What video content works best for music artists?
Video content is essential for music artists today, with vertical, short-form clips dominating social and ad platforms. Different video types serve distinct purposes, from full-length music videos to low-budget lyric videos and engaging performance clips.
By Andrew Southworth
Hey friends!
Today we’re going to talk about what video content works for music artists?
Specifically, what types of video works for organic purposes and/or for running ads. Nowadays it’s not optional to have video content, and most video content is shared in vertical formats in short lengths. You need video content for organic social media posts but also for running ads.
Full Length Video Content
First we’re going to go over full length video content. Typically this is the length of the song, made in a horizontal 16:9 format and uploaded to platforms like YouTube and/or Facebook.
Music Videos
Everyone knows about music videos. They’re often very expensive and time consuming to make, but when done right can be just as artistically satisfying as the music itself.
Music videos allow you to tell a story and show off your brand. The perfect music video is entertaining in it’s own right, and allows a potential fan to not only discover the music but understand the entire ethos of the artist.
Often I tell artists not to bother with music videos if they’re new. Largely due to the fact the music video will often cost thousands of dollars, and then you’ll also have to market the video in addition to marketing the song. That’s why I made this video:
If you have a music video and are looking for someone else to run YouTube / Google ads on it, we can run them for you. Or you can learn how to do it yourself here.
Lyric Videos
Lyric videos are much cheaper than music videos, in the realm of hundreds of dollars instead of thousands of dollars. While not as ‘impressive’ as a music video, lyric videos are a low-budget way of having a video for your song that still feels exciting to watch.
In some genres lyric videos are more or less popular. But almost every genre has popular artists that release lyric videos at least occasionally (assuming the genre has vocals of course).
We actually offer a lyric video service for under $200, using hand crafted 2D matte paint layers animated in 3D software to create a unique look. Check it out here.
Visualizers
In some genres music visualizer videos popular but in others they’re kind of strange. However they’re super cheap. DistroKid can make you a visualizer using their Vizzy tool for less than $10. Even going on Fiverr you can find freelancers to make these videos for as low as $10-$25 as well.
If you had the choice of uploading a static artwork video or a tasteful visualizer video, i’d always choose the visualizer. But i’d choose basically any other style of video creative over a visualizer.
Live Videos
Another style of video you can do is performing live on camera. This can take a few forms:
Recording the performance at an actual show, play to a click track and sync it to the studio audio for a ‘live music video’.
Record an actual live show, use the live audio.
Do a studio performance with however much editing you prefer.
For a lot of artists I think a studio performance is a good pick. This way you can multitrack, comp vocals, use pitch correction, processing etc. You can capture the essence of a performance but still polish it if needed.
Clips Video Content
Alright now lets talk about short form video clips. This is what you would share on platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, Meta ad campaigns etc.
Artwork
Artwork videos are simple, but they can work for ads in certain cases. All they are is the artwork of the song animated with the music playing. I wouldn’t post artwork videos as organic posts, but for ads they can work.
Topic
Topic videos tie your song in with hobbies, activities and interests that people already have. You wouldn’t use these as organic posts, but for ads they can work wonders.
Typically you’d run these as ads through social accounts that are not by the artist, unless you get the language right. These are also very effective ads for growing playlists with ads as well.
Music Video
With this style of video clip you get your full music video and cut it into clips. In my experience this tends to not do as well as some of the other video types listed here. I think it’s because music videos often look very polished, which makes them come across to much like an ad on social media.
Performance
These types of clips can work well for both organic and ad use cases. Overall i’d say this is potentially the most popular and maybe even most effective format.
This is basically just getting any type of performance video you have, actually live or lip synced, with or without the studio audio, and cutting it into snippets to share on socials or use as ads. Right now this works quite great for both ads and organic posts for most genres.
Stock Footage
With this style of video you grab some stock footage and sync it to your music. Can be done with or without artwork, logos lyrics etc. Pexels is a great free site for finding stock footage.
How To Make Video Clips?
I typically edit video in Premiere Pro, but many also use After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Da Vinci Resolve (free), CapCut or Canva. If you aren’t familiar with video editing you’re definitely going to experience a learning curve. However, learning to edit videos yourself would be a great skill to have.
If you don’t have the time (or just don’t want to learn how), we can create / edit your videos for you. Click here to check out our Video Clips service, and see the 7 different types of visuals we can make for you.
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