The Rotor Blog
Introducing Video Subscriptions at Rotor
We've just made creating quality music video content more affordable than ever.
We've just made creating quality music video content more affordable than ever.
Six years ago, Rotor Videos was established to solve a very specific problem: musicians who needed music videos couldn't afford them or didn’t have the tools to make them.
Our team wanted to create a music video maker that was fast, easy and affordable to use—to help put new, up-and-coming, and independent musicians on a level playing field with signed artists and labels. Fast forward six years and Rotor has helped over 250,000 artists make over 600,000 videos, allowing them to take control of their own video content. And in doing so, we’ve found a way to help everyone that struggles with video creation—including the labels.
So what’s changed?
In short: the world’s appetite for video. We couldn’t have predicted how video has exploded in the last few years. When Rotor began, YouTube wasn’t an official music platform, Instagram had only introduced video and TikTok had yet to be dreamt up. Today, video is no longer the cherry on top but a necessity. Or as Chuck D said at this year’s Music Matters Conference, "If you're not releasing video, you're not releasing."
Today, video accounts for 47% of on-demand music consumption globally—outperforming paid and free audio streaming. And music videos make up 93% of YouTube’s most-watched videos. So it’s become even more difficult to build a fanbase, promote music, earn revenue, and grow careers without publishing a steady stream of video content.
If you're not releasing video, you're not releasing."—Chuck D, September 2020
Not only are music videos, lyric videos and promo videos expected, but they now also need to come in different shapes and sizes (we’re betting you’ve Googled phrases like vertical videos and square videos in the past few years). What’s more, independent musicians must now be the act as well as the music marketer and the director. Knowing how to shoot your own footage or which aspect ratio works with which social media platform has become its own art form. And all of that can be really hard work when you’re not a video or production professional and you just want to make great music.
So we’re constantly adding new features and re-evaluating how we do business to make sure our users get the best content with easy-to-use creative controls for the best price.
Why new pricing now
Rotor’s $25/each is perfect when you only need to make a music video now and then. But that can get pretty expensive when you need to make multiple videos to promote every single, album or gig. We realised our pricing structure could be improved to match the needs of ambitious artists in this new, video-centric world.
So to make videos more accessible to all musicians, we’ve introduced subscriptions to give artists access to a larger amount of quality videos at a more affordable price.
About Rotor’s subscriptions
With Rotor subscriptions, the choice is up to you. Every plan includes a useful mix of long-form and short-form videos (long for your full-length music and lyric videos and short to stay engaged on social with 30-second promos until your next major video). Our DIY plan starts at five long videos and unlimited 30-second videos for $19 per month. Need more? Go for our Pro or Indie Plans, which include 15 and 50 long videos each month along with unlimited 30-second videos. All unused videos roll over to your next billing period, and you can cancel your subscription or downgrade to a lower tier any time. For deeper savings, look at our annual plans, which are 30% less than paying for 12 months on a monthly basis.
We hope these changes make it easier than ever for you to get your music seen and heard by fans across social.