ABSTRACT
The record companies' funding for videos for certain types of music depends upon a music genre's current prominence on major exposure media, most notably MTV. Music video functions at the major record labels can be divided roughly into three areas: production, promotion, and retail distribution. Promotion departments distribute video clips to television shows and develop several strategies to heighten their clips' promotional efficacy. Most importantly, executives provide MTV with copies of recent videos and vigorously lobby the channel to add these to its current playlist. Music programs like MTV have a symbiotic relationship with the record labels, which generally encourages them to cooperate in promotional campaigns for their artists by providing regular airplay of videos by record company acts. The increased prominence of music video and MTV influenced the record company's criteria for signing artists to recording contracts, emphasizing the importance of a musician's visual appearance.
