One Thing You Probably Forget When Making A Budget for Your Music Video

Gone are the days of having to wait for a label to finance a big budget music video to play on MTV.

As we all know, all our favorite music videos are no farther than a YouTube search away. This has revolutionized the way artists, especially independent artists, supply music to their fans. This has been a blessing and a curse to the artist though.

It bestows the key to anyone to have the ability to reach the world, but it has caused such a surplus of noise to the airwaves that the listener, and now viewer, has an elevated expectation of quality of the product that they are expecting.

While you, as an independent artist, don’t need to drop between $100K to $500K on a music video like the Justin Bieber’s and Lady Gaga’s of the world, you still have a responsibility to create a video that is visually striking and catches the attention of potential fans that are oversaturated with choices.

I read an article on Hypebot where Three Indie Artists Offer DIY Music Video Production Tips. Alyse Black, Kinto Sol, and InfinitiRakz offered some quality tips such as:
• Deciding on the direction and location(s) of the video.
• Making a long-term investment into some decent equipment that you can use for future videos as well.
• Learning the basics of editing, production, lighting, and framing the camera to become more self-sufficient.
• Possibly finding a film student who is willing to direct the video to build their portfolio.

The biggest thing that jumped out at me though was when InfinitiRakz said, “Then you have to figure out what your budget is for the project — marketing, merchandise, videos etc.”

Marketing your music is an aspect of the industry that, from my experience, a lot of independent artists overlook when planning their budget. I’ve seen too many up-and-coming artists with so much potential throw their whole budget into coming up with a phenomenal product, but then they never get heard beyond their current fan base because they think the product will speak for itself. This begs the question how are you really going to get your music video seen by new fans once your music video is created. With said over saturation of the industry, your products fall by the wayside unless you invest into being discovered by new fans.

One way to promote and market your video is with Feature.fm's call to action feature. Your song will be played in playlists through affiliated streaming services, and you can focus your campaign around promoting your music video. Not only will you be marketing yourself and your music, but you will be marketing with a specific goal in mind, whether it be to promote your music video on YouTube, get followers on your social medias, or whatever you choose.
To utilize this tool: click here.