Ancillary products...

Have clearly been changing over the digital revolution, the amount of scope for advertising has dramatically changed in the past two decades (whilst the CD has been whittled down to nothing, there are some positive sides for the music industry), 


There are many different Ancillary products, such as magazine adverts and billboards (one of which we will each produce) television adverts (for big releases) and CD covers. Newer things such as pop up adverts on websites which have music, video and even interactive tools are valuable ancillary products which often link to an artist's website, or social networking pages which add as extra ancillary products.


An ancillary product is useful to the artist as they help to promote the music ie: album, singles, tours... But mainly they represent the artist in the way they wish to be seen by the public (different to media's representation often) so they get a chance to target their intended audience. This is a way in which new style ancillary products are really useful, this is from Beyonce's Facebook page:

Beyonce's facebook promotional page

- The page is advertising a dvd, and showing a behind the scenes snippet, showing Beyonce in a certain light which she has chosen (behind the scenes is very sneaky/ useful as it implies that its not staged and thus 'the real Beyonce'). 


Ancillary products will fit the conventions of the genre and so can represent the artist towards the target audience whilst promoting specific releases of theirs. 

Digipaks and their importance in the music industry...

The next part of our promotional package is going to consist of ancillary products, a digipak where each of us produces (the visual side of) an album to go along with our video, and a poster (either an advertisement for a magazine or a billboard). 


CDs seem to be practically out of use to anybody around the age of 18 or under, when asked only 14% of people in the classroom had even payed for music in the past year! So when thinking about who, (when so many people aren't even paying for their MP3s let alone venturing out in to the wilderness of an HMV store), is willing to buy a CD today, and why are they still in use?


When studying the music industry last year I read several articles in which people had been attempting to download MP3 tracks legally from Amazon or a similar website and had actually found it so difficult they illegally downloaded them instead! So people who want to stay firmly legal yet find the whole downloading, searching your desktop for your download and re-entering your debit card details for the fifth time for one track kind of thing a little tedious, a CD could seriously be the easier option.

Some people may have had, or thought about, the shock horror experience of everything you have on a computer being suddenly lost forever, including, your entire music collection, encouraging people to get the CD where you have it forever and its a physical object. The fact that you can't hold or see MP3 files might also irritate some people, who may prefer paying for something you can feel, hold, own and display which may bring another joy to the experience of listening to music.  

CDs can also have collectors or special editions, with bonus features or limited availability, which will appeal to all dedicated fans of the artist(s) which may not be possible to download (ie include things other than tracks). 

Analysis of digipak's within our genre

An example of a digipak within our genre is Laura Marling's "I Speak Because I Can". Her music is in the genre of folk and her album's digipak has 4 panels. Her digipak has track listings, barcode, website, record label etc. The inside panels have the lyrics to all the songs, this is an interesting way to have the lyrics but due to the small font it is quite hard to read. The overall design of the digipak links together, the colour's used are grey, black and white. The back picture and the CDs design are linked and this works well.

The front and the back of the cover

The back and the CD

Inside which has the lyrics to her songs

Another digipak that is within our genre is Fleet Foxes self-titled album.

Front

Digipak

CD and digipak

Another digipak within our genre is Volume Two by She & Him.

Digipak conventions

We will create a digipak for our band and so we must abide by the list of what is acceptable and what is not. The list includes:

Ancillary research/discussion

Why are CD's still in use?

Despite digital downloads and MP3's being popular, there is still a demand for CD's. Reasons could be linked to how some want a physical copy of the album or song. Some people may want the cover art that comes with albums and also the lyrics to the song(s). 

What ancillary products can you think of?

Example of ancillary products include posters, adverts, billboards, internet pop-up adverts and social networking sites.

How are they useful to the artist?

Ancillary products promote the artist and their music. Specifically promoting the artists image and their genre of music. 

How are they useful to the industry?

These products promote artists which will make their music sell which in turn makes money for their record labels and as a whole this helps the music industry.

Skills development throughout the A2 year:

This year I found my skills in editing and camera work improved drastically, I found I often directed the group throughout the filming sessions and found myself taking an active role to ensure that filming went well, and that the shots we got were of high quality. My ability to think about mise en scene, shot types and consider lighting dramatically bettered through practice and also generally through taking the subject more seriously this year, as well as having far more enthusiasm for it. I found I contributed creatively to this project a lot more than I did last year, and came up with ideas which would represent our group the way we intended to. 
With the camera my skills improved well, I took framing in to careful consideration and also moved away from autofocus when we shot the rubber ducks being held close up, I found working with the camera more made it easier to use and by the end using it came naturally to all the group.
Whilst editing I think I improved my skills in Final Cut Pro dramatically, this year I used many editing techniques that I had not the year before, such as cutting from base tracks, speeding clips up, reversing clips and (although we did not include it in the film) I learnt how to split the screen to have multiple film shots on at once. 
I found this year was a lot about trying different things out, we lay out a simple basic version (a rough, rough cut), once we had finished most of the filming, really quickly. Once this was down we were able to edit in more and more clips and try out different things to edit the clips and just keep on exploring the features that Final Cut Pro had to offer, and by doing so we really managed to improve our film a lot and make the most out of the footage we had! 

Skills development during A2

This year I've had a much more hands on role with filming and editing. When we went out to film I would help arrange where the camera was going to film so it looked good when we uploaded it to the macs. I now know how to use the camera even better then I did. I can turn it on, set it up with the memory card in so it records to the right place and hit record and were ready to rumble. Last year I didn't do as much towards filming so this year I feel much more confident with the camera.

During the editing stages I came in to work by myself like all of our group did, so we all did contribute indiviually as well as in a group. When we'd finished filming and we were beginning to edit I made sure I was always watching how those in my group and teachers around me were using their experience to make their music video enjoyable yet different. I am proud of what I've learnt this year with filming and editing. It was a lot of fun and I am very happy with the final product.