THE PURPOSE OF MUSIC VIDEOS

TO PROMOTE NEW MUSIC RELEASE

If a music video is released and the audience like it, it can raise awareness of the new album/single’s release, which could then raise the music sales. In fact, if the music video is hyped up and promoted enough, the complete release of the music video may become an event in itself, therefore leaving many people interested in it. Also, for the less well known artists that perhaps do not get as much publicity, the internet can raise awareness toward them, especially in areas that are not as well known. 
This can be done through social networking and YouTube, which also gives easy accessibility toward the music video. An example of this is the countdown that one of the most famous artists in the world, Britney Spears, had a countdown clock on her website to her new video 'All Eyes On Me', which automatically increased the audience that wanted to watch the video. She had a whole website dedicated to it which showed the days, hours, minutes and seconds until it was released.

This is good for the artist since the amount of popularity that the video will receive as soon as it is released would be incredibly high, due to the large demand from the fans and the audience who have been counting down to this date for just as long, following with the website countdown, tweets, etc. 
Also, when the music video is released, the song is released a short while after which people are now able to pre-order if they like the music video, which is good for the artist and the record label together due to the increase of sales when the song is released. This is also good for the audience as the excitement of premiering a new video and a new single would encourage many fans to increase and promote popularity within friends and family through social media or word of mouth.   

TO CREATE A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE ARTIST

A music video also allows the artist to be seen without actually performing. When an artist performs live, sometimes their visual representation isn't as good as what they may look like through a music video, therefore allowing the audience to perhaps not judge them for their live performances. It also enhances the artist’s brand, such as Dr Dre uses his ‘Beats’ in a couple of his videos which then promotes his brand, and pays artists such as Lady GaGa to use them also. 
It also communicates the values and style of the band, such as what they believe in and what they would like to prove through their videos. Music videos also allow the artist to renovate themselves, which is important especially if the audience do not know that much about them through hearing their songs on the radio.

This is good for the artist and the record label due to the increase of popularity to their products which will then increase the sales as well. Showing the artists beliefs in a video is a positive since they are able to show what their beliefs are, however it can also be very controversial if the audience perhaps do not believe in the same values as the artists do, therefore having a negative impact on everybody else.

An example of this is Nicki Minaj, who is a person that without her image her actual singing talent would have been average, since there there is nothing particularly special about it. When Nicki is able to dress in revealing clothes and different coloured wigs in her videos, she can then almost draw people away from her voice and more to her image, which some people find attractive and others repulsing.  

TO EXTEND THE PLAYABILITY OF & PROVIDE ADDITIONAL INCOME FROM A SONG

Frequent play on music channels after release would make sure that the artist is permanently keep the artist in the public eye, therefore music sales will be steady in the charts. This is good for the artist due to the constant sales of the song. This usually happens through royalty payments from the music channel straight to the artist and to the record label and also an income through the website views, such as YouTube. In addition to this, the music videos then allows the videos for the DVD collection releases, which most of the time are special edition. An example of this is Miley Cyrus’ controversial video for her recent single, ‘Wrecking Ball’. Although the video itself is controversial since the music channels carry on promoting the single, the video will always be in the public eye, people’s opinions do not matter all that matters is that they stay in the public eye and keep their publicity alive.
Also, adverts before videos on YouTube allow promoting, as most of the adverts are very relevant to the video, such as before a One Direction video, a short advert promoting a 'Pop Party' CD would appear, being 30 seconds long and being impossible to skip. It depends on the target audience of the video to judge on what the advert would be. An older video that is likely to have an older audience usually has incorporates adverts for cooking or financial advice and a song that is popular in the charts with the younger generation tends to have adverts from Microsoft or Chrome, technology that they can all relate to. This is good for the company who gain popularity but bad for the artist or YouTube themselves as not having the choice of watching an advert or not becomes irritating, therefore loosing views.  

TO CREATE SYNERGY WITH OTHER MEDIA SECTORS

There are an increase for both institutions simultaneously, this may also allow artists to enter new sectors of the music industry for example producing or even musical theater. An example of this is The X Factor, which allows undiscovered artists with a dream to become famous and to gain the recognition they deserve. When they win, a few years later, they may be able to go into the West End such as Ray Quinn who came second and now plays Danny in the famous musical ‘Grease’.
Another example of this would be Adele's song 'Skyfall' of which she recorded for the most recent James Bond film. When people heard the song, they were more likely to want to watch the film, especially as clips from the film were put into the music video itself. If the audience enjoyed the film they would be likely to want to purchase the DVD, which then reminds them of the song that made them want to buy it in itself. Adele also won a Grammy for the song 'Skyfall', therefore proving how powerful synergy is. 

TO BE ART IN THEIR OWN RIGHT

When an artist uses art to express themselves in their music videos, it allows the artist to be very memorable, through both the music video and the song in itself. The new videos also pioneer the use of technology and then creates enigmas or narratives across multiple videos. An example of this is the Arctic Monkeys video for ‘Do I Wanna Know’ which is plainly of a black background with white sound waves that expand with every note that is sung. This video is not particularly extravagant but the video still shows the artistic qualities of the video in itself and still has a large amount of views on YouTube. This is good for the artist since they are able to get their artistic qualities known. However the audience may have mixed opinions on what they are able to see in each video and want they would prefer to see.