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Types of Video Musicians Can Make

So what kind of videos should you make? We get that question a lot effect I think we had something like that earlier if I remember it might have been a long time it seems like yesterday seems like a year ago because of how time goes here but anyway we had a lot of questions like this here's just a few ideas that are well within your reach obviously music videos right but animation mash of videos still photo videos which are very easy to dio using things like the ken byrnes effect you could do machinima videos if you've never heard of this this is using a video game engine to actually create the little things that move around and then film it spent a lot of successful music gun around that enemy on the main music videos where they're actually taking bits of in this case japanese animation but it could be really anything and then they synchronize it to the music, making it look like the characters they're singing you're doing things and if you've never checked out this this is so big it ...

has like entire conventions based on it or at least that automate conventions it's a big part of it and they have an award for the best ones and they'll mix riel songs like regular songs with all of this thing which is great because you're tapping into a fandom that existed is so big they have conventions if you can find a phantom that has conventions that is a niche worth approaching generally that's a big one creating regular video content actually that's something that nice peter does a very good job it's called the monday show he had them on this show which I think he just paused for this a positive so he was probably working on the epic oh again the africa you get too busy usually does it and what what he did with the monday show was it he'd accept packages and then he'd hold it up and so people were very invested in it they would send him these packages of bizarre things and he's like wow thanks you know you get like a cactus it was like a talk show it was basically a talk show and but the point there is you don't have to just do a video of your music you can also do it like a regular like a long into podcasting it's a flog just do regular content about you as an artist you as a musician what what your normal day is all about that's what he was doing uh and uh you know and then you could talk to your audience that way it's another way to actually connect with your audience what should I be doing? I'm thinking of doing such and such and, you know, write me and an elicit comments that way and actually engage and a dialogue, which is what nice peter was doing as well with this face it's very it's, very genuine. Yes, if you watch it, it's actually well worth checking out his videos and his monday show just type nice peter monday show, and then you'll see it one more point about that when he started his monday show, it was just him in front of the camera, but as it just kept getting more popular and he was building this audience and stuff, the production value's got bigger and bigger and bigger, and he edited it better when you start to take pictures that people were drawn and put it on the wall behind that we can't just cool like there's all these pictures there. And then I would say that one of the other points to make about it is that it's very similar to what we talked about with jonathan colton did that we discussed before, where he would answer every email that everybody would send him and reach out to everybody who had ever contact him. He did the same thing that he did it with video, which is some ways is easier because you're after tight here like a somebody sent this in, well, thanks a lot. Appreciate it I love your music and everything else you know I love you too it will say things like I love your idea for a song and I wrote one is you suggested such and such does he would post video that way but if you do go and you do look at his monday show which I think is a nice peter too nice and peter go back in time and go see how it started start because if you look at it now you'll be like, oh geez there's a look into that but it just started off as a just him and a camera any of us can do that and we forget that in that regular content is what keeps people coming back the secret to internet anything in its success on, you know, social media or anything is regular content that they know is going to have here it's just there's something match I don't care if you do something really crappy every day as long as you're doing it every day and it's regular they'll pick it up that's one of the things we learned with song of the day way put out a song every day and when we're finished people like oh man, why you stopping like you try to do more than three hundred sixty five sucks the reason this out of music guys the rest of our lives used it all up but so episodic could be once a week and doesn't have to be once it does you know don't try once a week it could be now people are adopted these seasons the season mentality I think epic breath pedals just staying with the same thing they do they do season so I think they're in their third season now they're starting at ups which just means they'll do ten and they'll release it maybe once a week or once every two weeks or something like that uh that's another way of doing episodic so then you can go dormant for a while then come back um would you consider sufi sufiya on stevens what he started to dio I don't think he's finished yet states on the state yeah, because that would that fit in that category in all, you know, that's just it's interesting because I was just reading about we're doing more research isn't illinois and that's where you're from and there's a lot of good songs on there um I just don't know if he was ever going to do all fifty states I thought like yeah, I thought I might may have been wrong I thought that was his intention, I know he hasn't completed it yeah, I think insistence that he said I don't know if I wanted to do it, but you know, having a concept in a theme like that is uh I think we might talk about tomorrow in the market I think but sometimes it's it's khun spark creativity and it's something tio to do yes to really get your juices flowing and stuff and then if it's somehow connected just rob did the periodic table of elements that's right inspired by the side of the day so like you might want to collect them all kind of concept right? So he does a couple state album so I want a mall uh, son of the day oh there's twelve albums and then the elements that's right? He wrote a song for every element that existed and he put that on so I think there's a lot there tio mine um not just for marketing purposes but teo for creativity I'm really big on that like sparking