The Music Video Value Chain: Music Video into Cultural Industries’ Commercial Circuits

Abstract

The music video is part of the cultural industries as a commodity produced by record companies. It is based on a theme song for the construction of an audiovisual product and at the same time sold other items like disk. This dual nature makes the music video a cultural product itself and a promotional tool for other items in the entertainment industry. This paper raises the value chain of the music industry through various agents involved for subsequent extrapolation to the music video as a product of the culture industry. It aims to show the internal structure of the phonographic industry during the phases of development, marketing and distribution of the product and compare the value chains of the disc and the music video and differences of those physical products digitally created and online distributed. The methodology is based on the description and comparison of both products of the record industry. The main conclusion is a defense to the music videos’s autonomy as format, with the creation of its own value chain and its establishing as an independent product from other commodities produced by the phonographic industry.