Stop Making Music Videos

The music video is dead. In this video I take you through why making a music video for your music isn't worth it for your time and energy and most importantly, what you should do instead to maximise attention for your single release.

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Serious? Let’s go.

LET’S GET SOCIAL:
📲 Instagram: @damiankeyes1
📲 TikTok: @damiankeyes

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👇 ABOUT ME:
Hey! I’m Damian Keyes and I've worked with musicians every day of my life for the past 20 years. The internet is de ply untrusting understandably and here is my background so you can have the full picture.

When I was 18, I was signed to a major label and at 23 I co-founded a Music University in Europe called BIMM (valued at $300M). I’m also a bass player, I’ve played for a number of artists including Eric Clapton, Alanis Morrisette and Billy Cobham. I initially retired at 30, but realised that life gets boring if you’re not building!

I have always been in-between the music industry and education which is how I ended up building my YouTube channel - I’ve been teaching artists how to release music long before it was a ‘niche’! I now educate artists around the world with my Academy, YouTube channel and Social Agency.

It’s great to meet you and looking forward to working together on your music!

[DamianKeyes]

So... What do you think? Am I right, or very very wrong? ⚠

[ATLXNTIS]

Nah I think music videos are still important, I don't care if anyone likes them or if anyone watches them. They are just a way to express myself

[AltijdAlex]

I get the point, but music videos are an artform in itself and can really elivate the meaning of a song or add meaning to it. I'd hate to see music videos disappear entirely. Of course a band just playing the song with some cool camerawork doesn't add too much, but there are lots of music videos that make songs so much more special.

[Howdytoons]

Our music videos do very well. We do not pay to promote them. We use YouTube to promote our content on Spotify.

[therumjacks]

All great points- respect. Here are my reasons FOR music videos: A. It basically says "Hey look at us, we're pros!" and looks good for festival promoters and booking agents. B. It's a great way to establish a brand for the band. C. THEN it gives you a bunch of professional footage to cut down for short form content (which we admittedly slack on).

[jacquelinevanbierk]

I think music videos are still a great way to build a fanbase and more importantly express yourself as an artist. I love making them, but I agree, short content is the way to get them to come to you. But I think not just a short music video, a well thought out story behind each video.

[ScarsandShadows]

I write a lot of sad songs and doing music videos is fun, but it is a chore. I find that it's my way of expressing trauma and somewhat cathartic. I used to get upset because I wasn't getting many views but now have chosen to keep doing them for myself. Great advice and thanks for sharing it.

[prschuster]

The solution:
don't expect to make a lot of money with your art. That's a shot in the dark. Just do it because it means something to you. Every society has had art and music. It's part of our cultural heritage. It's not just a business.

[JohanBakkeMusik]

I think you're right, if you only think about marketing. On the other hand, it's fun to make music videos and that's my reason to continue doing it. 😂

[brianmichaelhinds]

My latest music video generated more money than I invested in. For some artists like me being a dancer and therefore very visual it is crucial for marketing in my opinion to make music videos

[sloenmusic]

I enjoy creating videos for all my songs, this is how I consider them a complete work. It's not about being the most efficient, that's simply my vision for my project.
As a bonus, the music video can be repurposed to make shorts/reels/tik tok, and used for the Spotify Canvas.

[Lay_Lines]

The best discovery is finding a new artist via audio before the video, with no influence, just your thoughts and perspective, feelings and sitting on the frequency of the artist and your connection to it. This needs to come back as discovery is so beautiful especially in music.

[OmarAfuniTV]

Solid advice as always, Damien. I think the music video should now be seen as more of an extension of the artist’s self expression than a marketing tool. It creates a deeper connection with the viewer/listener. Videos on TikTok are the better marketing tool, but they also create another problem which is an abundance of boring mediocre content on social media. If an artist’s song is not strong enough, it doesn’t matter whether they make a music video or 100s of TikToks around it. We need more quality rather than quantity.

[librationmusic]

I saw this just AFTER filming a video with a friend for a collaboration, and creating a few music videos with AI that I'm still going to release lol, but as someone who is releasing music again for the first time in years this definitely makes sense. I'm in my infancy stage of learning this modern world but am getting much more engagement on personalized reels than I have trying to promote the video(s) I've had on YT. And there are a ton of ways to be creative with video reels now and I'm trying to shift my creative brain towards that viewpoint vs thinking of it as some general ad or content. Appreciate these videos!

[DodaGarcia]

Very interesting perspective, Damian, and as a highly music video-focused artist I was very intrigued. I see the merit in the idea of focusing our effort and budget on what's going to generate more results, but the part that doesn't quite track for me is the given that the music video exists mainly to drive people to listen on Spotify.

In my experience it's been the opposite: of course we want streams, but aside from streams paying historically little (although still more than music videos, of course, which usually pay nothing), there's the downside that songs being streamed don't go very far towards creating fans for the artist. My music is currently on some good playlists on Spotify and I average over 5K listeners every month, but very few of those people get so piqued by the music that they feel compelled to find out more about me. They listen to the song as part of the playlist and sometimes enjoy it enough to save it to their own library, but it's very difficult to make them cross the gap from casual listener to an actual fan, as in, someone who will pay for the more profitable endeavors such as merch and concert tickets.

So the way I've been looking at music videos is mostly as a brand-building tool, as you mentioned at a point in your video. They do a great job of communicating what the artist is about, what they look like, and the visual universe where their music exists. But yeah, it definitely has been extremely hard to get people to actually watch them.

[DaveDuffyMusic]

You’re absolutely right, everything you say is what I’ve come to experience myself as fact

[wonderwheels]

I wonder why people is making synthwave, 90s revival, NWOTHM, old school death metal, new prog and all this revival/nostalgia genres. Why do artists are so nostalgic, while we live an en era in which even mainstream music is worth nothing in the eyes of the public, and it's mainly listened (the correct word should be "heard") as background of some dancing dog on TikTok? Those blokes still keep making videos and, even more absurdly, these mysterious, unexplicable affairs called ALBUMS. What are these crazy dudes thinking? And by the way, what this strange word, "art", does mean?

[neonyves]

Its crazy how in 2023 you can be on a label and they'll essentially tell you to promote yourself and do everything yourself

[toofattoskate]

You are 100% correct. consistency, quality and brevity is the name of the game. I spent over a month last year on a music video, editing filming etc. Got around a thousand views on YT. This year i spent 3 minutes filming myself playing bass, quick edit / filter in Capcut and Bam...2000 views on Tiktok. Most people don't care how slick and cinematic video is. I see creative geniuses everyday on Instagram with hardly any comments or likes. No one cares as they are spoilt for choice and bombarded with so much content.

[yamijvevo]

Always here and I come with a pen and a note book to learn and Damian for always being my teacher and a lot have learnt from you as a raising musician