One of the mains purposes of a music video is to advertise the artist and song. This can be done in multiple ways, the style of the artist normally affecting how. Some artists, such as David Bowie, would create extreme and over the top videos that are often described as surreal. In 1980 he released the groundbreaking music video 'Ashes to Ashes'. Many people would have seen this music video, whether they were a current fan or not, leading to David Bowie becoming and extremely talked about artist which would promote his other work. Popular or unique music videos also promote the directors of the music videos. Other artists are able to see when a song/video rises in popularity and may then wish to hire the director, so their own music will rise in popularity. Those who saw David Bowie in his videos would see him as some almost extraterrestrial and quite possibly as someone who takes a lot of drugs ("weird... and cool"). His individual style makes it very easy to identify a David Bowie music video, he would be recognised world wide by impacting all generations.
Because there are so many different genres of music and sub genres artists are rarely the same as one another, they may be similar however because they share the conventions of their genre of music. Because of these differences and similarities producers will market different artists differently. For example A Day To Remember (ADTR) is an American Rock Band known for their 'unusual amalgamation of "metalcore" and pop punk'. 
Ed Sheeran on the other hand is a pop and contemporary folk artist. These two artists would have a different target audience and therefor would promote themselves differently. ADTR are more likely to have fast paced music videos, more likely to use dark colours (unless Sheeran had a sad/depressing song) than Ed Sheeran and, to be stereotypical, be more aggressive/energetic.By creating music videos artists are producing another form of advertisement for their band and record labels. This is because every time their song is played the record label and band will receive royalties for it. However, if there is a corrupt record label the band may not receive the correct amount of royalties if any at all. An example of this would be ADTR who had to go through a five-year legal battle against Victory Records. Their contract stated that ADTR had to release five albums under their label, and argued that ADTR left before this was done (two of these albums contained live performances, re-releases and bonus tracks). The jury determined that the disputed recordings counted as albums so the band did fulfill the five record contract. They also declared that Victory Records had to pay A Day To Remember $4 million in unpaid royalties. While not all these would be gained from music videos (from platforms such as YouTube), the song 'All I Want' has 35,381636 views which would have brought in a lot of this income.
There are numerous media platforms in the world today, a few of the most popular being Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day and 8 out of 10 18-49 year olds watch YouTube in an average month. (According to https://fortunelords.com/youtube-statistics/ )
This makes social media the fastest way to be seen and heard however there are other ways to broadcast a music video to the world, as not everyone is on social media. For example some billboards, more likely in large cities such as London, may play clips of music videos or on the underground. Certain TV stations also play music videos, with their being different stations for different kinds of music. This can be a great way to discover new artists that is still similar to your music taste. This is also a reason why many music videos try to be unique or eye catching as for some this will be the first look at the artist.
How "big" the artist is, mainstream or independent, will effect the producers strategies of marketing that artist. For example, a well known artist such as Fall Out Boy would have very "glossy" looking music video and posters. Professionals at the top of their industry would have been hired to show the band in the best light and achieve looks that someone new to the industry may not be able to. In a music video the shots/cuts would look clean, the lighting would be correct and it wouldn't be grainy (unless on purpose) or out of focus.
With a smaller artist, for example Tom Leeb. He doesn't have a YouTube channel, only Instagram and Facebook, but Sleep Music is a channel that uploads smaller artists songs for free to help them out. Tom Leeb doesn't have a large production company backing him so would be classed as an independent artist. However because of successful marketing he is becoming more popular and could make it as a mainstream artist one day. He doesn't have any music videos at this point but on social media he advertises himself as a friendly and approachable man, taking time to respond to his fans comments. He also uploads videos onto Instagram of live performances or him in his studio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RT3uFugS0k
Freya Ridings is another example of an independent artist. Unlike Tom Leeb she does have music videos but most of them are also of live performances. This could be because of funding issues to afford a music video that she would be happy with.
In modern times almost everyone has a mobile phone, TV, PC or all three. All of these devices allow you to access music videos and some (phone and PC) allow you to possible create your own. The majority of new artists have the option to produce their own music video, by simply filming it on their phone, using a simple/free editing program and uploading it to YouTube. For example, Justin Bieber started out by uploading a very poor recording of him singing onto YouTube and now he is famous worldwide. While not everyone may like him, there is no doubt he is successful yet he started out with just his parents.
The advantages of producing your own music videos is that you can control everything that goes into the music video. When you step back it can also be extremely satisfying to see all that hard work turn into something that people will enjoy. However if the artist creating the music video isn't very experienced it could look a little rough around the edges and not as professional.
Some artists may also use their music videos to send a message or create a visual piece of art that they want to be remembered for. In the example I chose, John Legend's Made To Love which is very creative and out of the ordinary. Despite it's "simplicity" the artistic style conveys a lot of emotions
Synergy refers to the promotion of a product unrelated to the main product through some form of licensing deal. Walt Disney is the man who introduced this idea back in the 1930's when he gave other companies the right to use Mickey Mouse in their products and advertising. Classic examples of this can be children's lunchboxes, plasters, they often have a large franchise on the front to help sell them. It is something that is all around us so we don't always notice it, and how it encourages people to buy a product (to a child a disney plaster works better than a plain one, so we buy the disney ones).
An example of this in the music industry is when a song is used in a film. The film may then become present in the music video as a form of advertising itself. In Pharrell Williams music video Happy (which was used in 'Despicable Me 2') there are multiple references to the film. Such as the dancing minion (0:55) and the actors Steve Carrell and Miranda Cosgrove who were in the film.
Both parties involved in synergistic marketing benefit from it. The company paying to use another companies creations will get more interest/sales in their product, while the company being paid is getting money and free advertisement for their own creations.
I personally believe upon reflection that the reason music videos are so popular is because they are essentially free to watch. Many of them are entertaining to the target audience, whether it is because they are quirky, fun, like a narrative or just a way to watch the artist perform the song without going to a concert. It also gives people more to talk about than just the song itself, and people love things to talk about.
Sources:
http://loudwire.com/a-day-to-remember-win-lawsuit-victory-records/
https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/adaytoremember
https://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/david-bowie-the-king-of-reinvention/all/
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