Marketing a Cover Band-How much video is 'too' much video?

[wheresgrant3]

For three years now I've been producing regular video for my cover band in the form of gig recaps, video promos and behinds the scenes footage. So how much video have I produced? As of today over 180 short videos covering 50 + shows over 3 years from 7-10 venues. Originally I did it to rise above the noise of a plethora of other bands all covering the same setlist material and venues. My motto was 'why tell people what we're doing... lets show them'. The body of work I'm pretty proud of in the fact that I've been consistent and tried to always bring something new with my features. I've tried to keep these videos under 3 minutes (sometimes under 2mins) never dwelling on just one scene or song too long. Really it's something I want someone to watch once and maybe watch again. The problem is the most exciting moments usually come from the same familiar venues and and moments in the setlist that just completely deliver. Now I fight with the notion that I'm just tiring people by releasing this material when I know there are new people every week at our gigs that maybe has never seen this stuff before.

 

[video=vimeo;40685706]

 

[video=vimeo;41339099]

 

[video=vimeo;34394651]

 

I have a channel where I keep most of the video I've produced on Vimeo. I keep stats and right now the videos have been viewed over 44,000 times with 18,500 finishes (that's uninterrupted viewing). It's been successful in branding the band more than anything. I don't get much feedback from people we send this to on FB (over 4300 friends) however with hours I'm using racking up close to 100 views per video... with a week 300-500. Analytics tell me the majority of views are located within 350 square miles... which is what we want... I don't care if someone in South Africa sees the video, they aren't going to hire us for a wedding or a nightclub event. But the owner of a club, a mere 100 miles away will.

 

I'm looking for objective opinions... (probably bad idea on a musicians forum ) I'm just looking to see what other people think. Does it sell the band... is it an important piece in marketing us?

[TIMKEYS]

I have a channel where I keep most of the video I've produced on Vimeo. I keep stats and right now the videos have been viewed over 44,000 times with 18,500 finishes (that's uninterrupted viewing). It's been successful in branding the band more than anything. I don't get much feedback from people we send this to on FB (over 4300 friends) however with hours I'm using racking up close to 100 views per video... with a week 300-500. Analytics tell me the majority of views are located within 350 square miles... which is what we want... I don't care if someone in South Africa sees the video, they aren't going to hire us for a wedding or a nightclub event. But the owner of a club, a mere 100 miles away will. I'm looking for objective opinions... (probably bad idea on a musicians forum ) I'm just looking to see what other people think. Does it sell the band... is it an important piece in marketing us?

 

Its like jackin off ,,, if it feels good for you keep doing it. You might go blind though ,, so when your glasses get thick as coke bottles you might want to really slow down or quit.

[sventvkg]

Ok....Well you are selling a Party Band........Now you want the cold hard truth? I was a Pro gigging over 200 gigs a year for 20 years all over the world actually just so ya know where i'm coming from....Here it is:

 

No one give a {censored} about a cover band and MOST people certainly don't go out to see you..They go out for the party, the venue and who's gonna be there, to get laid, to blow off steam etc..You guys look like you are doing a GREAT job helping to facilitate that and in my opinion that's the job of a cover band..So good job!

 

I don't know if you really need to "sell" yourselves other than to try to book some big party type events in summer etc...Fans don't really come out to see cover bands unless they are girls who wanna {censored} the guys, friends and family, or crazy groupies who are looking for something to latch onto! So, look at these videos as a little extra promotion special sauce that a venue can use to help market the night..They should have links to your videos up on their FB and twitter when promoting upcoming gigs because you are definitely selling a party.

 

So it's really a cost/benefit thing as far as keeping up with new vids..It's true, how fresh can they be? You're doing a setlist of material and playing the same rotation of places. I wouldn't update your vids so often because you don't really need to..At this point you probably have enough up to showcase what you guys do..

 

That's my .02.

