1. Target Audience

How 3 different bands/ artists have promoted their albums?


1. Eminem.

His seventh album, Recovery, was confirmed during a press release by Eminem's label on March 5th 2009. It was promoted via multiple interviews with Red Bull, and a commercial for the album premiered during Game 6 of the 2010 NBA finals. Additionally, on a 'Call Of Duty: Black Ops' advert, Eminem's song 'Won't Back Down' was released.


On June 15, Eminem appeared amongst other artists including Usher and Will.i.am for Activision's press conference during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 with Rihanna where the duo performed "Love the Way You Lie". In addition, Eminem performed "Lose Yourself", "Not Afraid", and premiered "Won't Back Down" for the first time. Eminem appeared on E! during their Daily 10 show in an interview. He also appeared in a skit on The Soup. Eminem also performed at the 2010 BET
Awards.
Not to forget, all the details of his promotions can be found on his twitter page.

2. Lady Gaga.


Her first album, 'The Fame' was released in August 2008 by Interscope records.
To promote the album, Gaga did several performances worldwide on various chat shows; her first televised appearance being on Logo's 'NewNowNext' Awards on June 7, 2008. She also performed on 'So You Think You Can Dance', 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!', and 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'. To further promote her album, Gaga performed in Vietnam for the 57th Miss Universe beauty pageant during the swimsuit competition. On January 31, 2009, she performed on television in Ireland on RTÉ One's show Tubridy Tonight. This worldwide promotion of her songs from the album on popular TV shows ensured her songs were heard and recognised everywhere. Three songs from 'The Fame' were used in the tv series Gossip Girl, including "Paparazzi", "Poker Face" and "Money Honey". Gaga also performed "Poker Face" on American Idol on April 1, 2009. Gaga was helped to promote the single "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" from her album by 'ABC' to celebrate the launch of the show Dirty Sexy Money. A music video was created, directed by Melina Matsoukas. There were two videos released for the song – the first was composed of clips from Dirty Sexy Money, and the second was the actual music video. The song charted on the UK Singles Chart due to digital downloads and peaked at number eighty-three.
The album received further promotion from her first headlining concert tour The Fame Ball Tour, which started on March 12, 2009 in San Diego, California. It was Gaga's first concert tour with North American shows in March, followed by dates in Oceania and a solo trek through Europe. Dates in Asia soon followed, as well as two performances at England's V Festival and two shows in North America that had been postponed from April. The set list consisted of songs from The Fame only. Gaga appeared on the stage in new costumes including an innovative dress made entirely of bubbles and premiered an unreleased song called "Future Love" which created media attention helping her promotion also.

3. Coldplay.




Their 2nd album, "A Rush Of Blood To The Head" was released in August 2002. They were able to easily promote this by performing some of their new songs from the new album such as "Animals" and "In My Place" while the band were still touring with "Parachutes". This ensured their biggest fans would be able to hear the songs and be able to spread the word; making them feel priviliged they'd heard the songs first. Keeping close to their fans was important as promotion would be easier if people liked them, perhaps this is why ColdPlay revealed the name of their new album in a post on their official website.





A tour followed the release of the album from June 2002 to September 2003 which furthered their promotion. They managed to tour in 5 continents, which meant they were able to promote themselves and their music in all of these continents and therefore be more well known. They promoted themselves in several music festivals also so as to perform to people whom they might not usually in their tours, so as to attract a larger fanbase. Examples include when they co-headlined at Glastonbury, performed at the V Festival, and performed in a Belgium music festival called "Rock Werchter".
Coldplay were able to promote themselves through their concerts by making sure it was one to remember. They showcased elaborate lighting on grand scales, and during the extended tour, Coldplay recorded a live DVD and CD, Live 2003, at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion which was then used to promote their tour, also.
Coldplay's album was promoted probably best by making their songs really good, so that they were nominated, and won, many awards for it, raising their profile. For example, in December 2003, readers of Rolling Stone chose Coldplay as the best artist and the best band of the year.At that time their song "2000 Miles" was the top selling UK download that year. "A Rush of Blood to the Head" won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album at the 2003 Grammy Awards, and at the 2004 Grammy Awards, Coldplay earned Record of the Year for "Clocks".


All of these artists/ bands have clearly different target audiences and genre of music/ style.

1. Eminem is a rap artist with a hip hop style.

2. Lady Gaga is a pop singer with a glam rock feel.

3. Coldplay are an English alternative rock band.

1. Eminem





On the right is a picture of Eminem performing at the Red Bull studios, promoting his new album Recovery. His live performances prove he is a committed artist and ensures people hear his new songs to encourage them to buy the album.






To the left there is a picture of Eminem's Twitter page. Not only does he post updates about songs, tours, gigs and albums, the background of his main page is linked to his new album; the red cross symbol is the 'o' in the name of the album, 'Recovery'.

2. Lady Gaga.

To the right is an image of Gaga's poster for her 'Fame Ball Tour'. The main picture is a clip of Gaga from one of her music videos, Poker Face, which further promotes her tour as this is one of the featured songs; it is also on her album 'The Fame', which is pictured in the bottom left hand corner of the poster. Gaga has therefore multi advertised by using one piece of promotion, a poster, and used it for multiple advertisements.














