Conventions of a music promo

• Purpose - for the song? Album? Artist/band? Record company

The purpose of a music promo is to give the audience something to picture when listening to the song - this will help create more of a story behind it. Music promos for the album would also help create an image of the artist as well as promoting the artist and album to the audience that will see it. A music promo for the record company will give them a chance to show any new, recent artists to the audience rather than them just being heard on the radio. This will also help advertise the record company and all the other people involved in it.

• How can a promo create a 'brand image' for a performer?

A promo will help create a ‘brand image’ for a performer in many ways. For example, it will show the audience the personality of the artist and some of their thoughts and feelings that are included in their music. It will help the audience see who the performer is and will help them create their own thoughts on them as their music.

• Conventions? Camera work? Editing? Sound? Mise-en-scene? Narrative? Representation?

A wide variety of shots are expected by the audience in a music promo including close ups to show the emotion of the person being shot, establishing shots to show the settings etc. This is to sell to the audience the skills being used. The energy throughout editing ad mise-on-scene is expected to be shown a lot and the shots have to be convenient with the style of the song. A lot of the shots are dependent on the genre of the song however; most shots are straight cuts to keep with the beat of the music. The only sound heard in the promo will be the song; every other sound would be cut out. Music promos tend to tell a story, depending on the genre and the lyrics the artist is trying to get across to the audience. This can be done with the artist just playing the song or part of a narrative can be shown with cuts of the artist. On the other hand, it can be completely acted out – just narrative, where the nand is not shown at all.

• Where can music promos be exhibited?

Music promos are generally shown on TV on music channels such as 4Music and viva – this all depends on what genre the music is to what channel it’s played on. They are repeated over periods of time on different shows to help advertise the song and artist and to create a popular view on the song. Internet sites such as Youtube are also an effect site for songs to be advertised and can be used to download for a small cost. ITunes is also an easy way for song to be downloaded.