Creating our companies name and logo

We looked on the internet for already existing independent company names and logos, to get an idea of what we should be aiming for.

'Indie' music itself is just an abbreviation of independent, referring to the fact that record labels may not get as big budgets as the main companies that control the main stream of music media. However, indie music is more now associated with alternative genre music.
We focused don the main concepts of indie alternative music to give us inspiration. These included:

A range of instruments
A direct attention to the singer/ band members in a personal way
Grunge/ black and white
From less well known corporate labels


We played around with the ideas and concepts associated with indie music and the audience that it might attract.

We discussed the kinds of things they might like and be familiar with. Some of our possible names include:

Blue smoke
Black smoke
Scenester
Not from the 90s


After we established a name for our company, we practiced making an ident on photoshop.

Magazine Analysis

I will be taking a look at some advertisements for music that I can use for inspiration and to conclude and evaluate some pros of cons that advert like these generally have. 

 

This is an advertisement of a CD from Madonna, re-releasing her 'ultimate hits'. 

The first and most obvious thing is the use of colour and the saturated, fasted effects that emphasises the use of electric blue on the singers eyelids as well as the red on her lips.

This has been done as madonnas makeup has become an iconic part of her identity. 

It is symbolic of the classic Andy Warhol, which familiarises people with themes from the 20th century 1980s+ when she was at peak of her music career. The reinvention of it compliments the fact that it is a collection of her most popular hits.

The face familiar to millions of people who are familiar with Madonnas music means that the name 'Madonna' is already associated with it, and so it does not need to stand out as much as some information about the album. It is in a cut-out from a black background in block writing in consistent typography to the rest of the information on the poster, however the most highlighted word is 'celebration.' The pink splattered paint effect brings out the retro theme and also compliments the boarder of colour underneath. 

A good thing about this advert is it targets a specific audience of an older age range who may used to have been fans and would still enjoy her music if it was brought into todays music.

This poster is advertising the independent artist Davis Ford and his recent album 'A long time ago.'

The close up of the worn-looking acoustic guitar and his hands playing suggests that he is not made out to be a dramatic, commercialised singer who has the appearance to match pop music. This connotes that the main selling point about him is his actual music and not that he is particularly attractive enough for his face to sell albums, highlighting the quality of his music. Also, the damaged guitar suggests a more personal take to the picture, as if it were his own guitar he has played all his songs on for for a long time. This leads people to think that he must be good and have that typical acoustic selling point.

The sepia scale image with dull colours is common for acoustic albums as they use emotions as the focus of their music. The fact that he is sat on the grass as if he were busking is also connoting that he has got so popular as his music is good and not through money and power or popular record labels. Acoustic artists are often underrated and more down to earth more than pop artists who use big and bold as their eye-catcher.

The information goes for a 'less is more' technique, stating the name of artist and album, then a quote praising the album at the bottom. People will trust a big company name like the Sun and therefore be influenced to buy it, especially as they have awarded it five stars.

The colour scheme of his name and the stars match so that people associate his name and a high rating.

The target audience for this is probably either older people who tend to enjoy acoustic music more commonly. The person in the picture is presumably the artist, David Ford, and is wearing a simple check shirt as do older people, which will attract the older audience as it is relevant to him.

This advert for paramour focuses a lot on the information side of selling the CD. A picture that is made to be overlapped in the background of boarders with information shows the band in a casual picture as if they were unprepared for it. The main singer is pouting into the camera as they all make eye contact at whoever is looking at it. This is quite attention grabbing and the viewer then reads the boxes saying things like 'Album out now!' and even offers a texting service where consumers can easily access the music. The advert is inclusive and engaging to people as it says 'Your favourite band' which is quite rare for simpler album adverts.

The theme of the poster is a wooden background with butterflies which is in correspondence with the front of the album cover.  

Research into the industry

The music industry is a business between the music consumers in the public and artists producing music. Music is sold to the public to make money for the company and individuals that create the music.  This money is put towards promoting music in order to make more money. The more music is brought to the public eye, the more likely people are to purchase it in one way or another. The three major music corporate labels are Sony music, Universal Music, and Warner Music. Labels excluding these three are called independent music companies as they no not compare with the popularity of music that they produce.
The largest music retailer is iTunes from apple. This is a digital company, evolving with modern technology where people more commonly own things digitally rather than physical copies.

Since the digital age of file sharing and music being easier to pirate now than ever before, action has been taken to make it illegal to share, own or distribute music files that have been pirated or have not been paid for, profiting the music industry and crediting the artist.

Brainstorming...

When considering what to focus on for video, we discussed possibilities.

After reviewing my evaluation of how different genres may have their own advantages/ disadvantages, I decided to take a lean towards the indie acoustic genre. The range of music is massively extensive to allow a lot of room for creativity when producing a video, as well as being more choice to go for less generic, popular songs that may be replicated.

Indie acoustic music although can be very popular and therefore well funded by record labels, strive to get that understated basic guitar and microphone raw talent rather than concentrate on graphic effects and sound effects. Because of this they like their lyrics to be volumised as key when being presented to an audience and performative is the most common music video.

This is an example of a typical indie acoustic video. The budget was clearly minimal as the entire focus is on the members who appear completely average, which is accentuated by the location as if they were in a garage and minimal planning was put into the video.