Task 1 Part 3: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. A website is a means of advertising and supporting a certain image of a product or artist,
which provides information about it and therefore connects the fans and the star.
Traditionally, a website counts with a homepage from which a variety of links redirect
the user to secondary pages with additional data. The conventions of the homepage of a
website are that it includes the name of the musician (preferably with the same font that
is used throughout the last campaign, as we did, to create synergy) as well as imagery.
Most websites, like ours, showcase a music video in the home page instead of a still image
to increase the impact it makes in the viewer. A moving image will always call one’s
attention more than a still portrait, which is the reason why many other alternative artists
such as King Krule include a video in the homepage.

2. Another convention of the homepage is including the social media of the artist. With
August, our choice has been to emphasise his use of Soundcloud, which, as being a
creative platform to post one’s music without any restrictions and in a cheap and modern
way in which interaction among users is
encourages, it seems like the kind of site
that our singer would use the most.
Consistency is very important among
everything we produce, so the look of the
website overall is quite simple and has
an organic feel to it. Apart from the
homepage, there is a tab menu on top
which enables the users to access a
gallery with pictures of the artist and the process of filming the music video for Great
Dane, the third track of August’s last release, as well as his music, showcasing the album
“For No One” and informing about the price, the tour dates, ways of contacting him and,
most importantly, the ‘About’ section.
The prize of the album has been decided, considering that August is an upcoming artist
but also keeping in mind the costs of the campaign, as he does not come from an extremely
wealthy family and his success so far has resided in his talent. So far, we are only selling
a CD digipak, as a contrast to other artists who, because they are more established in the
industry, have the resources to sell their music in various formats such as vinyl records
or cassettes. An example of this is Beach Fossils.

3. The ‘About’ section has been a part of the website that we have spent the most time on,
as it has been the greatest opportunity in the whole process to provide written, explicit
information about the artists for the fans to learn about his origins and his way of working.
We have emphasised all the ideas we had in our mind, following the conventions of
writing in third person, very objectively, and including some final words from August as
if he was interviewed. These very organic decisions are common to many indie artists.
August’s USP resides in his professionalism and the emphasis in his passion for the music
he does. Therefore, we have provided information about how he got started in the
industry, beginning to play instruments since a young age and then moving on to writing
songs for the guitar.
It is clear, moreover, that he cares about his viewers and he wants ton establish some sort
of connection with them, as he explains in the interviewed extract.

4. Overall, the colour scheme, the font and the objects/merchandising are the same
throughout the music video, digipak and webpage, resulting in cross-media co-
dependency and setting the foundation for a complete map in the audience’s heads about
the artist in question. I believe that the whole campaign is very successful because, apart
from following the set conventions so that every detail is easy to grasp, we have
challenged them and innovated to achieve a unique product thanks to our creative
decisions.