Polydor Records

Today we had the opportunity to meet two members of the Polydor Ltd. subsidiary based in London. Polydor Ltd. is a British record label that operates as a part of the Universal Music Group. The two members of the company offered us insight into the process of designing and producing a music video within the industry. The company has utilized this process in the past to create music video for artists such as Years & Years, 1975 and Jax Jones. Furthermore the company works with VEVO to promote their artists through television YouTube and more and other types of websites. This allows for Polydor records to gain publicity for an artist or artists that they are working with which in turn results in greater sales.

At first when an artist or band is signed to Polydor Records the company directs them to their marketing team which then discuses with them what type of image would fit him/her or them. During this time the artist or band collaborate with the marketing team to compromise on an image that will be achieved through the release of the music video and other types of promotional advertising. Once the marketing team has decided on an image for the band or artist they will work together with other departments of the subsidiary to produce a brief for a music video. The brief will contain the name of the artist, track, and budget and information on what kinds of elements are to be represented within the project and in what way. The types of elements used within music video are narrative, performance, animation and conceptual, and are either used in combination with each other or not, depending on the project. When the brief is complete Polydor Records supplies it to the adequate directors and in hope of hearing back from them. At one point some of the directors that have been supplied with the brief will send back a treatment to the Record Label describing their ideas for the music video. The treatment will often times involve visual images, written notes, references and videos. At this point Polydor records will hire the director who they believe has come up with the most suitable idea for the project or one that will direct the project in the finest manner. Subsequently the record label will work with the director and artist or artists to further develop the idea for the music video and resolve any issues. Afterwards the idea is given a green light and within usually a month a music video is created. Out of this month 1-3 days are spend on shooting, while the rest is spent on editing and delivering the final projects. The budgets for music videos within Polydor records range from $5,000 to $150,000 with certain exceptions. The two members of the company presented to us some of the music videos which they have produced, as well as the treatments and briefs for them which gave us a further understanding of the whole process.

Within this process the two members of the subsidiary have also talked about the difficulties that come up over time. For instance it is difficult to create a music video for a new artist or band as this will lead to primary impressions of who the artist or artists are. Furthermore due to the amount of different opinions and visualizations certain situations become emotionally heated and are at times demanding to deal with. Also, although the studio provides new directors with opportunities to film their short videos, it disallows them and/or challenges them to visualize how the final outcome might possibly look like. However even though the following problems to appear at certain times they are always dealt with in some way.

Overall by being given the opportunity to see and analyze how a fragment of the industry that is responsible for creating music videos works was an amazing experience. Additionally I feel that this will allow me and my music video group to further improve upon the way in which will approach creating and designing our music video throughout the next couple of weeks.