In a 2013 online video marketing survey report by ReelSEO (now known as Tubular Insights), the following were established.
- 82% of marketers confirmed that video marketing had a positive impact on their business
- 93% of marketers surveyed are using video in their campaigns
- 60% are using video for email marketing
- 84% are using video for website marketing
- 70% are optimising video for search engines
- 70% of marketers will increase spend on video
Perceived barriers to using video for marketing purposes includes the high cost of video production, and concerns on quality of videos produced.
Fast forward to the end of 2017, videos have become a part of our online social identity. Social media giant Facebook, which also owns Instagram since 2012, introduced Facebook Stories in the first quarter of 2017, signalling a shift from text status updates to videos engagement.
According to findings, people now watch 1 billion hours of Youtube videos per day. Video production has become accessible to anyone who has a smartphone, and 4K video recordings are no longer a professional’s game. While some may complain about the poor quality of audio recordings on smartphones, technological advances in recent years have managed to overcome such challenges using consumer level add-ons like the SAMSON Go Mic Mobile, that is designed to turn the smartphone into a pro-level video camera capable of capturing high definition audio anywhere.
How does this matter for the serious musicians in our local context?
In a survey conducted by the National Arts Council, under the item of preferred platforms to listen to music and discover new music, it was discovered that 2 in 3 Singaporeans listen to music by watching videos on online platforms like YouTube (66%). It also corroborated a key finding from the 2015 Population Survey on the Arts, which reported that access to the arts in Singapore was enhanced through digital media, driven mostly by the consumption of music performances online (73 per cent).
Social media, especially, served as a powerful tool for people to discover and experience the arts. All being said, it is clear that outreach to audiences must leverage on online video engagement, if the trend continues. While ticket sales are still relatively strong for live music performances, there is much potential to be tapped for the worldwide online audiences. Instead of bringing audiences to the concert hall, musicians should explore bringing music to the audiences, wherever they are, whenever they can, and continue to be relevant to audiences.
Riding on the smart nation wave, it is about time that we as a music community, leverage on technology to improve on our audience engagement effort.
Case Study:
TwoSet Violin was founded in 2014 by the two Australian musicians Brett Yang and Eddy Chen, which first went viral with their funny and sometimes painfully accurate videos depicting life as a classical musician.
With over 300,000 followers on social media and over 70 million views worldwide, TwoSet inspires young musicians with humour and a relatable ‘imperfectness.’ After a successful Kickstarter campaign in April 2017, TwoSet started their journey as the first ever crowd-funded classical world tour.
The two committed to nonstop busking and sleeping on the streets of Sydney until they hit their goal of $50,000—which they achieved in just 5 days. Their World Tour has hit the ground running with already sold out shows in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, London, New York, Los Angeles, and Oslo, with upcoming stops in Warsaw, and Vienna.
The first video which they had uploaded onto Youtube is their Inception Time Violin Cover (11 Feb 2014), which had garnered 57k likes. In the same year, they had uploaded 8 other videos, which also employ conventional music video production techniques that mainly showcased themselves as musicians, and couple of images on the music they were performing.
2015 sparked the first change when they introduced humour and storylines into their music videos. In the process, they created 23 videos, among which “How to Troll in the Orchestra! Use at your own risk” garnered 192K likes. In 2016, they created 27 videos in total, and outdone their 2016 number of likes record with “Prodigy Reaction Video” that garnered 267K likes.
Fast forward to 2017, they had produced a staggering 159 videos on Youtube. At the end of the day, music performance is meant to engage the audience. The number of audiences engaged by TwoSet Violin through their videos is definitely greater than if they were to just remain as full time musicians with Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.
[blockquote author=”Shawn Mendes” ]I think I was just bored one summer afternoon, and I decided to post a little video of me singing and playing guitar out of tune.[/blockquote]Shawn Mendes is a Canadian singer and songwriter. He attracted a following in 2013 when he began posting song covers on the video-sharing application Vine.
The following year, he caught the attention of artist managers Andrew Gertler and Island Records A&R Ziggy Chareton, which led to him signing a deal with the record label. He just had his SHAWN MENDES ILLUMINATE WORLD TOUR SINGAPORE on 9th Dec 2017 to a sold-out crowd of more than 5000 at The Star Theatre.
References:
- http://tubularinsights.com/2013-video-marketing-business-survey-trends-report
- https://www.singlegrain.com/video-marketing/just-stats-science-video-engagement
- https://www.twosetviolin.com
- https://www.nac.gov.sg/media-resources/press-releases/National-Music-Consumption-Survey-2017
- http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/shawn-mendes-melts-hearts-at-firstsingapore-concert
A contributing editor at TBP.