Student/Ret

ail

Psychometric type: Aspirer

Interests: Musicals, animals, history, makeup, aeroplanes

What platform do you currently listen to music on? : "Spotify"

How do you usually discover music?: "Usually from T
ikTok or just recommendation. Spotify adverts with artists usually make me interested and I'll listen."

How would you define your music taste? : "Indie Rock"

The majority of my primary demographic listen to music through streaming services - both video and subscription. Having a music video proves to be important to my artists as it'll increase interest in my dempographic. Promoting on social media, like TikTok or youtube shorts is also imperitive to drive audiences to my content. The ability to purchase merchandise and physical forms of music would be a nice added bonus - especially with the rise of vinyl purchases in young people. This could be added in the form of a merchandise section on my artist's official website. 

Secondary Research Group:

Name: Daniel Chaplin

Age: 48

Occupation: Software Developer

Psychometric type: Aspirer

Interests: Football, technology, family, friends, dogs and guitars

What platform do you currently listen to music on? : "Usually on the Radio. Sometimes I'll use Apple Music"

How do you usually discover music?: "From the radio"

How would you define your music taste?: "Rock"

Name: Helen McCabe

Age: 45

Occupation: Civil Servant

Psychometric type: Aspirer

Interests: Jewellery making, reading, watching soap dramas, listening to music

What platform do you currently listen to music on? : "From my downloaded music, or using CD's in the car"

How do you usually discover music?: "I listen to music on the TV sometimes, or I'll hear pop music on the radio"

How would you define your music taste?: "Pop Music"