Digipak Research- Imagine Dragons

Imagine Dragons are an alternative rock group therefore is similar to Paleme. On the other hand, Imagine Dragons released an album on the 23rd of June 2017. From the front cover you can see it is very simplistic and apart from the middle strip down the centre there is minimal use of colour. This is different to Paleme's CD cover because Paleme takes up a large proportion of the front cover and the background contains patterns and colour.

The back cover takes a similar style as the front. This is because it contains the same rainbow strip which features on the front cover. Again, it is very simplistic and contains the song list in the centre of the frame. This is a different style approach compared to Paleme's digipack however there are similarities because Jordan ( Paleme ) features on every image on the digipack conveying that we too have a consistent style throughout the digipack. The spine of the Imagine Dragons album is somewhat identical to ours, as it contains our artist name and album name just like the imagine dragons digipack.

Digipak Research- Khalid

Firstly we researched a similar individual artists we an expressionist view like Paleme. This CD Cover by Khalid includes a similar image that we wish to portray with an outdoor theme along with individual shots of the artists. As you can see this CD cover is successful as the album name, artist, theme and songs are all clear and stand out straight away to the audience.

Digipak- Front Cover Inspiration

This CD front cover for Kendrick Lamar's album 'Damn' is our main source of inspiration for our digipak front cover. This is because we find it inspiring how Kendrick Lamar is the key focus of the cover, with him situated in the center of the cover and having a strong stance we are inspired to follow this aspect as it portrays the artists emotion and image straight away.
We also like the simplicity of the cover with a rather simplified back ground and bold title making the cover stand out in its genre.

Digipak- Back/Lyric Cover Inspiration

This lyric cover for the '8 mile' album has gave us great inspiration when producing our lyric cover. This back cover includes a focus on the artist in a location of his music video, although Eminem is not a great link to our genre he provides great inspiration in the way he represents his image and genre. The aspects that attracted us to this lyric cover is the use of a location shot of the artist as it portrays the artists image and genre accurately.

Digipak Research- Artic Monkeys

Template

The template of a digipak shows that six images are required. The most important sides are the front and back as while the CD case is closed these are the only two you can see. Another significant aspect of a digipak is the spine. The template below suggests the spine runs vertically separating the page into 3 equal parts.

Similar artist's CD cover

Below is the back cover for an album produced by the Arctic Monkeys. On this cover there is the song list that features on the CD itself. Additionally, there is a bar-code in the bottom right corner and next to this is very small text containing extra information such as the record company and a URL to the website of the band. The spine contains the name of the band and also evident is a serial number at the opposite end of the spine.

Tour Poster Research

The tour poster research that we carried out was very useful to us, although it is evident the artist we have chosen to copy are not exclusively from the same genre as us, their influence has been great. I believe that the tour posters these artists have produced are quite indie and culturally aware, even the initial outlook of Kendrick Lamars tour poster with its black and white imagery, this was then transferred onto our poster, for which which we created a half and half colour scheme that was very effective to the absolution of our synergy.

Interview Research

This video have allowed advice from someone who has had actual experience when interviewing musicians, thus this YouTube video has been exceedingly helpful for my groups interview research.

Interview Research 2

Interview research from jordancarter24

The interview research was vital to creating our own interview as no one in our group really had a sufficient idea as to the main features of an interview, and the dos and don'ts that come with it. This form of research was specifically easy to find as there are so many examples of it on YouTube and in general on the internet.

Merchandise Research

For me the creation of merchandise is a very simple process, and when researching this it became even more evident that this was the case. The very simple design of a music artists merchandise comprises of placing the band name, logo or strapline on a typical t-shirt, jumper or hat etc. All of which are very basic but provide a certain demand for the consumers that are a fan of the artist. You'll often find that with big artists such as the artist they are able to charge extortionate prices for their products because there is a very limited supply of them.

Social Media Research

Why is Social Media so important?:

Now look at social media marketing. Social Media Today argue that the purpose of social media marketing is to build a brand and increase a brand’s visibility, through building relationships and communicating with potential customers.

‘‘Social networks are one of the fastest growing industries in the world’’.

This statement does seem to be thrown around quite frequently with anything internet marketing related these days. However with a projected 25.0% annual growth over the next 5 years.

As part of our social media research we researched individual artists that have a substantial social media following. We then compared each artist and what sort of content their accounts consist of.

We found that Drake has one of the largest social media followings for an individual artist. His social media consists of him at various events, his merchandise and his photos from his concerts and tours. this therefore represents his tour and merchandise and further promotes and markets his tour and merchandise.

Stormzy has a similar social media approach with his account consisting of various images of himself, tour information, collaborations and album covers. This also promotes his image, album and upcoming music.

Finally the Weeknd is an artist with a very large following but as a retro style artist he publishes his personal image and therefore genre of music along side his tour information. This approach unlike Stormzy or Drake creates a understanding of his image and genre in addition to advertising his music.

