How a Music Video Can Get You Signed

Learn the key role music videos play in helping you promote your music, build your fanbase, and send the right signals to labels.  

Learn the key role music videos play in helping you promote your music, build your fanbase, and send the right signals to labels.  

If you’re dreaming of becoming a successful musician, securing a record deal is probably sitting pretty high on your priority list. There are plenty of tips out there to help you get a record deal. As we’re music video experts, we’re going to focus on what this brings you as an artist and how it can make you a more attractive prospect. Here’s how a music video can get you signed.

 

Is a Label Actually What You Want?

Getting signed by a label might be the dream, but is it right for you? Only a fraction of signed artists actually ‘make it'. The chance of success is small. This means approaches to labels are changing. Artists now look for smaller services as opposed to full deals.

So what do you want from a record label?

It could be distribution, a recording contract or even sync deals.

In most cases, the greatest value a label can bring is its music marketing and promotional clout. This is what they’re experts at. Labels possess the relationships required to distribute and promote music effectively for any specific genre, with specific DSPs.

A label can get you featured on a coveted Spotify playlist that catapults you directly into your target consumer’s radar. They can also help you team up with relevant influencers who’ll help boost your number of streams and downloads.

So, what can you offer a label?

Labels Think Like Investors

You need to catch the eye of a label. To do this, you need to demonstrate that you’ve already started to build your career. In the current digital economy, labels are thinking and acting like investors. They want to see a developing and thriving ‘business’. You need to give them a reason to be interested in you.

If you can already demonstrate a strong following, fanbase and market validation, you’ve got a claim to getting signed.

YouTube is Your Validation

YouTube is by far the largest music streaming service in existence. 85% of YouTube users go there for music. It’s also a highly coveted way of discovering fresh, new artists. If you can achieve a high number of YouTube views, this proves fans want to hear your music – it also highlights the potential opportunity for royalty revenues.

In addition to the number of Spotify streams you get, ticket sales and social media following, proving you have the potential to generate ad revenue as well as revenue from YouTube’s Content ID system will greatly interest record labels.

Presenting different forms of video content on your YouTube channel (e.g. short promos, lyric videos and music videos) demonstrates your ability to create assets to get yourself discovered – and essentially earn royalties.

 

You may also like: How to Get More YouTube Views to Your Music Video

 

Where Can You Create Cheap, High-Quality Videos?

Here, of course! You don’t need to hire an expensive studio, buy professional equipment and commission a video editor to get a top-quality video for your music! Here at Rotor, we believe creating a music video should be hassle-free, cheap and easy.

You don’t need any previous experience or a thick wallet to get started. Just select your video style, add/choose some clips you want featured, edit your text and preview what we’ve designed for you. It couldn’t be simpler! Find out more about how to get started with your first Rotor video here.