that creativity kind of thing and of course these videos or an idea that's all we want to bring it back to the key point which is about not just creating the content but releasing it on a regular schedule so people wanted catch it is it's coming out there's some this is where web comics to my mind win they are incredibly good about building and sustaining an audience they will recreate all the things that they're doing and do this and if you haven't checked out web comics before it's well worth doing but one of the things that make made me take my note taken notice of that and be interested in that in terms of regular updated content on the internet is very simply this there's a few kick starters that were based on web comics that I kept my eye on and they blew the doors off of anything you can believe the one for the web comic called home stuck he was trying to make I can't remember what it was it was a few hundred thousand I think, and he got something like two point one million dollars to do a video game based on the comic, which was a comic based in a video game they wanted to play the video game there's another one called order of the stick, which is based on dungeons and dragons it's done very, very crudely drawn, but I the people who are in that industry love it. All he was trying to do was replay publish the second book that he had published talk about adams and that bits they put things online, they say by the book if you're interested people buy the book it's a really nice combination of things he was looking for fifty thousand I think he got one point one one point two million dollars and it's because of this massive fan base that was just always watching this space the same space every day to watch the story progress and it's the type of thing where, if you this is what song of the day tapped into except that when we did in two thousand seven, it was much harder to sell the things right when it came out, that was something that made it harder. If we were to do it again, we would really have a way to monetize it much more easily and much more directly it's like here's a song, and you could buy it on itunes after you listen to the streaming version that has a little audio bumper the start but remind you that it's coming from our website case you want to carry it around? Well, you have just time back to the video stuff that people do get in the habit of of watching that space and that's. Why web comics win that's why having regular video content uh, doesn't have to always be music could be value is an artist and what you're doing in your life and you could find the right hook, uh, can be very interesting and can be compelling and people will come back wait don't throw way find him now we had a, well, a zoo, it was kind of jokingly said, drunk videos are becoming pretty popular, but they are sure there's the whole thing. People are doing that way had a video songs and making the music video that's what, by the way a replica grand battles for everything he releases he doesn't making of why if you haven't checked out an epic rap battles in history, go ahead, take a look the makeup and the sets are incredible production values their way up here now he's got a studio that's helping him put all this together but they show him putting on the makeup they show turn him turning into steve jobs house like he played steve jobs versus bill gates epic rap battle history which is a great democrat battle to and sorry go ahead so keep it and so we have a lot of people having remix videos, fan source videos, having people having your fans sing your songs and videos and submitting those so just sort of crowd source and getting the fans involved in however they want to do it creatively there's an a cappella idea to have everybody very, very good excellent asking fans for audio also has been helpful we didn't get album with when I was your age when I was your age like cereal cereal yeah and we asked you asked people to say we need a hand claps on that type of stuff and you could certainly do that with the videos as well it's it's very anything that you can really engage your audience like that is fantastic um yeah, good good points we should say the epa crap pedals the history is yes, there is a studio that is that nice peter is attached to, so if you see that it's nice big production values so another artist to look at is the gregory brothers says yes, they're the ones behind auto tune the news bed intruder song that it's very clever using auto tuning to make people who shouldn't sing sing um but that's all done out of their room, their bedroom and and stuff like that and very popular. We talked to them to interview now and then you got pumpkin mousse, which is another great uh duo who do all their videos and on that he said video songs, they do all their stuff home grown really just done in there they did it, so you're recording every single take of every single recording that they did taking the good takes and then the song comes together, you mix it down and then they can synchronize all the different takes and now they've got video for everything watching him play and you could do it in corners you can have four from going on the once take a look at their videos as well worth checking out car commercials and they've gotten a lot of endorsement deals with money came out of the other side of so that is actually here and there, indeed. So you ok? Excellent. So all these options, plus all the great ones that came from our online friends so that's a great let's talk about a slightly different topic now, let's, talk about live video. You are not stuck just doing videos recording in putting out there you can actually record life, you stream tv, live stream stage in all of these let you do that. You can do live shows in your basement. Just you just need a camera in a way to record the music now you should have is good of the audio quality is you can if you're going to do this like mike, it like it's, a really show that's our suggestion have somebody working the live aboards so you can adjust the volume levels and get the best mix coming out of it. The video you could do multiple angles if you really want to be clever, you can actually buy switchers tto have a multiple camera angle type situation, those air really great because they're great waiting positive. So one of the neat things about this is that you can create in an event that anybody can attend, so we were talking earlier about live events and going to where your fans are, this is one way to have the fans obviously hang out with you through things like you stream and live streaming and stuff like that so that actually that's a nice I haven't a nev ent you can promote it it's up to the focus on um but yes and then on top of that what you were talking about