Musicians are getting famous from short viral videos on TikTok.
Artists are finding creative ways to promote their songs through Instagram Stories.
Social video ads outperform other kinds of advertising almost every time.
Live streaming on Facebook and Twitch has become a regular means for audience engagement.
And YouTube? YouTube is still the absolute giant.
What does this mean? Video is king. And you’re gonna need a LOT of it.
Thanks to a new partnership between CD Baby and Rotor, the automated video-creation tool for musicians, you’ll have a much easier time creating good video content.
You’ll save money too. Rotor videos are very affordable, and with CD Baby you’ll get an additional 10% off.
How do you create good video content on a regular schedule without going broke or driving yourself crazy?
First, it’s important to remember that not every video needs to be a “proper” music video.
You can easily get mileage from:
- Lyric videos (which you can create very affordably by following THESE TIPS)
- Videos that use public domain or archival footage
- AI-generated music videos (more on this below)
- Live performance videos or in-studio sessions
- Art Tracks
- And “vlogs,” interviews, behind-the-scenes, and mini-documentaries
And in a social media world, sometimes the less produced something seems, the more apt people are to watch it. That’s good news for you and takes the pressure off making polished long-form videos.
But here’s the second bit of good news: Not every video needs to be loooong.
2020 is the year of short-form video; I’m talking TikTok, Instagram Stories, and even social ads on Facebook. There’s really no such thing as too much content these days.
The same tenants of YouTube success apply to short-form video — frequency, posting on a schedule, measuring engagement — but instead of the huge time or budget investment it takes to make a 3 or 4 minute video, all you really need now is 15 seconds, some interesting imagery, and a good song or message.
Creating short-form video is one of the best ways to:
- engage fans on a regular basis
- build awareness for your music/brand
- experiment with different ways to promote the same release, hook, concert, merch, etc.
Making videos should be among your main priorities when promoting a new release in 2020, and fortunately, social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are among the places where YOU are in control of driving revenue potential. That potential obviously increases when you post content consistently.
Here’s how to do that without breaking the bank or cracking your sanity…
“Batch” video content
Got a longer music video, live stream, or concert video? If you want to post the whole thing to YouTube, Facebook, and IGTV, you should!
Then be sure to chop your longer videos into:
- short Instagram posts
- Instagram Stories with overlaid text or lyrics
- 8-second looped video for Spotify’s Canvas feature
- TikTok clips
- Video show posters
- Teasers for an upcoming release
- and even 15 second video ads
All of these other short video elements give you new opportunities to grab listeners and further convey your brand/vibe.
Lean on automated video tools
Life is fast-paced, especially if you’re also cranking out songs, touring, or working a day-job. You don’t always want to make your own videos from scratch or pay a pro team thousands of dollars to get something good.
That’s why CD Baby is excited to partner with Rotor to help you build an affordable music video in minutes — for $25 or less. Rotor is a video creation tool that gives you AI assistance. No software or editing skills required.
To make a music video in minutes, here’s what you do:
- Upload your song
- Pick video clips from Rotor’s huge library, upload your own video, or both
- Choose from over 40 edit styles designed by professional directors and visual artists (you can view examples of each to figure out the best vibe for the song)
- Let Rotor do its magic, analyzing your song and selected footage
- Add any text overlays you want
- Preview the results
- If you like what you see, download a pro-quality video cut to your music
The videos you make with Rotor are 100% yours. You can share it wherever you like, and Rotor claims no rights once you’ve paid for the video it creates. Watch some examples created by Rotor customers.
Rotor is great for creating teasers, concert announcements, and more
Speaking of chopping videos into smaller short-form content pieces, I just used Rotor to create a long video for my upcoming single “Paper Angels.” Then I cut that video into ten smaller vertical videos (15 seconds each) to tease the release. I’ll have one video per day to post on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Here’s a reel of those daily teasers:
And here’s an AI-generated video I made a couple years ago when I first heard about Rotor:
Use social video apps for their creation tools
Even if you don’t have a presence on TikTok, Shapchat, or Instagram Stories, it’s possible to use those tools to MAKE a short-form video, and then post them on platforms where you ARE active (Facebook, YouTube, etc.)
Here’s one music video I stitched together from dozens of 6-second videos created in Snapchat:
And lastly, here’s a ridiculous video I made this morning in TikTok by combining a screen-capture video with some of their built in effects and filters (took me about 3 minutes):
@chrisrobleyJust your daily dose of #eelslap. Take 3 & call me in the morning. #eels#chrisrobleymusic#thisthisthis#ridiculous#pointlesswebsitesofyore
There’s a saying that you can’t have things be cheap, quality, AND quick. You gotta pick two.
But with short-form video taking over the world, video creation services like Rotor (and the simple tools you find within the social video apps themselves) are making it not just possible, but common, for good video to be made fast, and on a budget.
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