Last Week of Autumn Term

Music Industry Tasks

Now that you have revisited Digital Technologies and written an essay on it, you can use the remaining lessons this week to revisit the other areas of the Music Industry that you will need to have a handle on for the exam. To do this you should complete your…

Music Industry Case Study Index
  • This is an essential document for your exam preparation
    • You should find your personal copy has been shared with you in Classroom.
      • Classroom task = “CASE STUDIES TEMPLATE/INDEX”

Suggested tasks to help you complete this:

  • Redraft your marketing and ownership essays.
  • Revisit the terms – glossary and Quizlet.
  • Re-read the Sandbox 2019 marketing case studies.
  • These have been summarised for you in our whole class case study slide show
    • Take a copy of the whole  class slideshow and slim it down to 12 case studies which you need to learn.
    • Re-read / Re-Watch Anima – Superb Case Study!
  • Listen to the Voicethread of the marketing 60″ case studies.
  • Review the material on the departmental blog (Exam Paper 1>The Music Industry)

If this is complete with about 12 case studies, you should have all you need to answer a question on the Music Industry. Remember, you can make the case studies work for you – not exactly ‘shoe horn’ them in, but they can all be used to evidence, illustrate a variety of key debates, discussions about audiences and institutions in the music industry.

Critical Reflection Final Submission

This should be copied into the blog as a new blog post.

You should include the following before the essay

  • Your full name
  • The brief in full
  • How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
  • How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
  • How do your products represent social groups or issues?
  • How do your products engage with the audience?

The essay should include the images (with captions). You should wrap the text around the images

All the section headings and questions in the body of the essay should be removed

You should make the following terms bold:

  • Branding
  • Research
  • Conventions
    • Use
    • Challenge
  • Representation
    • Star Image
  • Audience

Golden Gregsons Submission

You should submit your final coursework products for nomination to one of the categories in the Media & Film Studies Awards

Full guidance is on the blog – here

CR – Branding

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

What is Branding?

  • A lifestyle – a set of values, attitudes and beliefs.
  • A recognizable: name, symbol or design.
  • The brand ‘lives in the minds and gut reactions of your audience’.

Integrated Advertising

It’s important that you are drawing examples from across your multimedia campaign.

There should be consistency of:

  • Design
  • Message
  • Colour & Image

…all which should be serving to promote a unified & coherent star image.

You are The Brand Navigator.

Content

This is the intro paragraph (although we’ve come it to last it will be introductory paragraph in your essay).

  1. Define your brand – this is ‘your mission statement’
  2. Explain what elements of design are consistent across your products
    1. These are the coherent design elements across your multimedia package, which communicate meaning (the brand values)
  3. The message around ideology (values, attitudes and beliefs) which are central to your artists star image & the album they are just releasing (Hall)
  4. Use some key buzz phrases from the above videos.

Make sure you have three images in this section, one from each of the products. You should also refer to at least one other unifying feature which communicates your brand message.

CR – Audience Engagement

  1. How do your products engage with the audience? (250 – 300 words)

A Recap on Marketing

Use the template to draft a response to the question.

Focus on the Social Media Page as this is where engaging the audience is tackled on so many levels and through the various products and across various platforms.

Think about those key ideas from the Uses and Gratification Theory – Blumler and Katz and why people seek to consume the media:

  • Entertainment
  • Information
  • Personal Identity
  • Social Interaction

‘AIDA’ – The Marketing Mantra

The goals of all marketing campaigns. AIDA

  • attract
  • interest
  • desire
  • (call to) action

You might also weave in some key terms like encode, decode, target audience, demographic, ideologies, beliefs, representation etc.


  • Find two examples from the Social Media Page.
  • Describe their clear purpose of engaging the (interactive) audience.
  • Attach the key terms to them.
  • Cite the theorists.
  • Answer the question!

CR Essay – Conventions and Representation – Week 1

The Brief:

Candidates must write an evaluative essay of around 1000 words. This critical reflection of their work should be guided by the following compulsory questions:

  1. How do your products represent social groups or issues?
  2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
  3. How do your products engage with the audience?
  4. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

This critical reflection must be completed individually, even if candidates had collaborated in the creation of their products.

 


Task: Initial Brainstorm

You have already done a huge amount of research, planning & design as you made you multi media marketing package for the release of an album

As a whole class we completed the round robin and you are going to think about how you would answer these 2 questions using your own specific products:

  1. How did your research inform your music video and the way it uses or challenge conventions?
  2. How does your digipack represent the star and the issues they are concerned about?