Website Research

This is the home page of the FLATBUSH ZOMBIE website, we can initially see the name of the group at the top of the page and underneath this are the various title links that will take the customer to the other pages that are available. The page then proceeds onto the their newest album that has been released and from this it can be ordered and purchased. Also they have given a preview of one of their songs that is included in this particular album name 'lava' with the official music video on top of that.

Next I clicked on the link title 'tunes' which brought out a selection bar on the right of the page, in this bar it contains all the other albums they have produced which can be clicked on to see the all the songs and videos that the album contains.

I have noticed that when you click on the different links an animation around that link appears, for example, when I clicked on tune there was a moving volume bar going up and down, with the merch animation there was a t-shirt that appeared, with the film there was an old fashioned film tape reeling upwards, and finally with the tour link a bus appears that is driving down a road. Anyway, back to the original point, where I was going to talk about when pressing the merchandise link and sidebar appears with a list of all the products that are available with their given price.

When I clicked on the film link it came up with every music video that they have published on YouTube. This is important as it allows the audience to watch these videos from the site, meaning that if a new customer or fan were to visit this website they would have an immediate insight into the music the artists produce and the general genre could me accumulated, from this they will be able to gain even more media attention.

Finally, when I clicked on the tour link it showed all the tour dates and where the tour is located. This is essential for it allows people to go and see the artist that they know and love, or even if they don't know the artist particularly well they still have the opportunity to go and see them live if they wish to do so.

Overall, I would say that although the Flatbush Zombies general genre is completely different to our own, we can gain a lot of influences from their website. It is quite funky and even trippy at times, with all the vibrant colors that the artists are always trying to portray, this is the same as Paleme. In my opinion this website needs some serious improvement because although thought the artists are not well-known world wide, they are very familiar in Europe, and have a high following from this, I would expect a better standard of website with some unique transitions or effects to make the consumer enticed into staying on the website. I have seen these artists live before at Wireless festival in Finsbury park and the persona that they represent is the same online as it is in real life, this makes them even more valued as they live up to their singing/rapping expectations.

Website Research 3

This is the home page of Travis Scott's website and in its centre is the eagle head, which is practically this artists brand image. It is 3D and rotates in a 360 degree circle in a consistent rotation. It seems basic but is actually very cool and relatable to those that already know the artist. It's nice to see something unique and advanced on a website compared to the other ones I have researched, the artist has gone a step further and invested in some really cool branding to promote himself. I have seen this artist live at a Brixton Gig and at the concert there was a huge eagle on stage with him, I believe this is constant throughout his performances, I think its nice to see such consistency as it creates a brand image, for which he can be recognisable. This is exceedingly important when entering the music industry, as his job will take him all around the world and thus he will need something like the eagle to stay in each of these countries for further promotion of his name and his music.

The top right link shows the recent and upcoming tour dates, locations and festival/gig name. In particularly liked the text font that they decided to use, and it correlated with the rest of the website as it perceives to be quite techy and this was the general direction for the entire website. Especially in todays modern age of advanced technology its a clever direction to choose and a lot of people will find this interesting. The key word there is 'interesting' because without it there is no ambition for a customer to stay on the website, otherwise they could potentially get bored.

This is the music link and to be honest I'm quite disappointed, its a very basic and boring page, for some reason there aren't enough album covers or anything like that; this could be a glitch, and it is vital it be fixed otherwise this could mean less people are purchasing this artists music. At times I was confused with this part of the website and it shouldn't cause this sort of misinterpretation to consumers as this segment of the website is so influential in increasing the artist fan base. The radio link is in line with what I stated above, the website needs some serious improvement considering he is such a well-known performer.

The video link is really good as the video instantly starts playing once you have clicked the link, this almost urges the audience to watch the video.

Overall, I would say that our website can receive a big amount of influence from this website, but we may struggle to find suitable and interesting transitions and effects, such as the ones Travis Scott has used, seeing as we don't have any money at all to invest in something so intricate as the 3D images etc. If we had the opportunity to include and apply similar effects and transitions it would be amazing, and very suitable to the aurora of Paleme. Although it could be said that this may not be in line with the synergy we have created that is based around 'nature and trippyness'.

Website Research 2

This is the home page of the Post Malone website, the bars that are seen at both the top and bottom are constantly scrolling like a conveyer belt, I am slightly confused about the chosen photos; one is of a small part of his beard and the other his eye. I personally would have chosen some of his notorious shots like in the White Iverson music video. There are also links to his social media pages in the top right corner, so as to publicise this artist even further. I found this website a little confusing, as the titles at the bottom and top seemed to be squashed down, which makes it look like a mistake, but maybe it was done like this on purpose; if so I don't really like it and this wouldn't be included with our website.

If you click on the link named catalogue, you go to a page that advertises all of Post Malone's current albums, songs etc. Furthermore, you can click on each individual one to where they are available to purchase. The text could have been a bit bigger on this page just to take into account those consumers who have optical difficulties, other then that I like the design of this page. The color yellow has been used throughout the website and this is the main color of him new album rockstar, this is to extend his synergy over all of his products and thus with this his songs are constantly being promoted.

