Just Press Play: Local Musicians and Video Marketing

More and more, I’ve noticed booking agents asking artists to submit links to professional videos before confirming gigs. In the new insta-era, promoters not only want to hear you are good enough for the job, they also want visual proof. Although high-quality videos can be difficult to afford and time-consuming to create, many local musicians realize the investment is worthwhile. On a larger scale, we’ve seen highly successful viral marketing campaigns and album releases where videos have played a major role. Last December, Beyonce released an album entirely online with no prior promotion. A “visual album” was also released that included a music video for each track on the album as well as behind-the-scenes snippets and interviews. This month, Weird Al Yankovic saw his new album reach #1 on the Billboard Charts for the first time in his career, thanks to a video marketing campaign that featured 8 videos in 8 days.

I’m glad to see videos making a comeback for several reasons. Whether it’s a fully produced and scripted version or a simple live recording, videos can help an artist elaborate on the message and/or meaning of their song. This makes the music that much more relatable to the audience. The artist-to-listener experience is so crucial and so personalized – videos really help to develop that dialogue. Videos also allow  for collaboration between artists, musicians, actors, filmmakers, etc. When creative people get together, magic happens! Here are a couple of recent video releases I’ve seen from local musicians. What are some of your favorite videos from the San Diego scene?