MTV first launched August 1 1981, and changed the way music was perceived by industry and consumer. Since then music videos have become both an important marketing tool for the music industry and a common way for people to consume music. Ironically the first music video played on MTV was the 1979 song “Video Killed The Radio Star” by the British group The Buggles. The video aired on September 1 1981 (for one month MTV had not shown any music videos).”Video Killed The Radio Star” celebrates the golden days of radio and tells the story of a singer whose career is cut short by television. Not surprisingly the very same video (and song) has now, several times and in numerous versions, been parodied on YouTube as “Internet Killed The Video Star”.
In 2005 YouTube changed the music industry the same way MTV once changed the way music was met by industry and consumer. TV is no longer the primary source for music videos, as YouTube and its likes more or less have taken over as the most important means for promoting music (videos). The most passed around, and thereby viral, videos online are also mostly professionally produced music videos.
Briefly explained are viral videos clips that have received numerous views and made the trip around the Internet based on peer recommendations and online sharing after posted on video sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Myspace etc. Seen from an online music video marketing perspective, having a music video “going viral” is considered a success, as it would be equivalent to having a lot of people enjoying your music.
Online music marketers urge to achieve viral successes with music videos. Problem is however that 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. So how does one set out in order to stand out of the overwhelmingly large amount of online video content?
In order to become a viral success it is vital to stand out of an overwhelmingly large crowd. The fact that it is not enough to post a video on online video sharing sites, and then wait for people to discover it goes without saying (or at least it should). There is indeed a need for a marketing strategy in order to become a success. To illuminate this subject I have written an exam paper on viral marketing of music videos (download link under the video embed). My paper is a case discussion of the marketing of the video of the song “Stoppested” by debuting Danish artist Kristian Luc (see video). The recommended strategy should however be well fit for most artists and music companies (world wide) looking to work out a functional strategy for the marketing of music videos.
Click here to download the paper (it’s all in English)