[wheresgrant3]

 

Ok....Well you are selling a Party Band...Nothing great about the musicianship to showcase and the singer is a great frontman and very mediocre vocalist so you're not selling the musical experience. I'm sure you know this already.....Now you want the cold hard truth? I was a Pro gigging over 200 gigs a year for 20 years all over the world actually just so ya know where i'm coming from....Here it is: No one give a {censored} about a cover band and MOST people certainly don't go out to see you..They go out for the party, the venue and who's gonna be there, to get laid, to blow off steam etc..You guys look like you are doing a GREAT job helping to facilitate that and in my opinion that's the job of a cover band..So good job! I don't know if you really need to "sell" yourselves other than to try to book some big party type events in summer etc...Fans don't really come out to see cover bands unless they are girls who wanna {censored} the guys, friends and family, or crazy groupies who are looking for something to latch onto! So, look at these videos as a little extra promotion special sauce that a venue can use to help market the night..They should have links to your videos up on their FB and twitter when promoting upcoming gigs because you are definitely selling a party. So it's really a cost/benefit thing as far as keeping up with new vids..It's true, how fresh can they be? You're doing a setlist of material and playing the same rotation of places. I wouldn't update your vids so often because you don't really need to..At this point you probably have enough up to showcase what you guys do.. That's my .02.

 

 

Thanks... those $02 I complete agree with. This is a business, not a band per se. But we've been managing this business now 10 years. Yet there is always competition out there... 100 stands all selling basically the same hot dog. We came up with the video idea to rise above the 'noise'. In my market we're a top draw and have negotiated extremely good pay as an independent act. Because of the somewhat secluded market we're in we've been able to build a consistent draw... I hesitate to call it a fanbase, because your right, other than a handful or friends or socially awkward people with no social lives the rest are there for the 'party'. In fact I believe we draw a higher percentage of people that would never consider seeing a band in the first place. I don't believe the videos introduce us to new fans, followers but they do provide reinforcement and that what keeps people coming out over the weekend. As a veteran band on the scene I believable we could use all of the reinforcement we can muster to stay on top of competitive bookings.

[Vito Corleone]

If you stopped all the regular videos completely your regular fan base might begin to wonder "what's up?" and if the band is getting lazy. OTHO, if you cut the frequency with which you released them to 1/2 or 1/3, I doubt many would really notice or care. Sure, a couple of people might, but likely not enough to make any difference to the bottom line. The regulars will come out whether there's one video a week or one video a month. And the potential private event clients aren't going know whether that newest video they are looking at was made yesterday or last February.

 

You say it's a business, not a band. Cool. So what you need to decide is what is ROI is for your time and effort here. At what point does making all these videos really stop helping the band and become just a vanity project on your part?

[wheresgrant3]

 

If you stopped all the regular videos completely your regular fan base might begin to wonder "what's up?" and if the band is getting lazy. OTHO, if you cut the frequency with which you released them to 1/2 or 1/3, I doubt many would really notice or care. Sure, a couple of people might, but likely not enough to make any difference to the bottom line. The regulars will come out whether there's one video a week or one video a month. And the potential private event clients aren't going know whether that newest video they are looking at was made yesterday or last February. You say it's a business, not a band. Cool. So what you need to decide is what is ROI is for your time and effort here. At what point does making all these videos really stop helping the band and become just a vanity project on your part?

 

 

It's a band... we are always looking at the business end in terms of managing and marketing.

 

Since January I've produced 8 videos. I've certainly slowed down and plan to keep this pace into the far future. If I produce 1-2 pieces per month I'm happy with that. A few regional bands have tried to 'copy' the same theme, but they don't have the equipment or experience to produce something as consistent. Producing the video to promo upcoming shows has endeared us to club owners in a big way. So I don't regret all the material we've done so far... it's helped us on the business end. In the past 4 years we've been increasing pay while other bands are accepting less pay. It's our way of 'going the extra mile'. We once had a bar manager chide us because we didn't create a FB event soon enough for his liking, as if we dropped the ball on promotion... and then I pointed to the 17 videos we produced on his clubs behalf which had more than 4,000 views. That shut him up pretty fast.

 

I have an easy workflow. Many of these projects take me 1-2 hours best. Eventually I'd like to start producing stuff for weddings. Not suggesting that we offer videographer services... but we can offer some highlight video as part of our package.

[Vito Corleone]

 

Since January I've produced 8 videos. I've certainly slowed down and plan to keep this pace into the far future. If I produce 1-2 pieces per month I'm happy with that. A few regional bands have tried to 'copy' the same theme, but they don't have the equipment or experience to produce something as consistent. Producing the video to promo upcoming shows has endeared us to club owners in a big way. So I don't regret all the material we've done so far... it's helped us on the business end. In the past 4 years we've been increasing pay while other bands are accepting less pay. It's our way of 'going the extra mile'. We once had a bar manager chide us because we didn't create a FB event soon enough for his liking, as if we dropped the ball on promotion... and then I pointed to the 17 videos we produced on his clubs behalf which had more than 4,000 views. That shut him up pretty fast.

