Where to find music.

There are many websites available to acquire music from unsigned artists which will not be copyrighted, meaning that anyone can use them. We searched websites such as unsigned.com, newgrounds.com and soundcloud.com to find a song that we felt was suitable for a music video.

Finding The Right Music

We had to find a non-copyrighted song for our music, which meant that our artist had to be unsigned, unless we got a permission from the artist to use their music. 

Some websites that I used in order to help find our music were soundcloud.com, unsigned.com and 8tracks.com. My favourite from these three would be 8tracks.com as it allows you to search by not only genre but sub-genres also. So if you are looking for a particular type of song, it makes it easy to find. 

Once a song has been found, it is custom to contact the artist, or record label if there is one, and ask for permission to be able to use their song. 

Music Copyrights.

A copyright is a law that gives the owner the song/album rights the rights to it. This means that they can do whatever they want with it and they own it and decide what other people can do with it. Due to copyright restriction, copyrighted music can only be used by another person if the owner of the song gives permission. This could be the creator of the song, the record label, or both. 

Artists that are unsigned, do not have a record label, which usually means that their song will not be copyrighted. Getting permission to use an unsigned artists song is usually still the common thing to do as it can be seen as rude to do otherwise. 

Unknown artists can usually be found on websites such as unsigned.com and soundcloud.com 

Favourite Music Video

One of my favourite music videos is "D.A.N.C.E" by 'Justice'. 

The reason for this being one of my favourite music videos is that the video is something completely original and never done by anyone else before. It is an extremely simple idea that when executed well, such as this video, has a really good effect. The video is also very fitting for the song as it brings a nice, upbeat feel to the viewer as they are watching and listening to the video. 



Coldplay - Paradise from MyMITV on Vimeo.

One of my other favourite music videos is "Paradise" performed by Coldplay. The reason why I think this is music video is so good, is the fact that the video tells a story along with the lyrics of the song. 

The lyrics of the song depict a story of a girl that as a child believed that the future would be a paradise, however as she gets older reality strikes and she realises that life is not as easy as she thought. The girl depicted in the story dreams of paradise every time she sleeps and wishes that she could wake to a perfect life. 

The story that is depicted in the video is of an elephant (man in an elephant costume) that escapes from his life in captivity and strives to find his paradise and be where he belongs, in the wild with his fellow elephants. 

The video also has an element of comedy in it, for example, the elephant riding a unicycle, travelling by public transport with a nun and using a "borris bike" to escape from the captivity.  Coldplay fans will also notice that when the elephant takes his head off for a few seconds, it is actually Chris Martin (lead singer) that is wearing the costume. 

The Brief

Task:

• Produce a music 'promo' video 
• Up to 5 minutes
• Working on your own or in a group of up to four.

You also need to produce: 

• A 'digipak' (six panels) for its release on CD
• A magazie advertisement for the digipak

In addition to the 'promo' video:

• A critical evaluation.