You should describe and analyse your products with reference to specific examples and use terminology (just cite the theorist) to describe how those conventional features have been used, developed, challenged (designed) by you to construct/represent a specific set of ideas, which is: your brand or mission statement! 

You must then go on to say how your representation (ideology) of your star and issues raised in digipak were shaped by you.

Task 1

  • Recap what conventions means?
  • Recap what representation means?

Task 2

  • Read the template, draft sheet.

Task 3

  • Then begin to make your own submissions regarding conventions in the music video and regarding representation in the digipak.
  • @ 250 words for Conventions and 250 words for Representation.

ADVICE
  • The conventional design features in your video, include examples such as lighting, framing & composition, camera movement  mise-en-scene, editing styles, filters, effects g along with narrative structure and themes and also technical conventions such as lip syncing, edit to the beat.
  • The representation of social groups or issues in your digipak: include ideas such as star image, genre, brand – use of filters, fonts, body language, MES, imagery etc. And representation of issues – genre, the ‘vibe’ of the genre – anarchic, rebellious, contemplative, organic, upbeat?

To ensure you are addressing the question – bold or highlight or underline every time you use:

  • the terms use, develop, challenge, copy, emulate, follow etc
  • the terms represent, portray, convey, infer, imply etc
  • every time you have an adjective in the analysis of how the groups/issues are represented.

These are the assessment objectives – so keep it in mind when you are writing your response.

 

Critical Reflection Overview

The Brief:

Candidates must write an evaluative essay of around 1000 words. This critical reflection of their work should be guided by the following compulsory questions:

  1. How do your products represent social groups or issues?
  2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
  3. How do your products engage with the audience?
  4. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

This critical reflection must be completed individually, even if candidates had collaborated in the creation of their products.


Task: Initial Brainstorm

You have already done a huge amount of research, planning & design as you made you multi media marketing package for the release of an album

As a whole class we complete round robin and you are going to think about how you would answer these questions using specific products:

  1. How did you try to brand your star?
  2. How did your research inform your music video and the way it uses or challenge generic conventions?
  3. How does your digipack represent the star and the issues they are concerned about?
  4. How does your social media page engage with the audience?

Media Theory & Key Concepts

From now on we are going to be explicitly teaching media theory. Previously we have been teaching this implicitly (without naming specific theory or theorists (except Blumler, Katz & Dyer)) however from now on and in all your exams there is an expectation that you will recognise that Media Studies draws on a range of theorists’ ideas and that you must name them and use some of the terms they used to explain the key concepts in Media Studies, which are:

  • Language
  • Representation
  • Industry
  • Audience

This is also true for the Critical Reflection:

Here is a table which illustrates which theorist / theory you should try and apply to each of the Critical Reflection questions:

The Media Theory Bible

Here is a detailed description of each of the key theorists ideas you need in your exam.

Here is a link to the booklet as a work in progress, but presents a little better.

Please be aware that this includes some theorists that you do no need for the Critical Reflection, but will be used in the component 4 exam (Postmodernism, Media Regulation & Media Ecology). You should also note that this is a work in progress and will develop over the next few months.

Application of Questions to Products

We are aiming for an essay of 1,000 – 1,200 words. You do not have time (300 words max) to elaborate on the details of all your products in each section and so we will be applying specific questions to specific products. See below for details:

Click to see details

Feedback on Your Social Media Page

Previously we thought that you would have two rounds of feedback on your social media page:

  1. Self Assessment
  2. Teacher Assessment

…but after discussion, Mrs Cobb and Mr Gregson have decided to reduce that, so that you will only have to respond to one series of feedback, from your teacher only.

However we thought it would be helpful to itemise what elements of the social media page will be considered as part of the assessment criteria:

Below is a list of features, some of which we would expect to see on your social media page. You don’t need every single one of the list below. However, the first is essential and  including some of the others would show an understanding of how social media can be used to drive engagement, promote your star image, their paid for media and build a fan base.

Design coherence (Essential):

Does your social media page include the same (generic)  images, colour scheme, fonts, graphics that appeared in your digipak design and to a lesser extent your music video.


