Research on Record Labels

As part of my research into the music videos, I have conducted research into Record Labels and their input in music videos. For my research, I have decided to research into the Record Label 'Aftermath Records'. 

First and foremost, the function of a Record Label such as Aftermath Music is to sign artists with potential and to develop the artists so that they produce music that accumulates a large target audience. The music is then distributed by either themselves, their parent companies or seperate distribution companies. Record Labels will have good links within the industry to studios, producers, songwriters, directors and production companies. They will also contribute towards the production of the music and music videos through providing finance to artists to which they will use to complete albums and other promotional materials such as music videos. 

Record Labels use music videos as a marketing strategy to promote both the music and the artist, to show off any other talent that the artist may have such as dancing and acting and finally to represent the record label themselves through the talent of the artist. 

For the purpose of my research, I will be using Aftermath's '50 Cent' as an example of how Aftermath promoted its artist 50 Cent through the use of music videos. Below I have uploaded a video of 50 Cent's single 'In Da Club' from the album 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin'.

Aftermath contributed towards the production of this video in order to promote 50 Cent's Album 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin' as well as to promote other ventures such as Aftermath itself and 'G-Unit Records'. This can be seen as artists 'Eminem' and 'Dr Dre' are present throughout the video wearing white coats, this is to portray themselves as doctors and at the start of the video there were credits stating that the location of the video was at 'Shady/Aftermath Artist Development Center'. The synopsis of this video is about artists Dr Dre and Eminem  developing the recording artist 50 Cent and this is done through recording the music video. Therefore, the plot of this video portrays the purpose of music videos in general which is promoting music through recording and releasing a music video of the song itself. 

Video sites such as 'Youtube' allow record labels, artists and production companies as well as individuals to upload their videos to the site. This allows the video to become publicly viewable to the rest of the world which in turn promotes the video and the artist even further.