 

 

So then why are you worried that what you're doing is maybe too much?

[scarecrowbob]

Lemme put on my marketing dude hat and think about ROI here.

 

If there is a social aspect to it, it might be an okay investment of your time. Folks really like to see pictures of themselves and will share that material. That sharing is how you market in a social media channel.

 

However, if you look at the time spent versus what you're getting back, you might find that it is an expensive way to generate engagement. I suspect that even if it doesn't take a lot of time to do, over the year it actually does take quite a chunk of effort, and that you're probably not seeing that return to you.

 

The other reason that you want video content is to actively market to prospective venues. From that standpoint, I'd think that having that many videos is positively harmful.

 

When you hit a new lead, you don't want them to see anything other than your best, most polished work, as they take that as the baseline for how they are evaluating your performance. So you're giving up a kind of advantage that you have, in that by giving them many possible things to look at they might not choose the best of them.

 

I think the idea of scaling them back is probably a good idea; just my opinion.

[daddymack]

For a regional cover band, a video 'recap' of the month's activities isn't over-kill...once a month...8 over five months seems a bit excessive, though.

Do these generate additional gigs? Maybe not, especially since you are already well established in your market.

Viewcount wise, your 'following' may be showing the vids to their friends, so that is okay...may generate additional bodies at the venue next time.

From the business side: do you allow the venues to use the videos for their websites? You could arrange a payment plan per view as a 'content provider'.

[nadinegressett]

 

...you don't want them to see anything other than your best, most polished work, as they take that as the baseline for how they are evaluating your performance. So you're giving up a kind of advantage that you have, in that by giving them many possible things to look at they might not choose the best of them.

 

 

Great thoughts here about marketing your band and the ROI of your efforts. Another thought is to even go through what you already have and select the best of the best the push only those videos. Let the others sit back on the shelf, but they aren't your strongest foot forward. You don't want to keep making more and more videos just so you can see yourself. By the way do you have a specific call to action in your videos? If you're just measuring how many people watched, you're missing a lot of information about how effective your efforts actually are. Fine and dandy if they're watching it so what, but how is it fostering your business (aka what's the ROI?). We all do a great job being busy on our bands, but you want to make sure you're not just running around in circles.

[wheresgrant3]

 

Great thoughts here about marketing your band and the ROI of your efforts. Another thought is to even go through what you already have and select the best of the best the push only those videos. Let the others sit back on the shelf, but they aren't your strongest foot forward. You don't want to keep making more and more videos just so you can see yourself. By the way do you have a specific call to action in your videos? If you're just measuring how many people watched, you're missing a lot of information about how effective your efforts actually are. Fine and dandy if they're watching it so what, but how is it fostering your business (aka what's the ROI?). We all do a great job being busy on our bands, but you want to make sure you're not just running around in circles.

 

 

We've produced 8 videos since January. In that time we've gigged 33 times. We also gig in an independent market (no agencies, promotional companies). Every band lives and dies on it's performance and draw. And for the last 5-7 years we've been top draw in our market. How do you maintain that over time? If a picture says 1,000 words what does a live video say. We want it to say... we're committed to being the best part of your weekend.

 

 

The ROI I believe is threefold...

 

#1- Branding... We've really established a brand beyond what other cover bands in the area represent. We want to be the exception and not the rule. The video is just part of that (pictures, setlist, show)

 

#2- Venue/Sponsor Support- Again the videos are supporting venues, many which we're a top draw in. We love when venues will post our videos after a show on their website or Facebook accounts. Many venues take pride in that they had a great night. In fact some venues have made mention when we've slacked on capturing video. Still we've been able to increase our pay 20% in a market where bands are taking less and less. Even sponsors... giving them something that captured the event in the best possible light isn't a bad thing at all. In fact it can be quite endearing. Halloween Radio Station Bash.

