Products P1(c)

Meaning & Purpose

Products are essentially what a company produces (and in this case I mean the musicians Columbia Records sign) who then go on to record songs/albums and make the company lots of revenue.

For the specific case of Columbia Records, the 'products' (artists) are chosen extremely carefully (some even appear to be hand picked by the head of the scouting departments); this is because the record company has to be sure that they will receive enough revenue from the artist, in exactly the same way that toy companies must be sure the toy will be appealing enough for people to want to buy, etc.

The artists must of course be able to sing, but unfortunately record labels sign for a number of different other reasons nowadays too (such as how appealing they believe the artist will be to different ages/genres); however I do believe that Columbia Records picks artists based purely on how talented they are, which is great and how it should be done! They are then legally Columbia's 'products' until a contract is written up stating otherwise.

The record label, Columbia Records, have a number of other different products (artists) as well as The Script who I analysed in P2.

Here are all the artists that the record label have signed in its lifetime as a company:

Apologies for the lack of pictures with the artists, they just wouldn't download, despite me refreshing over 10 times...

Interestingly enough, Columbia Records also have a UK label (which has a completely separate website and artist list too!)
The label has signed the following artists, past and present:

ALL OF THESE ARTISTS ARE CURRENTLY SIGNED TO COLUMBIA RECORDS *GLOBALLY

Furthermore, within the actual artists themselves, many sell their own products, under their record labels. So, for example, if I were to choose an artist under Columbia Records, it would be very easy to then find their 'merchandise'.

The Script are a band that are signed to Columbia Records; as you can see down below, they sell their own products that go with whatever album they've released/tour they're on at the time. The biggest product that practically every musician will sell commercially if they wish to is definitely t-shirts. The t-shirt on the right is one that the band sold for their most recent album, 'No Sound Without Silence'; however the shirt on the left is one they sold a couple of years back, during the cycle of their previous album, #3! The merchandise bands/artists sell under their record labels really does vary, but of course a percentage of the revenue made by the products go straight back into Columbia Records' pockets. The Script in particular sell more than just t-shirts though; particularly when on tour, you can buy signed posters, wristbands, photo books, hats, hoodies - the list goes on!

In terms of representation, on The Script's merchandise store page I think they present the band very successfully; the theme is consistent and kept very similar to the bands latest image/album, making the merchandise even the more appealing to buy for the fans. As you can see too there are various different styles of t-shirts even that fans can buy from the website, and there are numerous designs, plus different sizes and mens/women!

On the other hand, there are also other products that other artists under Columbia Records distributes too; and in terms of digital presentation, as you can see down below, the two websites in comparison actually look very different.

John Mayer's merchandise website is presented in a much more mature (and almost neater) way; I believe the differentiations are purely down to the artist and their target audiences.