Mainstream Vs Indie

When looking into Music Videos and Music genres its easy to tell the difference between an Mainstream group or artist , or a indie group/artist .

Mainstream vs. Indie :

When looking at mainstream artists and Indie independent artists in class , we looked at One Directions - Best Song Ever and also Lanterns On The Lake - Another Tale From Another English Tale , where we started researching everything about the group :

Record Labels :

One Direction  

Syco Music : who is owned by Simon Cowell , which consists of x factor finalists and also other pop artists such as Cher Lloyd , Little Mix and Alexandra Burke
Colombia Records : Which are owned by Sony Music Entertainment ( which is also owned by Simon Cowell) , but consists a variety of different genre artists such as Beyoncé , Britney Spears , Carly Rae Jepsen and Adele .
                                                       Lanterns On The Lake
Bella Union : Small independent label with various independent artist such as John Grant and Marissa Nadler .

Target Audience :

One Direction

Female teens aging between 11-20 years of age .

Lanterns On The Lake 

People who like indie genre music .

Merchandise :

One Direction

Due to having a big budget label , One Direction have a range of merchandise for their fans such as Clothing's , Toys , Watches , Bed sheets , Dolls and School Stationary .

Lanterns On The Lake

Screenprints , posters , tops and bags 

Purchasing Music :

 One Direction

 Amazon , iTunes ,CD's , supermarkets , pre-orders

Lanterns On The Lake

iTunes and Amazon.

The benefits of being with a mainstream label and a mainstream artist means you have large sum of money due to being apart of a record company / label which are quite popular , this means that money is invested into your music videos ; this making it easier and more quicker to be able gather a large audience due to the ability to create an interesting and creative music video that is visually entertaining for the audience . This can lead the artist to then being able to use this music video and mainstream label to sell their merchandise which can lead to bigger sales of tours , concerts and etc . One disadvantage however of being apart of an mainstream label is that you are not able to invest or use your own creative visuals on your music video as you are provided with a team such as directors , stylists , choreographers who all do this for you .

 Being signed to an independent label has its advantages such as it means that you can be creative and self-achieve and do the things you want for your career  However , due to having a lower budget than mainstream labels , it means the videos can not be made to the high quality standards of mainstream which may lead it to be less visually entertaining this affect and creating indie bands to have very niche audiences .