The State Of Music Videos: 2017

Remember the days of MTV playing actual music videos? Maybe this separates a lot of musicians in generation, this age gap when music videos seemed to mean something. Perhaps they didn’t mean anything at all, aside from expensive productions, rented out mansions, and a budget backed single on a massive major label. Aside from recanting the past, things in the music industry have obviously changed. What hasn’t been addressed though is the market for making music videos. 

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VR In Music

Virtual reality technology is continuing to infiltrate popular culture, with most of the emphasis being put on its uses in gaming and movies. IMAX recently announced plans for six VR hubs to be opened across the world by the end of 2016, while many of the major video games platforms are also announcing VR integration this year.

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Music Videos Have Leaped From Entertainment To Experience, Thanks To Social Media

The talent-hunting reality shows may have started it, but music videos in general, and social media sites, YouTube in particular, have transformed and rebranded music and their artists from entertainment to a lifestyle experience. The interactive component in shows like American Idol, America’s Got Talent, The Voice, and their various versions have given their millions of viewers part of the power to decide who wins and who loses.

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How To Be A Successful Performing Artist In The New Millennium - Part Two

Last month, in Part One, we established that the only money in the music business right now is in performing your own songs and owning your own publishing and merch. We looked at the eleven things an aspiring singer/songwriter needed to do in order to be able to take the next step into learning how to become an entertainer and communicate and connect with an audience. Part One involved a lot of hard work and long, boring hours of practice and re-writes with little to no payoff. Now it gets interesting, although there’s still plenty of hard work ahead. Part Two assumes that the artist has completed all the steps in Part One.

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YouTube's Dirty Little Secret

Ever spotted a terrible video on YouTube with an inconceivably high view count? Of course you have. Would it make you feel better knowing that most of those “views” were completely automated and only lasted 30 seconds with the sound turned off?

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Animation, Art, and Music Videos

The potential for animation to express a deeper, more poetic reality than film has been evident since the days of Walt Disney. These days, music video producers are beginning to utilise animation for this purpose too.

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7 Tips to Make Your Next Music Video

Considering making an original music video?

You may want to check out the 7 tips below to save you time, money and added stress. I just completed my first music video after more than three years of investment where I learned these lessons directly…the hard way. I’m now working on my second video and vowed to avoid the same pitfalls by following these lessons. Perhaps you can learn from my mistakes!

1 . Always have signed contracts no matter what. In the beginning, it is usually such a love fest between you and the the very people you want to hire to help realize your vision. They get it!

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Don't Hold It Against Me – But Product Placement Will Not Save the Music Industry

The new Britney Spears video for ‘Hold It Against Me’ got me thinking about product placement and monetization possibilities for the music industry.

The video has overt references to Britney’s fragrance Radiance, Makeup Forever, Sony, and the online dating site PlentyOfFish. I have no idea* how much it costs to get into a video that will most likely garner tens of millions of views over time, but I can imagine it is not insignificant. Britney Spears isn’t the only one to include product placement in videos either—Lady Gaga didn’t shy away from video advertising in Telephone and even some rock musicians are starting to go with the trend to make up for lackluster CD sales.

Clearly it’s becoming a staple of the music industry just as it has been in television for a long time. I always enjoy a good product placement bit on 30 Rock.

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New In MTT Open: Publishing, T Bone Burnett vs. the Internet, & OK Go

With over 40 years of experience in the music and entertainment industry, T Bone Burnett surprised the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit at Georgetown University when he said that the future of music is analog. This was shocking because most of the music industry conference has been focused on the Internet and digitization. David D has posted about T Bone Burnett’s concern about the quality of recorded music such as the MP3. What do you think about the quality of recorded music? Do you care more about convenience or about better quality? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

“To someone starting out at as an artist today, his advice would be “stay completely away from the Internet.” (Read on and watch the video)

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Keep Shooting High-Definition Music Video and Related Material

Here’s another reason to shoot high-definition video that’s connected to your music-related ventures:  Demand for short, interesting, compelling, non-explicit, music-infused, high-quality, high-def content is going to be driven by the digital signage industry.

I have been doing some work for a venture that’s focused on digital signage. Here are some stats to consider:

• Digital signage is going to be an explosive growth (exposure) opportunity - with over 500-million connected screens predicted to be in the market by 2013.  
• The combination of all the impressions generated by all the connected digital signs - already makes digital signage one of the largest impression-generating networks on earth.

Since the average exposure (time) to digital signage is relatively short, music videos are perfect for digital signage loops.  Expect new mass-exposure opportunities to grow out of the digital signage networks over the next twenty-four months.

Question:  Do any MTT readers have high-quality music videos that they feel are under exposed?

About Bruce Warila