The Rotor Blog
Animate your album art with our new Artwork Video creator
At Rotor our mission is to make it easy, fast and affordable to create video content for the music industry. Our mission continues with an exciting update that makes it faster and easier than ever to create videos for your next release.
Introducing our new Artwork Video creator
We know for most artists, Rotor’s the place you come to for an affordable music video. With a library of over 1 million clips and editing styles made by professionals
But we also understand that videos come in many flavours. Every artist’s idea of a music video is different — but there’s one thing every release has in common — artwork.
So we’ve spent some time updating our tools with new easier-to-use desktop and mobile interfaces as well as a bunch of new styles for you to try on for size.
Watch this short video to jump straight in, or continue reading for some background as to why we think this can help with your next release!
What’s an Artwork Video?
Firstly, we realise that people have different names for these kinds of videos, some people call them Music Visualisers, label-folk call them Packshot videos, YouTube has its own term: Art Track videos. The list goes on.
But whatever you want to call them, they’re essentially videos that feature your album or cover art prominently, making them a simple, but effective way for you to get your music out there!
Traditionally, these videos have been pretty basic — usually just a static image with the track playing in the background. But we’re here to bring Artwork Videos into the 21st century.
Why make Artwork Videos?
Album art was invented in the late 1930s in order to help artists stand out in a crowded record store. Back then, album art competed for attention with other artist’s album art.
Photo credit: Daniel Cañibano, Unsplash
And even though almost 90 years have passed since it arrived, the purpose of album art remains the same: to encourage someone to listen to your music — but today, the context is very different.
It’s no secret that good album or cover art has always been a crucial component to the success of a release. And it doesn’t matter if it’s for a printed, physical vinyl cover, or for displaying your album art digitally on streaming platforms — cover art is arguably more important than at any time in history.
In the age of social media and streaming, your artwork competes with every piece of content on the timeline.
We love the way Rory Seydel put it on the Landr blog.
“Streaming didn’t destroy the need for album art. It made it more important.”
The way we see it, you should do everything you can to get as many eyes on your artwork as possible. Simply put: if you’re not being seen, you’re not being heard.
First impressions count
With practically everyone streaming music these days — it’s pretty likely that the cover art is a consumer's first interaction with an artist. Add to the fact that we’re taking information in faster than ever before, your album art has to be super eye-catching to draw their attention so you can turn them into a listener → then a fan.
Photo credit: Daniel Cañibano, Unsplash
Consistency is key
The best artists have a strong sense of visual identity. Whether it’s album art, Instagram posts, merch, Music Videos or Spotify Canvas videos. When done well, they all feel like extensions of the artist themselves.
Fontaines D.C. have altered their whole social presence so it’s consistent with the vibe of their upcoming release.
A consistent visual identity subconsciously tells the listener that you’re serious and have a clear vision which can help you get noticed by industry professionals like the press, or A&R people at labels. You never know who’s listening (or watching).
So how can Rotor help?
1. Get high-quality videos, fast
Why should you settle for boring, automatically generated videos from YouTube that aren't very engaging? Creating videos from your artwork with Rotor couldn't be any simpler. Just upload your audio and artwork and we’ll do the rest.
Other Form - Mirror Path
This example highlights the bass frequencies in the track, creating a glitchy bounce effect in the background. Our AI finds specific instruments, for example kick drums and snares then uses those features to create motion graphics, change colours and add effects synced to your track.
2. Get more bang for your buck
You’ve spent a lot of time getting your album art right, you can get even more value from it by recycling it into multiple videos for Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook.
Use our auto-resizing feature to create videos that get more engagement
Did you know💡: Square videos get over 80% more engagement than horizontal videos and 35% more views. And on Instagram, people watch vertical videos at least halfway through 187% more than square videos.
Pro Tip: Try sharing snippets of your upcoming track with a short artwork video in a teaser-like fashion — this will give fans an idea of what the album art looks like, meaning it will be more familiar when it drops on streaming platforms.
So the next time someone is scrolling through their timeline, they can get a taste of your track with the help of a cool video that vibes to the beat.
Check out these two examples from one of our favourite labels, Partisan Records. Promoting two upcoming releases from Fontaines D.C. and IDLES.
You can grow your fanbase by posting directly from Rotor to YouTube. The easiest and fastest way to release your music to YouTube. Now, there’s no excuse to upload static images to Youtube.
Give it a try!
I know we’re biased, but using our new Artwork Video creator is probably the simplest way to create a video for your next release. But don’t just take our word for it, here’s what one artist has to say about our new artwork video creator:
“It’s incredibly easy to create something of professional quality with Rotor — and the new artwork-based styles are so good — that there’s now no excuse to upload static images to YouTube anymore. I’m currently in the process of making Rotor Videos for my label’s entire catalogue.”
It’s time to bring your album art to life using our new Artwork Video creator. We can’t wait to see what you create!