Content:

Is there additional (teaser) content such as gifs, images, audio…

Synergy:

Have you created links with other brands or products that would appeal to your audience

Timeline:

Is there a sense of building excitement leading towards the release date of your album

Cross Media Convergence:

Is there a sense that your star is creating converged links with other media or stars (Radio / TV interviews, computer game / film soundtracks, adverts, collaboration  with other musicians…)

Promotion of live events:

An album release would almost certainly combine with a tour or series of streamed (paid for) gigs / shows. Remember this is where many artists make most of their revenue.

A Call to Action:

There should be a clear link to point of sale (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Tidal, You Tube…) for the music as well as link for audience to buy merchandise or concert tickets.

Ordinary / Extraordinary:

Is there an insight into the ‘real’ life of the star an opportunity to see them as an authentic person.

Interaction / Engagement:

The audience are looking for interaction with the star: Live chats, invitations to comment / engage.

Sell Physical copies:

The artist makes very little money from streamed listens. They would prefer you bought the album or vinyl. Are there promotions of physical versions of the music.

Issues & Charities:

Links to current political issues or charities close to the star’s heart is a useful way of developing a compassionate and engaged star image

This list is not exhaustive, nor is it meant to be a check list of essential items. However it’s a guide to the thinking and some of the expectations your teachers would have when marking this final piece of your cross media promotional package.

Marketing Ideas and a Timeline Strategy

KEY TERMS:

Viral, guerilla, promotions, AIDA (attractive/attention, interest, desire and call to Action), marketing campaign, timeline, entertainment, information, social interaction, personal identity, teasers.


Timing is an essential skill in building a marketing campaign.

A good marketing campaign starts with teasers, publishes launch dates, offers sneak peeks, offers interactive experiences, builds the excitement through a series of events, building to a climax which is…the album launch.

You should consider this within your group, and with reference to professional examples.

When and what you are going to post to build your campaign to a fever pitch of fan excitement?

TASK 1: Marketing Research

This is a golden opportunity to remind yourself about the professional marketing campaigns which, led to the release of an album that we explored when we studied the music industry.
This acts as revision for your mock exam in February.

Remember SANDBOX:

Using the Sandbox Case Studies from the music industry, you must find approximately 3 exciting marketing ideas that you can ‘borrow’ for your own campaign.

Remember you want your content to go viral, you might even want some guerrilla marketing stunts in there and some teasers too! The sky’s the limit!

TASK 2: Timeline for the Marketing campaign – PLAN IT WELL AND IT WILL HAPPEN REALLY EASILY

Create a chronological timeline of what you will post and when. You can use an app or simply use post it notes with the specific:

Posts, video, gifs, memes, live-chats, promotions, interviews, teasers, merchandise, tickets, endorsements, events…etc

A minimum of 10 exciting, purposeful posts.

Take a photo and then you can start populating, designing, crafting your page for Draft 1.

Social Media Page – Key terms and Technical Conventions

KEYTERMS

Technical conventions, social media platform, marketing campaign, promotion, awareness, target audience.



Let’s remind ourselves of the Brief.

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music video (major task), together with a social media page for the band and a digipak for the album’s release (minor tasks).

So now it’s a chance to PROMOTE the release of the album and the music video through designing and populating a Social Media Page.

  • https://www.facebook.com/TaylorSwift
  • https://www.facebook.com/TomOdellmusic
  • https://www.facebook.com/LordVapourBand

Platform

We are going to use PAGES in FACEBOOK  page or an INSTAGRAM PAGE. You choose.

You will need to create individual pages from your accounts and then you can populate the feeds with the same content that you work on together.  You can create a group instagram page with no problem but if you want to do Facebook, then create your own page on your own login.

Due to possible privacy issues – YOU MUST TAKE REGULAR SCREEN SHOTS OF YOUR WORK.  You will also need these to do a screencastify on so save them carefully and label them well.

THIS WILL ALSO MITIGATE THE POSSIBILITY that the examiner may not be able to view the page.


So, the terminology, the technical conventions of a social media page on Facebook are really important to understand, apply and use in your work.

Task 1 – individual task

  1. Take some screen shots of a Facebook page from an artist, similar to your own.
  2. Annotate the screen shots with the key terms that you now know are important when talking about, designing and using a facebook page for promotion. Many of the terms are relevant for all social media platforms.

Find at least 10 of the terms.

Do very brief explanations of the terminology and these technical conventions.

An example – Work in Progress