Research: Institutions

Music video institutions are companies who help produce and fund music videos for their signed artist. By having an institution, helps to gain more publicity by the loyal audience the institution already has which then will follow the artists they have signed. Also, this may help the artist gain collaborations to make them more popular and become known on a global scale. Moreover, the most important is the financial gain the artist will get from being part of an institution.

The four leading institutions:

EMI: 
This company is one of the worlds leading music companies. They are a international institution that own record labels such as Angel, Capitol, Capitol Latin, Astrelwerks and Blue Note. These companies have artists such as, Tinie Tempah, Lilly Allen, Snoop Dogg and Fufu Fighters. These artist's are slightly alternative mainstream stars who EMI tend to focus on rather than the mainstream artists. The benefit of working with someone who is not constantly in the public eye may mean that they will get less negative news on them which will help maintain the artist's positive reputation.














SONY:
This institution is for international superstars. The company was previously called Sony BMG Music Entertainment which then changed to Sony Music. This institution consists of diverse genres and have signed record labels such as Arista Records and Columbia Records. These companies have artists such as Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Chris Brown, Beyonce, One Direction and Pitbull. The benefit of having a variety of genres in the record label gives them a greater chance in being able to work with loads of different artist and are able to make money through different audiences.










UMG:
This institution is the world's largest music content company. It develops recording artists and then markets and promotes their music across a wide array of formats and platforms. They own artists such as Akon, Mary J Blige, Sheryl Crow, Busta Rhymes, Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Adele, Cheryl Cole, Florence And The Machine. These artist's are mostly in the RnB genre suggesting the focus on one main genre to maintain the reputation of UMG being successful for this.

WARNER:
This is the least popular institution with record labels such as Asylum, Atlantic, Cordless, East West, Rhino and Sire. Warner helps artists achieve long-term creative and financial success by providing consumers with the highest quality music content available. Artists include, Paramore, T.I, Kid Rock, Plan B, B.O.B, Bruno Mars and Estelle. This company also focuses on more niche audiences rather than the mainstream in order to promote the other types of genres available.












Advantages and Disadvantages of being signed to an institution:

Advantages:

• Remain popular in the public eye, as the institution will carry the artist's reputation in order to stay successful.
• The artist is more secure and stable within a institution with less responsibilities. Most beneficial for new artists who are new to the industry.
• New artists also benefit from institutions as they are able to become popular quickly within a short amount of time ensuring success.
• Financial stability for the artist as recording songs and making music videos will cost high amounts of money without a institution to provide this.

Disadvantages:

• Once the artist is signed, they will have to follow the rules and listen to the institution, restricting them from making independent decisions.
• If the artist is not successful the institution may decide to let the artist go which may be the downfall of an artist's career.
• Getting signed to an institution in the first place may be extremely difficult as the artist may have to prove their worth.

Overall, from looking at these media institutions, I will personally pick SONY, because this is the most popular and will gain the most publicity for my music video. They also have diverse genres which will give me a choice in which genre I want to follow. Chris Brown who is signed to SONY is the artist I prefer to follow when making my own music video as this is the type of image I think will sell to an audience.