“Buttocks and Breasts”

Following up to the Grammy awards which took place in February this year, CBS (one of the US biggest commercial broadcasting televisions networks) made a statement issuing a dress code for the attending stars not to revel too much skin as seen in past events past.  CBS demanded for ‘buttocks and breasts to be adequately covered’ and warned against “exposure of the genital regions” and that “thong type costumes are problematic” as well as stating, “please avoid shear see-through clothing”. (The Standard, 2013)  

So none of this…

Remember this?....

And especially not this….

Although looks like someone didn’t care for the memo as KImbra (who won a grammy for “somebody That I used To know”) tweeted a response saying “Please avoid crimping my style”.

How much skin is inappropriate, and hasn't these outfits at the Grammy’s each year become the norm? Now at the Oscars for example you anticipate the classy, elegant and tasteful gowns on the red carpet.

Was there even a point in CBS making the announcement? Public relations director Anne Gregory says “the fear of many public relations practitioners is that these opinions could be drawn together and focused by the media against the organization… public opinion strongly held affects management decisions… PR practitioners ensure management are aware of public opinions so the can make decisions in the light of it” (Gregory. A, 2010, pp.99). What’s your opinion, after all we are the ones watching?

For more on PR check out the following book:

Gregory, A. (2010) Planning and managing public relations campaigns: A strategic approach. London: Kogan Page, pp.99-102

The Standard (2013) CBS issues dress code for 'breasts,' 'buttocks' at Grammy show. [online] Available at: http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/02/07/cbs-issues-dress-code-breasts-buttocks-grammy-show [Accessed: 20 Apr 2013].

The MusicBlues

We all must have realized that the music industry may be in financial trouble just like everyone else as a result of the recession, not to mention the HMV stores shutting down. But how bad is it, and are we really seeing the whole picture?

Although music still surrounds us it nowadays emerges from different formats such as using our mobile phones, mp3 players and Internet streaming services (Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, 2010). We are living in a digital age, and may be satisfied as music listeners however this creates quite the opposite effect in the industry and their executives. The birth of iTunes with their downloadable tracks and not to mention piracy which has spread like the plague across the world where large chunks of revenue is lost each year, has almost killed the CD and destroyed record companies leaving nothing to patch them up.

So there is no wonder the music industries revenues have continued to drop in recent years. Not only are the industry executives from the large label companies like Sony and EMI affected but also smaller independent musicians nowadays are unable to make a living solely on their music. The industries economy is a well talked about topic and especially during Billboard’s Annual Music and Money Conference were EMI fanatical situation was discussed, in 2007 (Gringer, 2010) EMI (a British music company) allowed a private equity firm to purchase them in the hope of recovery when in the beginning things seemed to be looking up, proved failing unfortunately resulting in the loss of top artists including radio head and rolling stones. Today EMI is no more and in 2012 sold of there assets. Could this be the record industries fate? Or can they learn to adapt successfuly in this digital era. Author of  “Digital Disruption “ believes many lessons can be learnt from observing the music industry.

“Build a digital customer relationship. The music industry fought the first wave of digital disruption — it didn’t help that Napster was ultimately illegal, making the industry fail to realize that the bigger phenomenon was legitimate even if its current manifestation was not. But then when iTunes came along and offered some relief, the industry gave away all the keys to the kingdom, with the most important one being the digital customer relationship they could have had if they had insisted on different terms or created their own digital music service without hampering it with impossible DRM expectations”. (McQuively, 2013)

For more on the music industries financial crisis check out blogger “The Unsigned Guide”

MTV Awards forced licensing change

Back in 2011 Belfast’s live music and entertainment venues were struggling to keep the parties going. With Irelands strict laws, clubs were not permitted to sell alcohol after midnight even if they could stay open until 3am and with the MTV European music awards creeping round the corner many felt they would miss out on business from tourism, crucial for the city says tourism marketing Bonita, M Kolb:

“economic benefits tourism can provide include increasing tax revenue so that more money is available for infrastructure maintenance......providing for economic development through attracting new businesses.” (2006).

The Events organizers also commented saying that the closing of bars and clubs was “not and option” and that it would “create enormous problems for MTV” (BelfastTelegraph, 2013).

The purpose of The Live Music bill issued by Lib Dem Lord Clement-Jones, was to offer licensing exceptions to venues with capacities less than 200.

Unfortunately the Bill never passed in time for the MTV Music Awards and local clubs, pubs and bars missed out on hosting the after parties for the attending stars like Beyonce and Lady Gaga. Instead these parties where held in Belfast’s Titanic Bell Hall, an unlicensed venue where the same laws didn’t apply. However MTV played a large part in pushing the Bill to the House Of Commons when in 2012 the Bill finally became an Act of Parliament.

Not all was lost for Belfast though, £22 million was generated in sales with £10 million of that generated in tourism revenue by the event. The council’s statistics showed MTV booking over 8,000 rooms from over 40 hotels in the area (BBC News, 2012).

Now Belfast can to get their party on!!!

For more on tourism marketing check out the book below:

Kolb, B. M. (2006) Tourism Marketing for Cities and Towns: Using branding and events to attract tourists. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Inc.