Draft of the album cover.

 In order to understand what has to be on the music album cover of a band, I decided to develop and create it by myself.

The front cover consists of the name of the album on the top, the name of the band in a slightly bigger font, and a parent advisory in the left corner. All of this was done in order to 1) highlight the Unique Selling Point (USP) of the band (The name of it) and also 2) in order to highlight the fact that the band cares about its audience and tells in advance that it is not recommended for a younger audience to listen to their music. 

The second side, or the back cover, consists of a barcode, so that audience would be able to buy it. List of the songs, in order to know what songs are there in that particular album.  I also have added the recording label of the band, it is nice to do so because it is a way of self-promotion of this label.

Key convections of the album art work.

Like anywhere there are certain rules that you have to follow when creating an album cover for the band/artist.  Both front and back covers had to include the following things.

Front Cover  has to include the following:

• Title of album 
• artist/band name (It has to be in a slightly bigger font because it is the main selling point of the album 
• if it is needed any sort of warnings or parental advisory 

The back cover has to include the following things:

• Tracklist and it is better is it is in order 
• studio/label
• legal information 
• barcode  

For the main example, I would like to use one of the albums of Adele, it is a clear representation of what has to be included on both sides of the album cover artwork. On all of the albums, Adele had her face, mainly due to the fact that her face is her main USP, so she and her team are trying to use it as much as possible. 

We have a look at any of Sia's albums, for example, the only thing that we, as an audience will be able to see is the girl who dances in any Sia's video, so this girl is essentially a USP of Sia and her art/creation, and it all will be based on bright colors, unlike Adel's album covers. It is also clear that on both albums, even though the music genre is fairly similar there are different fonds used. 

Album art work. Why it is important?

 Album artwork itself plays a huge role in many aspects of promoting and selling artst's/band's work, music

1. band/artist can gain money just from selling the album.  
   
   
   
2. It also sells physical music (CD, vinyl, etc)
3. Presents to the audience the ideology that the band/artist is persuading 
4. the album artwork also helps to create and maintain star image (Dyer Star Theory)
5. Album itself can then potentially become iconic and become Unique Selling Point (USP) for that band/artist

However, the other thing that you have to be aware of when making an album cover, is the fact that it has to be connected with the music video. 

Because video establishes the following things:

• star image of the band/artist 
• main genre of the artist/band 
• represents the ideology of the artist/band 
• and of course, it has to link to the album, don't just be a video on its own. 

Dyer theory.

 Richard Dyer stated that there are number of common values in music stardom.

1. Youthless
2. sexual magnetism 
3. talent in any area that the star is in
4. goes against something, rebellion 
5. does not look like anyone else, originality 
6. superior, higher than any other odd star
7. conspicuous consumption of sex, drugs, and material goods. 

It is important to note that artists are just sold to the audience. They are created by specialists in order to be marketed and sold as something special, where actually they are the same as everyone else. 

Stars are just simply commodities that are consumed and produced to the audience. They mostly depend upon subsidiary media such as magazines, radio, internet, and TV.  

Star imagine sometimes can be changed over the time period, one of the most popular examples of that type of star apart from Miley Cyrus 

 

can be Ariana Grande. She used to be in a cute, teenage girl style, now she is older, so she appears to her audience in a more open and not teenager-like style.

There are some situations, it occurs very rarely when the recording label of certain stars creates a Unique Selling Point (USP) for the star. It is something that will constantly associate with that star. 

Like singer Sia has this big wig with a fringe and a giant bow,  

so that no one would know how she looks like. But whenever she is wearing it, people can think that it is Sia, because the label has made it her (Sia's) USP.

In Dyer's theory the are three main parts:

1. Stars are just simply construction, yes, they can be based upon something real, existing, but everything is real.
2. Stars are constructed and controlled (commodity) by the record label in order to filter everything about the future star and get the idea of what the record label can and cannot use. 
3. Star can represent ideologies, stereotypes. 

However, normally for all of these parts to work and in order to have an actual star, there have to be at least two paradoxes 

1.  The star has to be a role model for the audience so it does not need to be perfect, sometimes it even has to be not perfect at all, so that people would know that they can trust that star
2. We, as audience members have to know everything about them, but not too much so that we would not get bored. 

As an example of a star image I| will use singer -- P!nk and look at the way in which her star image has been created. 

The key USP of P!nk is the fact that she has short, almost men alike hairstyle.

The other USP that P!nk is popular for are her shows that she makes as well as the concert.

If we take a look at her social media, we can have a taste of the fact that as well as a good singer, P!nk is a mother of two.

YouTube age.

