Business

Marketing for Bands: The Importance of Promoting Your Art Through Music Videos

Music video popularity can have a direct effect on the marketing of a song. Over the years, the format has changed, but music videos maintained their influence. Any artist that is serious about promoting their work will gain a lot of ground by maximizing this form of media.

The Past

When MTV and VH1 were at their peak, millions would watch every day to see their favorite music videos. All across the world viewers got to see the talents of old and new companies like video production Melbourne. The presentation was unmatched, and cable networks were able to survive with 24/7 replaying of music videos. When a song hit the radio, there was an expectation that the music video wouldn’t be far behind. And if a song was bombing on the radio, a good music video would shoot it to the top of the billboard charts. The 80s and 90s were a wonderful time for creativity, and it showed with the amount of money that was put into music videos vs marketing.

The Present

The 24/7 cable music channel is now considered niche, but it has been replaced with a format that reaches even more people. With a more wide-open format on multiple platforms, music videos are as popular as ever. It is now more common for a viral video hit to catapult a song into fame than it is for a great song to inspire a music video. This has opened up several new avenues for creative minds to draw their audience to the music. New hits are being created each day with an expectation that the video will match the professionalism of the music.

The Future

Things will get complicated for musicians that want to handle all of their music video production in-house. DMCA takedowns, production costs, and lack of experience will make it difficult to create music videos from the ground up. Outsourcing this burden will be a big help for artists, and never gets in the way of their original creative vision. Bands that want to maximize their time will find that music videos done through a trustworthy company is the most efficient way to handle limited resources. Artists gain everything while losing nothing in a familiar creative process.

Notable Hits

Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen is on the all-time list of great music videos. It is a perfect example of a legendary song that continued to gain momentum thanks to its unforgettable video. Over twenty years after its release, it has maintained steady views on YouTube. For reference, the song came out in 1975 and the music video came out the same year. The resulting success may have been the driving force that launched MTV into the music video juggernaut of the 90s. After years of countless plays, the song and video would once again resurface after the release of the movie Wayne’s World in 1992. The movie was a success, and once again, the Bohemian Rhapsody video was heating up. In 2018, Bohemian Rhapsody movie was released and gained several awards.

Guess what happened for the next few years after the movie release? Again, Bohemian Rhapsody the song, music video, and accompanying media gained popularity. For any artist, this type of consistency from one piece of work is a dream come true. With the help of a single music video, Bohemian Rhapsody has touched several generations of fans and continues to gain new fans.

Getting A Marketing Edge

Not every music video will have the longevity of Bohemian Rhapsody. But an artist that wants to catch lightning in a bottle can gain millions of viewers if their video knows its audience. A good example of this would be Barbra Streisand by Duck Sauce. The song is silly, carefree, and made just for fun. The video carries the same message and has no problems staying within its lane. This type of self-awareness with a music video is rare and makes both the song and the video a catchy hit.

PSY’s Gangnam Style takes the same approach and turned a 2013 song into a video that was an instant dance hit. The key to getting the marketing edge with a video is by understanding that the actual video doesn’t have to be a vehicle for the music. Multiple music video hits that originated online contained music that didn’t even make the billboard charts. Music videos add another marketing option, one that is completely flexible based on your current artistic needs.

Instead of making a music video that compliments the song, use your current marketing data to decide the type of video that will leave the biggest impact.

Social Media Influence

The biggest music videos are released on social media. YouTube leads the pack, and every other platform is a notch below it. Other social media platforms work as a way to soft debut a new music video to their market while quietly shuffling them to YouTube – and this is where the fun begins. Not every artist will create a super hit for their music or music video.

But with YouTube, you have a way to set it up so that recommendations will funnel potential viewers to more of your media. That means artists that continually make music videos will have a higher chance of keeping current viewers while gaining new ones. Having a single video on your YouTube profile will become a detriment to your growing success.

With the right setup, even non-popular music videos can gain a lot of traction by auto-playing your other videos to the same viewer. The first video gets viewers to YouTube, and the rest of the videos act as a portfolio to turn them into a fan. When it comes to marketing, combining your social media influence with consistent music videos will put you a step above the competition.

Become A Standout

There are countless ways to gain exposure as a musician. This leads to heavier competition and makes it harder for new artists to get noticed. With a music video, your best work will always find the audience it deserves.