What Should I Do...

[Anderton]

...with my new album project? Here's why I ask.

 

Every year I do a new album project as a music video. It's one big file, like listening to an album side.BUT - doing the videos takes a lot of time. For my

[/b] album, to keep it simple, the "video" was just a song's title with a colored background while the song played. It didn't seem to get any more or less clicks than the ones with the involved videos.

 

My 2021 project is rock-oriented, and has lots of 60s influence. I'm trying to decide among:

 

(1) Doing it like Simplicity and just having the titles, or maybe the lyrics, and posting it as a 7-song album side.

(2) Like (1), but posting the 7 songs individually (although they have a preferred listening order)

(3) Do a full-length video album, with the video being the equivalent of a 60s light show.

(4) Same as (3), but with each song posted individually.

(5) Post a version that's an album like (1) with no fancy videos, but also, posting each song separately with a 60s light show-type video.

 

Help!!! What do y'all think?

[BMD]

To be honest with you, I've never really understood why you deem it necessary to do videos at all. That sort of thing is so 80s!

 

But if you're holding a gun to my head, I'd say #2. Less is more

[KuruPrionz]

I may or may not be like anybody else but typically when I play music on YouTube I will get it started and then go to other tabs to check stuff out.

 

In other words, I rarely look at music videos. I may pop in briefly here and there. It takes something visually engaging (and probably disturbing) to get my visual attention.

Further honesty, I mostly listen on my laptop speakers and not real loud.

 

Still further and even worse, I probably listen with intention to about 3 hours of music a month at the most. That includes the stuff that gets played on the speakers at stores, which does catch my ear once in a while.

 

Make of it what you will, I am not voting or choosing a category. Feel free to ignore, won't upset me in the slightest.

[RABid]

I vote for 5, but my first thought was to find video of the old Toaster screensaver to use as the background.

[Anderton]

To be honest with you, I've never really understood why you deem it necessary to do videos at all. That sort of thing is so 80s!

 

Well, I like doing videos For this album, I thought that a 60s light show for 60s-influenced music would be kind of appropriate.

 

But if you're holding a gun to my head, I'd say #2. Less is more

 

Hey, just because I live in the United States, doesn't mean I'd hold a gun to your head! You Brits are so prejudiced

 

But, I've sort of been leaning in that direction. If people listen in the "wrong" order, hey, that's okay.

 

I vote for 5, but my first thought was to find video of the old Toaster screensaver to use as the background.

 

I'm using visualizations for the backgrounds, like some of the visualizations for Windows Media Player, so they look pretty trippy.

 

If I combine what you and Mark say, then I'd post each song without a video, and each song with a video. It would be interesting to see which got more clicks. It's not just an album, it's a marketing test!

 

Make of it what you will, I am not voting or choosing a category. Feel free to ignore, won't upset me in the slightest.

 

I do think the days of people sitting down for 20 minutes, listening to music on a good system, and watching a video, are pretty much behind us. The only reason I keep pretending it isn't is because the people who like it, REALLY like it. It's something for the non-casual listeners, and there's not a lot of that going around these days.

 

I hope some more comments come in so I see if there's a consensus but so far it seems like individual songs is getting the nod, regardless of whether there's a video or not.

[Dave Bryce]

I would also choose #2. It"s easy to set those as an 'album' so you can designate the flow, of courseâ¦

 

I do, however, disagree with you that the days of people sitting down for 20 minutes and listening are not goneâ¦but I believe that"s a different discussion. My current vinyl obsession has me doing this again for the first time in years, and I love it to bits. It"s restored a way I used to listen to music, and I had no idea how much I missed it. That"s why my latest project is in the process of being pressedâ¦

â¦but again, I don"t wanna derail this thread.

 

dB

[KuruPrionz]

 

Make of it what you will, I am not voting or choosing a category. Feel free to ignore, won't upset me in the slightest.

 

I do think the days of people sitting down for 20 minutes, listening to music on a good system, and watching a video, are pretty much behind us. The only reason I keep pretending it isn't is because the people who like it, REALLY like it. It's something for the non-casual listeners, and there's not a lot of that going around these days.

 

I hope some more comments come in so I see if there's a consensus but so far it seems like individual songs is getting the nod, regardless of whether there's a video or not.

 

I suspect my tendencies are conditioned. I played 3 nights a week, 3 sets per night for decades. That is almost 7 hours of intense listening and playing per week. After a while, the last thing you want to do is listen to music.

I am an exception, rather than the rule.

[Geoff Grace]

I would also choose #2. It"s easy to set those as an 'album' so you can designate the flow, of courseâ¦

^ ^ ^

This.

 

As an example, feel free to click the YouTube link in my signature. It's to a playlist of my album. One track flows into the next in a designated order. The video portion of each song is my album cover.

 

Good luck with your release, Craig!

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[Anderton]

As an example, feel free to click the YouTube link in my signature. It's to a playlist of my album. One track flows into the next in a designated order.

 

I like the music But the problem is that all my projects except one (2019's

[/b]) have been continuous mixes, with crossfades between songs. However, that's not as crucial on the 2021 project, so maybe I'll separate them and treat them as singles.

[RABid]

If I am listening to Apple Music I tend to listen to an entire album. When watching YouTube I go for individual songs.

[Winston Psmith]

Just to throw a Monkey Wrench into the works, what about a cross between (2) and (3)? Individual songs/video album.

[Notes_Norton]

I prefer to listen to albums in their preferred order, but I understand that some people don't have that kind of attention span for music.

 

So I would vote for #2

 

Is there any way to do both #1 and #2?

 

Notes â«

[KuruPrionz]

I vote #5.

[Mighty Motif Max]

My vote is 4 or 5. I'd definitely think it would be best to have them available individually. I typically find an artist through one song first, rather than an entire album, and I end up looking for that particular song to find them. Later on I might get further into it and buy an album or something, but by and large most younger folks go song-by-song rather than album-by-album. Playlists of many songs from many different artists are very common.