3 Reasons Every New Song Needs A Lyric Video

If you're releasing music, you should absolutely be releasing lyric videos for each song. Not a cheezy slideshow with the lyrics, but an actually cool lyric video. Today I want to share three reasons why you need to release a lyric video for every song you release.

Reason #1: Every New Song Needs As Much Content As Possible

As you probably know by now, putting out a song isn't just about the song anymore. It's about creating a cycle of hype and awareness. In order to do that, you need a lot of content to share. You can't just make a single Instagram post about your new song and expect it to go viral. Even your most loyal friends and family will miss that.

I hear artists complain that after their song has been out for a few days that they feel bad still “spamming” their followers about the new song. So the solution is to have something else you're saying than just “go stream our new song,” right? If you drop a lyric video 5-7 days later, you now have something new to talk about while building momentum behind the new song.

Plus, more content on YouTube = more discoverability. While Spotify and Apple Music are great for you as a listener to find new music suggestions, it also tends to favor more established artists. YouTube is a much more level playing ground for the algorithm to suggest you – especially if you have a cool or unique video (more on that in the 3rd point).

Reason #2: Lyric Videos Are Cost-Effective Compared to Regular Music Videos

Obviously traditionally-shot music videos are awesome (and you should 100% do them if you have the budget). But if you're going for something more creative or cinematic, it won't be cheap to make. Think about the time and energy it would take to find someone to produce the video, find locations, hire actors (or even rope in your busy friends), cameras, lighting, actually drive to the locations, edit the footage, yada yada yada. That's gonna add up quickly!

Even if you go the free route and “hire” a college student, you're probably going to get something that looks like it was shot by a college student!

For a lyric video, your dollar goes waaaay farther. Instead of paying for all the logistics of a shoot, you're probably just going to be paying someone on their laptop. You're still going to need to pay someone with some talent a fair rate, but there's way less overhead for someone who is working away at home by themselves compared to a big shoot.

Reason #3 Lyric Videos Allow You to be More Creative When on a Budget

One of my favorite things about lyric videos is that there are no limits to what you can do. If your lyric video person is a legit animator, you can make it look like you're a big established artist – not another local band singing into the camera after hiring a film student from the community college.

$1000 could get you lots fun animations, texting flying around, flames/explosions, etc in a cool cartoony style. It's purely up to your imagination at that point.

Lyric videos don't have to be boring throwaway pieces of content. You have an opportunity to make something iconic. Here's an example of a really creative music video:

This is an incredible music video. I remember watching it five times in a row when it came out. It got me excited for the new music and it also reinforced the vibe/brand of that era of Taylor Swift.

I'm sure Taylor payed way more than $1000 for that, but still it shows that music videos can be captivating!