If you click on the tour link it shows every place in Australia that Post Malone is set to tour in as of yet, when you click on the city that is suitable to you it shows all the dates and times, including what ticket website to use. It is very clever in that it has the shape of Australia as if it is on a map, and I'm assuming this is done for every Post Malone tour that there is.

If you click on the videos link, it comes up with all of the artists biggest and most well-known songs with their appropriate vevo music videos. The last link leads you to the shop which I have seen before, but the artist currently hasn't got any new merchandise on offer. 

Overall, I would say that I cant locate or identify anything distinctive about this website, and that is a very negative thing. You want a website to stand out from the others that are available, so as to invite customers and fans in. Thus me and my group will not being taking a lot of influence from this specific research and will try to find alternative and better ways to design our website.

Website Research 4

As planning to set up our artist website we have produced research on a similar genre artist. Due to our artist image and genre of alternative-rock we decided to research into coldplay's website. The website that they have has a very vibrant and simple layout with the separate links on one side and the various information placed clearly across the website. They have used simple logos and a colour scheme to present each tab. In terms of the application of this research to our own website, we noticed the very influential colour scheme that coldplay adopted, for which was specifically suitable to our own synergy that we created.

Editing Inspiration

Our main source of editing inspiration was 'Yamborghini high' by 'a$ap mob'. The reason for this is because they used an ensemble of colour and visual effects to add a trippy mood to the music video. This inspired us to use similar effects to add to out lyrics meaning and image of our artist. The lyrics of our song were transformed into a visual video in accordance with the words. This was to create an ultimate synergy between our video and the song, otherwise the audience may have found it difficult to comprehend what was actually going on throughout our music video. You can see how the effects that influenced us now appear in our music video, as they have been presented in the form of a GIF above. I believe that the effects we used were very successful in that they gave off the exact imagery we were hoping for, which was the illusion of hallucinating on drugs.

Song ideas presentation

3 Track Presentation

I really like this song and the atmosphere it creates. Although its not a very exciting tune, I think the lyrics are great and portray a much deeper message, and even this fake music video created by a fan forges a great visual representation of what the video could potentially look like. What I personally think we could do is get a variety of shots involving Harrys car, with loads of angles and transitions, because that relates to the song completely. And then those shots could be combined with colourful images and animations using the many after effects techniques.



This song is great and it suits our group very well; just from the general vibe I get from this song I can picture shots that represent sadness and bitterness. The song literally talks about falling apart, presumably in relation to a romantic issue, and from this I could play around with different effects that stipulate a morbid aurora.



From this song I portray our video to contain trippy shots and effects, because of its many base drops; when the base drops at these particular points in the song the music video can astray into complete psychedelic madness. The song is all about drugs and how a relationship is reliant upon them, the storyline that we could speculate from this would be interesting to perceive.

The hills- The Weeknd (Music Video Research)

The video starts of as a narrative, in which the main performer has been in a bad car crash and leaves the car looking injured and in shock, he then proceeds to help the other people who were involved with the accident. The artist then starts to lip sync the music whilst also staying in role, for example, the women who were there with him start to take out their aggression on him, and as they walk away the car is perceived to explode in the background. Overall I would say the video is quite a boring and insignificant one, but it does suit the music very well with its monotone aurora. The lyrics also fit the video very well as it portrays the life of someone who is literally 'fucked' up. I think we could apply this music video to ours, by attempting to find a suitable storyline that centres on the lyrics of our song.

Beibs in the trap- Travis Scott (Music Video Research)

The music video starts of with an awesome shot from beneath the artists, I think that the camera is looking through a glass floor, but it makes this effect that the artist is practically flying. The video then includes an alternative location with a group of woman that are sexualised for the attention of the audience. At the part of the song where it says 'that coca' which is referring to cocaine, there is a shot of Travis Scott the main performer kicking a white substance. The video gradually becomes more and more confusing and trippy as the lights flash repetitively. It continuous in this way throughout the rest of the song. In direct referral to the lyrcis, it is clear that this song is completely drug related which is why it can be considered a good comparison to our video. I would strive for our video to use similar trippy and unique shots to make our video stand out from others.

Pursuit of Happiness- Kid Cudi (Music Video Research)

The music video initialises with a vinyl player being started, and Kid Cudi the main artist is sitting at a party drinking champagne to himself from the bottle; it is clear to see he is secluded from the other people and almost in his 'own world'. As soon as the bass drops everything around him turns to slow motion, whilst Cudi remains in the current time. The performer is singing along and it remains with this type of shot for a while; I can perceive everyone involved with the party having a good time and consuming alcohol. There is a small feature with Drake in the music video, and considering how big of an artist Drake is, this is significant to showing the prestige of the video. At the end of the clip the last shots involve Kid Cudi being wasted and struggling to walk in straight line. This connects with the lyrics very well as the song is all about living your life to the full. Therefore after analysing this music video we can relate how as a group we wish to have an individual performer that is the focus of the story line and the plot. As well as this the plot of Kid Cudi's music video includes a relaxed and party vibe with alcohol, this inspires us as our music video is about drugs and having a good time.