Purpose of a music video in the digital age

The purpose of a music video is to sell products, the most obvious of which is the song featured in the video. However, other connected products are also marketed by music videos. For example, the album the song is featured on, the film the song is part of the soundtrack for, an up coming tour by the artist and merchandise like t-shirts. However, music videos are an unusual form of marketing as they allow audiences full access to the product they are selling. When a music video is shown, the audience is able to hear the song the video is for so they are 'getting' the product that is being promoted. When other products are advertised, such as brand of coffee or an item of clothing, the advert suggests the product is desirable but the audience does not get to taste the coffee or wear the clothes.

Prior to the digital age, allowing the audience full access to the product in the marketing was not too problematic. The song was only available at specific times in places which were approved of by the record company, such as on weekly television chart countdown shows like 'top of the pops'. However, the development of new media technologies meant that music videos and the songs along with them, were more widely available at any time. Videos could be uploaded to video hosting sites like 'YouTube' and viewed using portable media devices such as mobile phones and itouch devices, allowing the audiences to see the video and hear the song whenever they liked.

The advent of such technologies proved to be problematic for the music industry as audiences were less inclined to buy a physical copy of the of a song if they could listen to it on-line for free. Initially, most record companies fought against their artists' music videos being available on-line and attempted to prosecute those who uploaded videos to you-tube for copyright infringement. However, more recently, the music industry has come to realise that attempts to monitor sites like Youtube are time consuming, expensive and often futile. As a result, most record companies allow their artists' music videos to be online but under controlled conditions.