BPI 2015 Music Market Report

The BPI Music Market Report is showing how UK music consumption has risen 4%

UK record label investment in British & international music talent helps UK recorded music sector to achieve another £1 billion-plus year and global success – and fans to enjoy music in more ways than ever before. For example, 122 million albums (or equivalent) were purchased in a physical format, downloaded or consumed via streaming. Audio streaming went up 82 per cent and digital formats now account for 54 per cent of all UK music consumption. There were 26.8 billion audio streams represent over a fifth (22 per cent) of music consumed in UK – although if streaming through music video sites were to be added, the combined total for streams would top the 50 billion mark (53.7 billion).

British artists are dominating the industry, claiming seven of top 10 and 15 of top 20 Official Charts Artist Albums, including 2015 BRITs Critics Choice recipient James Bay. Also, six of the top 10 most streamed artists in 2015 are British. Adele's most recent album, 25, sells 2.5 million copies in UK (and 15 million worldwide) in just six weeks to come 2015's fastest and biggest seller globally. this is the 11th year in a row at becoming best-selling artist album in the UK has come from a British act.  Ed Sheeran is the most streamed artist in the UK in 2015. Little Mix, Olly Murs, One Direction and Mumford and Sons also perform strongly just outside top-10, while Rod Stewart and Jeff Lynne's ELO also feature in top-20 to underline enduring appeal of heritage artists. 

The Black Leafy Chainz

Today I united with Vogue and Callum and as one we are The Black Leafy Chainz, I am very excited to begin developing and mixing ideas with them both as we get closer to our final product which I am confident will be a successful piece of work as we are all very hard working and are willing to devote a lot of time to this music video and media studies itself. 

We all appear to have very similar music taste which is very good when working on a music video, a website for a band and a dijipack. I think we all share a common vision of our music video to have a very cool ambience and I look forward to beginning to develop ideas together as I know we are all passionate about the subject and producing the best we possibly can. 

Here are The Black Leafy Chainz in all their glory;

Advanced Portfolio Introduction

The advanced portfolio we are focusing on is a multi-media production based in the Music Industry. In small groups we will be working as a small independent production company and in these groups we will be creating a promotion package for the release of an album, which will include;

• A music promo video
• A website homepage for the band
• A cover for its release on DVD

The deadline for all of this work is the end of the Autumn term, in December.

Music Video Idea 1

My AS Journey

• The beginning of my journey was difficult because I had to get used to the way the school worked along with getting used to the subject itself.
• I then became happy with the subject I had chosen and was comfortable with where I was in terms of learning.
• After that it was the thriller making which was scary but exciting.
• The thriller then finished and it came to exam time where I struggled to fit everything in but eventually made it and was happy with my result.

Website

I created my own website using wix.com. This website is incredibly easy to use and I enjoyed designing my own websites for one of my favourite artists, Keaton Henson.

This is the opening page of the website, I put a picture of Keaton in his latest photoshoot named "Sophie" and I chose my favourite image from this photoshoot as I feel this portrays the mood of Keaton's music very well and it allows for the whole website to understand his alternative, organic style.

 I had the option of adding in one of his music videos through Vimeo and so decided to put in the video to "Small Hands" my favourite of all his songs. Just from the beginning shot of the music video, showed in the image displayed, it is evident that this artist is not concerned with his image or the way in which he looks, but more focused on the sound and mood his music puts across. 

 

I added a section simply for Keaton's album artwork as I really enjoy the serenity of them all and feel as though this needed to be appreciated as it brings in not only his talent for music but also his artistic aspect with drawing and design.

There is an "about" section to go into detail in Keaton's life about his anxiety and when his albums were released etc. I chose a soft font to fit his style of music and artwork. I added examples of Keaton's own artwork below.

Looking at Websites

A website for an artist is extremely important as it enables people to learn more about the artist and for people who perhaps want to book gigs, or sign them if they are not particularly well known, it allows for access to them and their contact information. Furthermore, the website exhibits what sort of artist they are. For example a band such as Daughter have a very serene looking website with the background of the site slowly changing from a picture of the album cover. 

In this picture,

it is evident that the music would be melancholy and soft sounding, this is due to the plain wall in the background, the newspaper articles stuck on the noticeboard. However, the album cover then juxtaposes this image and is portraying the music to be very individual and unique. Despite its blue tones, which have connotations of sadness, the picture overall is quite unique and almost abstract looking and is almost displaying that it is an escape from the dullness of our usual surroundings (shown in the brown walls).

The picture then shifts to images of the band themselves, carefully portraying the chilled atmosphere linked to them and the fact that instruments are involved portrays the idea of them being an organic act, who write their own songs and make their own music.

I would say the website for daughter does conform to the typical conventions of an artist’s website, but it also goes against these typical conventions. This is displayed in the sense that is has a list of links to contact the band, however this is not obvious, there is simply a button on the side which then displays all of the important contact information. Whereas the most prevalent aspect to the website is the slow presentation of different pictures of the band.

 A website such as that of an artist like Kendrick Lamar juxtaposes this. The website is definitely more about the music than the ideology of the artist, unlike Daughter which I feel is based on the image and feel they give off which is evidently very alternative. The first image shown on the website is a picture of Kendrick Lamar’s new album, which is not dissimilar from that of Daughter, however there is then a chance to buy the album on iTunes, Daughter did not appear to have this option. Perhaps you could argue this suggests that Daughter are not concentrated on the money they make, but rather the quality of their music and their image. Kendrick Lamar evidently takes a lot of care in the quality of his music and his image also, but feels as though this needs to be appreciated through people paying to hear his music. 

Under this is one small picture of Kendrick himself, implying that Kendrick is an organic act and isn’t fussed about his own image, but rather the image of his music and the message his music puts across, which has recently been very political.

The website also added Kendrick Lamar's latest video, which Daughter's website had not done.