Here is Lady Gaga in one of her most infamous outfits; the raw meat suit she donned for a cover shoot of "Vogue Hommes Japan", which she then wore an adapted version to the 2010 VMA's. Although the outfit caused a lot of bad press from animal rights group PETA, it was still media attention that could be used to Gaga's advantage. She is famous for her contoversial outfits, but some feel this may have gone too far. At the end of the day, its all about her promoting her image and her strange outfits have been somewhat of a star image motif; she is always wearing one.



3. Coldplay






This is the album cover to Coldplay's second album, "A rush of blood to the head". As you can see, it is quite simple and plain, and the band haven't used themselves to promote the album, more using an image that will provoke curiosty. This is common within the genre of alternative rock, as they want to prove they are about the music not themselves/ making money, as they want to rebel against mainstream pop bands; although now they are considered more mainstream than alternative due to their worldwide popularity.


The following poster which Coldplay used for their most recent tour, "Viva La Vida" follows the same sort of idea in that the poster doesn't feature a picture of the actual band; rather a picture of what appears to be an old fashioned war scene with a few dead people at the bottom and a victourious general on top. This image links to the spanish meaning; 'Long Live Life', and also the alternative name of the tour, 'Death and all his friends'. This again is typical behaviour from an alternative rock band.

1. How have their approaches in promoting their music differed due to their target audiences?

Eminem does more live, smaller scale gigs on the side of his tours to promote his songs as his fanbase is generally more into the underground scene of clubs and partying, and will be more likely to want to listen to his songs before going to his tour. His many appearances in the Red Bull Studios suggests his target audience is mainly in their late/teens, and are energetic thrill seekers as Red Bull is a stimulant. His many updates on twitter further his connection to his target audience, as they are of the generation that are very much in touch with the internet and all things digital. The feature of his song on an advert for "Call of duty" perhaps suggests his fanbase are slightly violent and mainly boys. His interviews with E! are an indication again that his fanbase are relatively young and enjoy being entertained.
Lady Gaga's appearance on the Miss Universe Beauty Pagent shows her fans are more obssessed with their appearance, perhaps a bit vain and like fashion and beauty. It could also suggest her fanbase are mainly young females or homosexuals; this is also shown through her appearance on the NewNowNext awards, which are held by a gay and lesbian themed network Logo. Her songs being showcased on Gossip Girl further confirms views about her fanbase, as the show is mainly about fashion, wealth and beauty. However, there are also some sinister plotlines in Gossip Girl, suggesting Lady Gaga isn't your straightforward pop princess like stars such as Kylie Minogue; the japanese vogue cover confirms this belief, also proving her fans are interested in fashion. Her appearance on So You Think You Can Dance is an indication her target audience enjoy shows such as this; mainstream dance competition and reality shows. The singer incorparates a lot of dance in her songs, so this is a good place to promote herself as her fanbase must like watching her dance. Her promotion of performing at the V Festival proves that her fanbase are mainly young people who enjoy live, energetic performances.

Coldplay's promotion of songs from their next album in their present tours imply they are confident that they have a strong fanbase that may only need to hear the song once in a concert to buy the next album; this also suggests their target audience might be slightly wealthy to be able to spend money from only hearing a song once, and I imagine their concert tickets can't be cheap due to their visual effects such as strobe lights. Coldplay released the name of their next album on their website, which again shows that they believe their fanbase is loyal enough to regularly check their website.





1. What materials were used to promote their album?
All three artists have used the internet, live shows, and interviews to promote their albums. Other materials include promotional posters, features on TV shows, magasine advertisements, and performing songs from their new album in tours. Basic materials used to promote their albums though is just ensuring that all the songs are good enough to be successful with little promotion; Coldplay is a good example of this as they do little promotion compared to Lady Gaga yet are still very successful. However, Gaga shows that promotion can do the world of good as she has been nominated for 187 awards and won 87 of them, whereas Coldplay have been nominated for 122 awards and won 43 of them. Coldplay might argue its not about the awards, its about the music, but for an artist who has only come on the scene in recent years, this is a big acheivement for Gaga. Not to dismiss Eminem, who is also greatly successful having won 11 grammys. This goes to show that different types of promotion works for different types of artits, mainly depending on their fanbase and how they are most likely to access them.



2. What do you think is the best way to promote an album and why?

I think the best way to promote an album is through a variety of ways so as to reach as many potential customers as possible. For example, the internet should be used as a major way of promoting as that is now where most people get their music from. Adverts could be placed on legal downloading sites such as iTunes to encourage customers to buy, or on social networking sites such as myspace. Another good way of promoting an album is via a television advertisement; this provides a visual and aural for the audience and they will be more likey to want to spend their money if they are given examples of songs on the album. Other examples include billboard, as hundreds of people will see it everyday, radio, as you could target specific stations and times to get your target audience, magazines, as you can choose certain magazines to reach your target audience. Different sucessful ways to promote an album would be to do interviews, appear on chat shows, and perform live gigs places. and newspaper, flyers, etc.

4.What doesn't work/ why?

I don't think advertisements in newspapers is a good form of promoting an album, because colour won't be able to be used, and the songs won't be able to be heard, so potential customers won't feel as urged to buy the album as they would have if they watched a tv ad for example. I don't think flyers work particularly well either as it makes the artist look cheap and unproffesional, compared to a glossy ad in a magazine. Another thing that definitly doesn't work during the promotion of an album is if the artist gets bad press; for example when it became news that Chris Brown had been abusing Rhianna, his album didn't do well; people need to like the artist to want to buy their music.