Resolution 1 - Artistic Music Representation Company... is it a possibitly?

Having had this idea of a creating a company who work to solely represent bands and musicians through art work, so we would work for them on photography and posters through to music videos and on stage visuals, I realised I needed to actually research the potential of this as not only would this give me more realistic aims for the future but it will help me home in on where I need to begin during third year on my potential projects.

I began by simply typing a few key phrases into google to see what kind of websites and companies exist already. Here are some screen shots of the kind of results I got:

This proved to me straight away that clearly there are other companies working in this field. I clicked on the top result which is a company called Metropolis Music Publishing and from their website I found out not only do they visually represent musicians but they also promote and manage them so basically like a record label. The only worry I have about this is that I obviously don't have the skills to manage a record label as this is not my field of expertise. Another useful I clicked on here was for the The Famous Company who do exclusively represent musicians but from every element such as visual but also with media press, artist development and management, promotion etc which again as Ive said I don't have skills to cover every area of this.

One more un-usual thing I found on the Metropolis Music Publishing companies website though was a portfolio of some of their work and it showed me that not only have they created a recent music video, they have also made trailers for films such a 'Churchill' and adverts for companies such 'House of Fraser'. This indicates to me that maybe only representing musicians and bands is rather limiting to myself and maybe I need to begin in a more general company but with a specialism of musicians. This would give more opportunity for business as content creators but also working partially in the field I want to be. That or I find people who have the skills necessary to promote and manage musicians and work with them within a company together to cover all bases like The Famous Company are doing. This has helped me think much more realistically towards my future goals however this also helps me realise that I need to make sure I get involved with other projects this year that aren't strictly just music videos as working as a content creator I would need to have experience in many different genres and styles not only just their preferred area.

Most the results I clicked on that appeared from this search led me to websites which represented artists and musicians etc but only in the form of booking them for performances in places. This isn't the type of representation I am interested in but is obviously an important element of these musicians trying to break through. I feel like my company could be involved in the graphic side of gig booking by creating posters and art to advertise the gig on social media and various other places however I feel like if I got someone with the skills to seek talent and book them in this way it would open up a lot more doors for us in terms of getting more chances to create their posters and graphics then leading them into hopefully coming back to seek more visuals representation when they become bigger and want more music videos and photography etc. This seems like a good opening approach and in terms of my work this year I need to think about it as practice for this so not only work on my film skills as a director and editor but also continue to practice my photography and design skills asI have only ever made one band poster before but more experience would be good.

I then went very basic with my search as you can see above and simply wanted to know what would come up if you wanted to google someone to make a music video for you. My results were full of advert links all to companies who create content however after clicking on links for companies such as Drum and JPProductions I realised they are all content creators who will made promotional videos for bands and musicians however none of them are exclusive to this. A lot actually promote themselves more towards commercial work for businesses and advertising. I do understand why because like I said before approaching it this way means you have a lot more opportunity for business  simply being content creators for a number of people, companies and reasons. However you could then still work on music videos within this. My only concern now from looking through these websites is how unartistic some of them feel. 

I am always one to prefer artistic, free spirited and passionate work and design in life over corporate, rigid work so maybe I need to find a good between of the two. This also makes me realise something else I need to think about is website design and how key this is. I am hoping to learn more about this and create one over this year.

I then decided to narrow my search slightly to see if I could get less corporate companies appearing as a result. I wanted to see if there were specific Indie Music Video Companies as this is the type of music I am personally interested in. This actually led me to get adverts up for some companies who did sole create music videos. I looked into Epik Music Videos Company Website to see what it was about and already I could see from the home page how much more artistic and stylised it was compared to the general content creators websites.

This shows me that there very different styles and approaches to the corporate world of content creators and the artistic music video side. I already knew this but I never knew how much so till I looked for myself. Its making me realise that maybe one company for both isn't a good idea as it will give out mixed messages. Maybe I will have to split my corporate money making side from my artistic music video adventure. This only emphasises to me more the importance of not only making music videos this year but getting involved in a variety of film projects. It also had inspired me to be as stylised as I feel I can or want to be in the music video and representation work I will be doing this year and in the future. Because from the evidence and research so far stylistic approaches work better at captivating the intended audience than a general approach does.


These google searches and the following results have given me a lot of inspiration and helped me begin my research into the market I want to work in and am aiming towards and has also now helped me realise how to direct myself much better this year. I need to broaden my horizons by working on a number of projects not only music videos so that I have content creator potential too, I need to work on my music video style approach and keep everything stylistic the entire way through to create a vision which will lead onto my future career. I must also think about learning and finding people who have the promotional skills necessary for this kind of business and think about company and website ideas. Overall this has been a good way to begin Resolution 1 and to also start me thinking seriously about my future goal.