Should you start a Vlog?
Let’s just put one thing into perspective. A lot of people under 25 don’t want to do cliche jobs such as being an accountant. Instead, they want to be a YouTuber/influencer etc. The world is being consumed by technology: Uber consumed the taxi business, Airbnb has disrupted the hotel industry, and social media is changing the way in which we communicate with each other. You’re either on the consumption side, or you’re being eaten. So which side of history do you want to be on?
We tend to consume content in 3 forms: audio, written, and video. Right now, you’re reading this article as written content. But with podcasts on the rise once more, there’s a very good chance that you’ll be consuming a lot of audio within the next few months. Likewise, we don’t tend to watch TV as much as we did 10 years ago. With a cell phone in our pocket, we have unlimited access to millions of hours of entertainment. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we are on the edge of a new technological shift. Therefore, in this article, we’re going to discuss how Vlogging could benefit your career within the music industry.
Vlogging is a “document vs create” process. After all, viewers simply want to see authenticity in the content that they’re viewing. Even if you may consider it boring, it serves as a video log of your journey towards success. Every highlight, every failure, every part of the journey is logged in video format so that it can be referenced and viewed by others. If you’re stuck on ideas for a vlog, you could do a documentation of your time in the studio, or coming up with new ideas for a song. The opportunities are literally endless. By just talking to the camera, you are speaking directly to the viewer – thus increasing the connection between artist and fan. But the most compelling reason to start a Vlog could potentially be your family. Unlike our grandparents who didn’t have such an opportunity, we have the ability to document our lives to an extremely detailed extent. Do you want to deny your grandchildren (and the rest of your family/friends) the chance of seeing your path to success?
By creating a video log, one is able to close the gap on the content not being produced. After all, it is extremely easy to transcribe the audio from a Vlog into written (blog post) and audio (podcast) content. By doing this, it allows you to optimize your brand for maximum audience engagement across multiple platforms.
Despite all of these amazing reasons to begin Vlogging, those of you who are financially motivated could see the opportunities within a Vlog to gain a source of revenue. Once you have the attention of hundreds (or maybe thousands), you’ll have the leverage to approach brands and offer product placement within your videos. This could be something subtle such as them providing you with camera equipment, or could even be you featuring their product in a video. The choice is yours.
Likewise, it provides a brilliant opportunity to promote your own music. Let’s create a scenario in which you are getting 100,000 views per video on your content. By putting your new song as the soundtrack to the video, and including the Spotify link in the description, it instantly enables the opportunity to generate streaming revenue and more exposure of your music to a large audience.
Importantly, forget your ego. At the end of the day, the market is bigger than your music brand. Get ahead of the market… before the market gets ahead of you.