 When YouTube came along in 2005 it started to: 

• give and still to this day gives the same distribution to everyone, it doesn't matter how many followers you have. 
• It also meant that artists could get money not only from selling the album but also from views they got from videos. 
• Due to YouTube videos became more interested and looked like a piece of art. 
• It was also a way of showing off band's or artists recording label and sometimes even A&R executive

Nowadays, the video that goes within the song is mainly made for the band to show off in a way and also, mainly for it to gain more followers and views. By making good quality, interesting music videos band/artist can now have not only an audience who enjoy the music but also people who enjoy the style/look of the artist/band. 

Here is an example of the first Megan Trainor's music video for the song -- "All about that bass".

It is clear that in this music video the main target it is to sell the look of the artist 

     

 and also to show that anybody type is good.   Here is even a comparison between smaller and bigger body types. Throughout the whole song, the is a reference to the fact that it does to matter what body type you have. The artist, Megan is also shown to the audience a lot during the music video. That is using the Star Image, Andrew Goodwin's technique.

Goodwin theory

 Andrew Goodwin believed that applying Todorov's ideas to pop music videos will not work. It is mainly because they approach in a different way to films and novels. 

There are three main aspects in total which make the best pop video, in Goodwin's opinion. 

1.  A relationship between lyrics and visuality:  So it is all about the way in which the lyrics are working with the associations. And how it all works with the narrative and how the narrative was formed. So, in this technique, the message has to be shown clearly. 

A good example of it can be a video for Ellie Goulding's song -- Burn that was released in 2013

Throughout the whole video, there is a reference to everything Ellie sings about. 

For example when there are lyrics of "we gonna let is burn" we get a shot where there are a lot of lights behind the artist. This represents what she was singing

 

  2. A relationship between the music and the visuality -- The way in which the visual elements of the video are working with the text, it is similar to the first one, however, here the video mostly just tries to tell the story from the song/music. 

A good example of it can be the video for the song "Trees" by Twenty One Pilots that came out in early 2018.

In this video, we have the whole story shown within 4 minutes of the video. It is in some way like a film. It shows the story behind the song. 

The story in this video is about two girls who escaped their city and their life after that.

The story also includes some flashbacks, which where it is clear that the video is connected more to the meaning of the song than to the lyrics fit. 

  

      3. The third one is very closely connected to the second one and it is the fact that the narrative has to work nicely with the mixture of the following things: 1) lyrics; 2) music and the visuality 

As well as these three aspects there are the other three which are equally important. In fact, they are even more important and crucial for a good music video. 

   1. Voygerism -- is the objectification of any sex in the music video. It is mainly made for the audience to spot it, it highlights some things for the audience. Most common to find women in the music video objectified by men than the other way round.

A good example of it is the video for the song "Criminal" by Britney Spears.

In this video, it is clear that the woman has been objectified in the beginning. 

We can clearly see it from the facial expressions of the woman. That she has to be silent 

   2. Star image -- referring to the member of the band/artist who is shown in a video as the main character in a way. It is very common to put the main focus on a singer. It is made in order to get the singer's face out into the public, so everyone would know how does the artist looks like. 

A good example of it can be the video for the song "21 Guns" by The Green Day. 

In this music video, we actually get a mixture of Star Image and the relationship between music, lyrics, and visuality. 

In this two screenshot there is a represent`tion of the connection between lyrics and visuality. 

However, in the middle of these parts of this music video, there are interruptions of the parts when the band, especially frontman, singer shown 

 

     3. The genre --  making sure that the video highlights the genre. For example, if the genre of the song is rock, then it is least likely that the video will include any pastel or light colours and the other way round. You will not be able to find a music video of Taylor Swift where she is in all black clothes and has dark make-up. Or I would never see anyone from the AC/DC wearing something fluffy and bright colored. 

Social media strategies.

Nowadays, social media is a very important part of marketing tools. Mainly due to the fact that now most f the youngsters are using social media to find something new.

However, before making social media and starting to advertise a band an A&R executive has to:

1. sign up the contract with the lead singer of the band
2. after, the band starts to be founded by the record label  
3. this will then help them to record their first album and 
4. then the Advertising campaign will start

As well as social media there are two more ways to advertise the band, such as:

1. live shows help to sell the album due to the cheap price of the ticket 
2. Talent shows because it also promotes young or new bands
3. making up stories to bring the hype up, for the audience to be interested in it 

The main thing to remember about making a good social media campaign is to tell the stories, not promoting. People like people, not made-up people.

There are three main stages of promoting a band from the social media campaign:



Engagement -- small things to connect with the audience, such as memes, short and funny pictures. That will make the audience want to follow the social media
Storytelling -- is a part when you are showing your followers and telling the stories. Such as how they became what they are and how they were found by their A&R executive, for then be signed up with the record label
Promotion or selling -- has to be kept to a minimal
Here are examples of each:

1. Engagement, 

I have used a meme in order to get the audience needed

2. Storytelling,m here I told the flashback of one of the members of the band








3. Promotion and selling
Here I just simply tell the story of the day and also say that there is a new song coming up