I Wouldn’t Lie To You

This week I spoke with two videographers, one from Central Florida and one from South Florida. Both used to play music full time. I knew their experience as a gigging musician would help me accomplish my goal. The goal was simple. I needed to find someone to capture professional demo videos for our roster. About 5% of our entire lineup has a pro-quality demo video that I am comfortable sending over to our clients.

Before I made the call, I was thinking that we could work out some type of deal. I’d send them a bunch of musicians who needed quality demos and they would give the musicians 10% off the final price. It would be a win-win for everyone. Boy was I wrong. Both film crews told me that they were straying away from working with musicians! This blew me out of the water, seeing the amount of work the market sector needed.

Why? How come?”Musicians are too cheap to pay the $500 to $600 for the work. And they are too unorganized when it comes to filming. “Our time is better spent elsewhere!” I understand. Dishing out hard-earned money in uncertain times is risky. I feel the same way when my website designer sends a request for content followed by an invoice.

I have always felt that if you and I are going to grow and get better, we need do our best to communicate feedback. I put together this message because you can’t fix a problem if you don’t know that the problem exists. The only way to truly get better is to receive honest feedback.

In 2021 video serves as the Modern-day business card. The work that you want to capture, that dream stage you want to play on. Your tour of a lifetime is waiting on that well-thought-out and put-together music or demo video. For the cost of a couple of gigs, You could be landing higher paying opportunities and attracting new fans. The cost associated with creating new content should be viewed as a business expense.

Let us take a look at some stats on video consumption from Hubspot

Video, The Modern Day Business Card

• 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of video.
• Mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year
• By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic
• 78% of people watch online videos every week and 55% view online videos every day
• 92% of users watching videos on mobile will share them with others. (Wordstream)

Viewing the data is important if we plan on growing our service and fanbase. Video has morphed into a pivotal role in today’s society. Corporations large and small are using promotional films to market, advertise and sell. My insight into the way consumers buy entertainment has formulated from countless conversations. The folks spending money and making decisions want to see and hear what they are buying. They want the process to be as painless as possible. When I submit a video to a corporate client, they want to see the following:

• A clear visible video production of the service or product they are purchasing.
• Clean and crisp audio of the entertainer.
• A solid sample of what they are looking for. (For example, they don’t want to see a rock video when in the market for a wedding signer.)
• A recent video.

Place yourself in the shoes of the client. Does this video coincide with what type of service I am selling? Is it easy to digest (one direct link.) How can I make it better? Do I have a call to action? You are extremely talented and I want to see you succeed. You have the potential to do great things. But to move mountains you must first clarify your message, and then change the way you see things. Let’s wipe the camera lens off and start filming.

P.S. Our way…..over-due promotional video will be released the second week of March

Feel free to share your recent video with a link in the comments.