Emily + Polydor Records

Emily works as a video commisioner in "Polydor Records", which is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Video commissioner's work is to bring the artist, production and record companies together, what she essentially does. 

Emily came to talk about Polydor recently released music videos, including "Godness Gracious" by Ellie Goulding, "Kiss and Not Tell" by La Roux. She went through the process of making a music video:

1. Label should decide upon single.

2. Need to get budget for a shoot.

3. Need to decide what kind of music video they want to do e.g. is it going to consist of narrative or singing. (Sometimes the idea may come from the artist  e.g. Lana del Rey, although it's quite rare)

4. Then materials are emailed to a director, who may have his own ideas for the video.

5. The shoot itself is usually quite short, 1-3 days. 

6. The rough cut is usually ready in a week.

7. However, it's only after a month or month and half, when the music video is released on YouTube. This is due to issues to do with final cut (there may be different versions), or there is just a lot of effects, which takes long time to do. There is also a specific strategy for release of the video.

Emily also makes a point about profitability of music videos. It's usually the case that music videos do not make any money back, and are really not supposed to. The main goal is to build awareness of the artist and their star image.

This may also be that music videos is rather an advertising for up and coming directors than for artists singing.

There are two examples of most recent videos.