their software out there that can allow you so if you only have if you have like two cameras to web cameras or something that you can you can set it up so you can picture in picture so you can have different angles and and so the stuff that we talk about I think in the in the book as well but there's a lot to live video if you create your own event then you've got the other thing where you can if you do play in venues you could use the same type of technology to actually broadcast your live show to people who can't make it to your show er and using the same type of technology um so it tze just food for thought the possibilities there actually pretty endless now yeah what you can do yeah talking about during shows not, um raffling off things that you're selling yes, you think this would have a similar effect like attending shows for example where if you're selling tickets trying get people that show up they might just sit home I would say I mean it could but then again televising sports events doesn't empty stadium okay? It only makes people more interested in trying to be there live there's something about that live experience that you cannot get other one definitely yeah present your audience really like staying home a lot maybe. Ok, I I don't want to go out oh, I could watch them at home. Okay, cool. Okay I don't I don't know I don't think that it will also if you want more intimate settings you khun dio a google hangout or skype and actually be able to chat back and forth maybe you could sit there with your instrument whatever it is and do a little performance and interact with people. The interaction part is a lot of fun and it's something you could do it so let's talk about we talked about ways to monetize that we talk about different types of videos to do it let's talk about maximizing views of your videos let's talk about promotion top six tips for increasing views the video title is critically important. This is where you have a click me I call him click mieze or something along the lines like that it means that if it's compelling enough that they'll click it even if they don't see the picture it will actually bring them in you definitely want to ask for thumbs up in subscriptions because this is what's going to build your audio it's over time and really it's just azizi is just say, hey, thumbs up, you know, do a thumbs up remember, do thumbs up in, do a subscription, click out and over here what the best ones that I've seen we'll do these gregory brothers do it all the time, like do it thumbs up and didn't click here for more videos, things like that you can actually build it right in you organize your channel by content. If you're going to have more than one type of thing you can actually make these many channels is part of it the streams further, you should be able to cross promoted with other musicians and video creators, and some of the best ones will team up with other popular youtubers, as they call it if it's on youtube and actually get them to cross promote using social networks to share pay to promotes is the last thing, though, that we talk about that's only if it makes sense is you're paying money at that point, but it may make sense because that's one thing that you could dio with commercials, those pre roll you can make a pre roll, add yourself for your stuff and you could target it at terms that are similar to what you have to try and pull new people in k mart key words, so from here is it possible to sell your videos? All the answers, of course, absolutely there's lots of ways to sell video content beyond just giving it away for free. If you use cd baby to core did old music, you could sell your music videos on itunes now you're not just selling an audio single, you're actually selling a video single. This might be even more even more compelling for people to buy, depending on what they're trying to do with it. But there's no reason you can't actually take something that you have on youtube and actually sell it. You can still add that video, kota, and take it out for the h q version it's available on itunes there's no reason in fact, we're big fans all the time of taking stuff we've had before and reusing it and finding new ways to make it in the products. And even though it's something you give away, you can still sell it. Some of the most effective creators that we've seen well actually find ways to do that. Like we found we were talking to scott sigler way we talked about earlier he's he's, an author, and he podcasts a lot of his books it's given away for free is a podcast, but it has all that interest stuff in altro stuff and based on all of these things, you could actually take all that audio content and turned it into an audio book when you take out all those bumpers and suddenly you can take something that normally sells for a book for just nine dollars, your average audio book is selling for twenty, and he just puts it available out there, and he makes a whole new income stream of out of something they already had that already existed. You can do that with your videos here further and high quality versions. I want to mention that here because the quality of the sound and the quality of the video that comes out of youtube is not h q necessarily it's not certainly good enough that some, maybe some fans may want it. You can also sell dvds on demand by just uploading the artwork up, loading the content. And now, all of a sudden you can actually be selling this stuff in a dvd of all of your music videos, especially if you make him why not you actually can do it, sell it by season. If you do the kind of thing like epic epic battles does or other things like that and you can sell with the chip, sell it. It shows if you do the next thing that's on the list right here, which is making an inventory of them so that you actually have a bunch of dvds available and then, of course, you have to handle fulfillment. We already talked about fulfillment, right? Remember a couple sessions back, you can put stuff on a shelf, a nimble it, or just have amazon handle it or anywhere else that says fulfillment. You could start selling your video dvds to people but there's another way that you can sell your videos entirely and that is using something like video on demand or you stream tv, which have pro accounts that allow you to charge viewers for video access for a subscription fee or stage it, which is free to use what takes a percentage cut of what you charge your viewers in order to view your video and included tipster this's for live video. So now you can charge pay per view for live video zero dollars up front and you get a cut, you get your cut off out of whatever anybody pace, it also includes a tip jar feature. On top of all of that, this is huge and it's simple and it's within your reach and you could be doing this tomorrow. Is that only live videos or there's a pair? Of course. Dejan yeah staging, I believe, is ok, I'm thinking back to when I researched that if, but last time it was there is a few weeks ago but I believe it isthe now if you want to do it for other videos that's where you start looking into video on demand in you stream they all have different ways of doing it video on demand would require u I believe, to go to their pro account, which has you paying a certain amount to be able to sell things like it's more aimed at movie people so it costs a little more and if depending on the margins and how many people that you have coming in, it may not make sense, so you need to go through that whole sequence everything we've talked about about the middle man, you have to determine if the money you're going to spend on this it's going to make you x one of her exes on how much you're spending plus something else to make sure that it's worth it but there's options for that and it's worth searching on. So if you wanted to still static videos your best bet for just selling static videos frankly is doing this and selling it through like items that at that point you're you may as well just do it that way because it's much less expensive and you're going to make your being we'll make a profit off it this is for bigger things and stage is perfect for live actually both of these will do live and there's one more the number one thing you can do to make a great video do you know what that might be? Any idea what's number one one h d cameras cameras carries that's actually close to what we're about that I would say that's the number to two states to but what's number one it's if you just talked about the video is another component good audio very go that's a nice that is if it's got to sound good and luckily luckily your audio people's good musicians and we are good this is where everything we talked about up till now matters remember what we say that you use mastered music mastered music using waiting files this is where that all comes together if the audio is bad, people will just not go for it and then when it comes to audio quality for life well, you need to get an audio feed off the soundboard not a camera never a camera for life music you want to get a direct feed for riel microphones going into the thing invest in them if you haven't for this live show part well it's also true with your ifyou've logs and if you do that your regular content and everything make sure they use quality microphones camera called the zoom h one relatively inexpensive and I've heard it gets high quality sound is that something that you guys would recommend no not for audio yeah I'm serious yeah look I mean you've got a camera it's going to be across the room like the cameras that air here this one is what uh you know fifteen, twenty feet away there's no cameras here there's no oh sorry cameras is supposed to ignore the fact that you know there's the camera and that far away there's going to be an echo you're going to get well I think think like in this case like an audio engineer if you were going to record me and even if I'm a saxophone player as I am you're going to catch echo off the room here you're going to get some weird stuff on the side things and what is that going to be good at catching it's going to be good at catching the audio that's closest to the camera in particular might be a directional mike it probably is some kind of directional mike maybe not a crowd it could be a some kind of condenser probably it's going to be a directional condenser and when you get to that kind of standpoint it's going to be really good catching sounds maybe right here perfect for catching audio for your your puppy's playing in front of you or your kids like running around but it's not even in a high quality thing like that you should always use audio direct I mean there's a reason why for example were wearing love microphones is stumbling yeah lots sorry level ears and in fact that great video that we link tio from the van survival guide to get seen chapter it said here's how to get good all audio quality no matter where you are I don't care if you're in the space station it will always sound clear and he was walking across from the edge of a field would you get here? You could hear loud and clear was like all the way in the edge of the field they kept walking in the south quality was the same he's like here's what I did this is great it was so simple go ahead reaches into his pocket and he's got a digital recorder that's a not a high quality digital quarter but a decent one and then in post he I think the video he said all I did at the beginning this clap so that I could match a movement with the thing you match the audio together and now it's sink completely and then from there on you drop the audio onto the video track and you have a perfect match and so wherever you stand wherever I'm walking now I could be facing this way you're still hearing me because my mike the phone is right here that still won't do it for your audio I want to be clear about this that's fine for verbal that's fine for verbal stuff, but you guys are musicians and you're going to be doing it. You're playing let's say an acoustic guitar? Where is this sound? This is getting in the whole bunch of topics we don't have time for, but, you know, you think of the sound profile of this thing. Well, you've got the sound hole there you you probably need to mike that you may want to catch one on top it depending on the qualities of the very guitar and that would catch that and then if I'm doing vocals, you're going to catch the vocals to its high record it you really should go to that level even if you're doing a live show, you can, right? So I had a point on that whole thing and then also, if you ok so that's, what music and all that concept that there there's some weird quality, a video where people edit it's for sound it's based on the sound, they don't mess with the sound the words and everything actually, have you seen this? Where like people are talking to the camera and they do jump cuts so that the sentence is actually compact and they're talking normally like I am bubble bubble up above, they take out all the arms and all that kind stuff down the video is jumping and all that kind of stuff, but the audio's is what is the consistency and that's? Why? It's there's something about audio that makes it extremely important. If your audio was jumping around like that, people will go out, so there. I don't know, there's, no word for that. I don't know what the word is for that, but you will notice the audio quality before the video. Also, focus on that you could have a crappy videocamera and still make a music video. I think you'd be fine, I honestly d'oh.