Research into the music industry and Age Ratings

The Music Industry

In the digital age of the 21st Century, the importance of media has increased drastically. The use of social media, online streaming sites and new media technology has made the creating and sharing of music easier than ever.

The process of creating a music video usually begins with the brainstorming of ideas, with a focus on the track's genre and the artist's start image. Once an idea has been decided on it must be developed with storyboarding and trial footage. The next stage is location scouting and casting; this means that a  shooting schedule can be created and then followed in the filming stage of the process. The editing stage follows where the different shots and clips are ordered and altered to fit the idea and storyboard that had been created and is then ready for promotion and distribution.

The main purpose of music videos is the promotion of a song. A music video is a means of sharing a track with an artist's audience and a way for the label to expand their artist's audience and so increase revenue for that artist and the label. When the creation of music videos was first introduced into the industry, it was only for the lead singles on albums. Yet with the growing wealth of the industry and artists in it, it is now more likely that a music video will be made for 3 to 4 songs on an album. This is with the exception of artists like Beyonce who released her self-titled album in 2013, which featured 14 tracks with 14 accompanying videos.

Some of the most famous music directors, like David Fincher who has worked with artists like Rick Springfield, Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones and George Michael, have created some of the most successful music videos in the industry. These videos become successful due to their uniqueness, marketing and specific targeting of an audience; allowing them to blow up and become iconic. The average amount spent on music videos varies depending on the budget of the label or independent director; however Fincher spent over 5 million on the production of Madonna's 'Express Yourself', one of the largest budgets in the history of any music video ever.

With the existence of music videos, the development of television shows and channels dedicated to showcasing the videos for those songs in the charts has increased. However, this also ignited the increase in the free streaming of music videos on sites like YouTube, causing an increase in piracy and loss of profit for many artists. Besides the more negative aspects like piracy, new forms of sharing music and music videos have been immensely helpful in the distribution of new media products with many music videos getting hundreds of million views.

Age Ratings for music videos 

In early 2015, a scheme was introduced that called for online music videos to begin receiving age ratings before being posted on sites like YouTube. All videos made my UK artists signed to major labels will be classified before release by the British Board of Film Classification. The rating will be displayed beneath the video as a guideline for its viewers as a means of protecting children from unsuitable content.

The new government-backed scheme only applies to British acts signed to Sony, Universal or Warners and 20% of the initial videos submitted for classification were found to receive a 12, 15 or 18 age certificate. However, labels are not required to submit videos for classification that they feel will not attract a rating. This scheme bring music videos inline with those released on DVD or other physical media that are obliged to have age ratings due to the Video Recording Act of 2014.

Many child safety and protection organisations welcome the new scheme saying that it was "encouraging to see UK music labels and digital platforms stepping forward to help protect children from inappropriate online content".

For my own music video, I am going to include an age rating in the description of the video when I post it onto YouTube. This will make sure that my music video is viewed by the suitable audience. Below is an image from the description box of a music video on YouTube with an age rating: