So yeah, you probably know this, but video is king. Not only is video king but if you’re not pushing video on a regular basis you’re basically wasting your time. Just create a simple live video with your band on Facebook. Seriously do it and then go check how many views it has tomorrow. It will be one of your most interacted with pieces of content ever. Period. It’s important, it’s constantly present and it’s the best way to ensure that people stay interested. Don’t think I’m just saying you need to really a ton of music videos, that costs a ton of money, that’s a lot to ask of a random band. What I’m saying is just film random moments in practice, talk about your friends bands and go from there. This is where the real interest and value is going to start to generate. Once you start to get attention directed at you then you get to have the long term success you were looking for and in turn evolve that into financial gain and artistic freedom.
Now it’s important to realize why video content is so effective. This is for two main reasons. The first is that Zuckerberg and the Facebook/Instagram gang are hoping to get more traction with their video content since they are competing with Youtube. This is essential for them if they want to remain profitable over the long term and become a part of the infrastructure of the internet as Youtube has. On top of this though, the content you interact with is optimized based on the content people spend the most time with. That’s a big part of why guys like Tai Lopez or those video game commentators do three hour long videos because the few people who watch it all the way through make them substantially more visible within the algorithm. The more people who are spending time with your content the better. That’s why I do the daily Bacons Bits on my Instagram to teach bands about marketing (Check me out @mattbacon666) it means that people are spending time so they will be exposed to anything I post.
So where does video content come form? Obviously you have music videos, but you also have a video camera in your pocket all the time. You just need to flip it out and film as much as possible. Be sure to create video for all sorts of platforms too. It needs to be formatted for the platform which can be the real issue. Things that work for an Instagram story don’t for an Instagram Feed or Facebook. This is actually really aggravating since obviously you want to film as much as you can horizontally. But you can’t do that with Stories, though fortunately the platform is so fast and ephemeral that you can work it out and just film a quick little bit if need be. I want to point out that I am not advocating ‘gaming the algorithm’. What I am focusing on is gaining peoples attention and doing the best you can in order to ensure that people pay attention over an extended period. If you focus on the use of video to keep drawing folks in, even in a mindless way then you will start winning over attention.
Something that I have been spending some time learning about today has been rapid build music video services. The two that really struck out to me where Rotor and Adobe Spark. Rotor is cool because you can literally choose a set of their prefilmed high quality videos and then they will automatically edit your video together and it will look fucking amazing. I tested it out today and I got a pro looking video just by spending literally 5 minutes half assing my way through their design wizard. Sure it costs 30 bucks to download the 1080p version, but guess what, a 30 dollar pro looking music video is not a lot at all and it creates content that people are going to meaningfully interact with. Once you start to have some sort of content that ties into the visual lexicon, the brand of your band then you are starting to achieve new and potent ways forward. The tools are out there, you just need to, at times, be willing to spend a few bucks in order to ensure it keeps coming out at a high quality.
I want to really emphasize though that the bar is extremely low. The Bacons Bits that I film have thousands of viewers all over the world, but guess what, the people who watch them don’t care that it’s literally just me filming on my porch. You just need to get out there and create and people are going to appreciate it. You need to be able to just generate content free of ego. Sure Metallica’s rehearsal videos look really good, but guess what, they have a video team, you have, at best a very dedicated significant other. This is just the way it is. So take the time to film moments of rehearsals and even your day to day. Ask fans who are at your show and who are you friends to film stuff. Don’t post blurry videos to your feed, but there’s no reason they can’t go in a story. Just constantly think about video creation and it will come to you far easier than you might have ever expected it could have.
I think I have sufficiently beaten it into y’all that video is important. This is how people interact with content now. You are day trading in attention and you need to realize that in many ways videos are the primary form of currency on the internet. If you’re not trading in it you’re like someone who is holding cowrie shells wondering why they can’t trade for US dollars. This isn’t fucking complicated. All you need to do is turn on the camera and see what happens. I know shyness is a thing and this is an emotional and difficult thing for some people but the only way you will get better is by just doing it. Get out there, crush it and see what happens. People will dig it. I guarantee it.