 

#3- Fan Retention- Something that I didn't mention is that we regularly post media from each gig on our website. http://nutsinablender.com/pictures/ It's a big ingredient for our success. How do you keep fans interested Monday through Friday to spend another weekend with your band? Pictures and video is a great way for them to see themselves and their friends. Now sometimes we get someone who doesn't want to be filmed or have pictures floating around the internet. With those people we take pains to make sure their images aren't posted. The majority love it. So this is why I've felt comfortable posting a regular recap rather than a monthly digest. If I pooled all of the best moments from a few venues I'd have a long video that would probably take me even longer to edit... the best moments wouldn't be fresh in my mind. When we've had an exceptional show the first thing I want to do is produce a video of the best moments... not let it sit for three weeks.

 

As long as we have a brand, we will have fans that come out. And as long as the fans come out we'll be able to maintain our pay and even ask for more when the opportunity arises. That's my best example of ROI I can think of at the moment.

 

I do agree that I don't want to be wasting time producing video if it serves no other purpose than to exist on the web. It's hard to measure ROI in terms of time and investment.

[daddymack]

so what about merch? Do you have hats, shirts, hoodies, coffe mugs, nuts, blenders...etc? As a cover band, obviously, CD sales are going to be a nogo...but there is always ancillary $ to be made.

[Potts]

 

No one give a {censored} about a cover band and MOST people certainly don't go out to see you..

 

 

That's a bull{censored} statement. His band reminds me of a band that we have around here that out-draws every other band because they are THE party band in the area. I guarantee when lesser known bands are playing the same night as his band, the other bands is like, "{censored}! Nuts is playing down the street tonight. I hope we get some people here."

 

Have you seen his videos. I'd venture to say that the reason they are at these venues is to see his band.

 

Grant I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you actually enjoy posting these videos. Why bother slowing down or stopping. Maybe you could scale them back but put better quality videos out. I dunno...

[nadinegressett]

Do you know how many people are landing, staying (and for how long) on your video page. You may be able to see which ones are most popular and build themes off of them, rather than featuring videos that people know what to expect.

[KHINGPYNN]

 

Ok....Well you are selling a Party Band........Now you want the cold hard truth? I was a Pro gigging over 200 gigs a year for 20 years all over the world actually just so ya know where i'm coming from....Here it is: No one give a {censored} about a cover band and MOST people certainly don't go out to see you..They go out for the party, the venue and who's gonna be there, to get laid, to blow off steam etc..You guys look like you are doing a GREAT job helping to facilitate that and in my opinion that's the job of a cover band..So good job! I don't know if you really need to "sell" yourselves other than to try to book some big party type events in summer etc...Fans don't really come out to see cover bands unless they are girls who wanna {censored} the guys, friends and family, or crazy groupies who are looking for something to latch onto! So, look at these videos as a little extra promotion special sauce that a venue can use to help market the night..They should have links to your videos up on their FB and twitter when promoting upcoming gigs because you are definitely selling a party. So it's really a cost/benefit thing as far as keeping up with new vids..It's true, how fresh can they be? You're doing a setlist of material and playing the same rotation of places. I wouldn't update your vids so often because you don't really need to..At this point you probably have enough up to showcase what you guys do.. That's my .02.

 

 

This is an excellent call a spade a spade reply. In truth we need to keep this at the front of our thinking. I'm in a cover band right now... we add originals as we go... it's not like it used to be where ppl came out to see bands... some still do but the majority of cover bands are there to enhance and facilitate the party. The last cover band I was in I simply walked away because the members wanted to play music for themselves... WTF!!! Stay in the Garage then and stop waisting my time.

[Anderton]

Cool, you guys know how to work a crowd.

 

But I'm wondering...are there legal ramifications to putting copyrighted material in your videos? Did you have to get clearance?

[sventvkg]

That's a bull{censored} statement. His band reminds me of a band that we have around here that out-draws every other band because they are THE party band in the area. I guarantee when lesser known bands are playing the same night as his band, the other bands is like, "{censored}! Nuts is playing down the street tonight. I hope we get some people here." Have you seen his videos. I'd venture to say that the reason they are at these venues is to see his band. Grant I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you actually enjoy posting these videos. Why bother slowing down or stopping. Maybe you could scale them back but put better quality videos out. I dunno...

 

Whatever. My 22 years experience playing bars says otherwise. YMMV

[sventvkg]

 

Cool, you guys know how to work a crowd. But I'm wondering...are there legal ramifications to putting copyrighted material in your videos? Did you have to get clearance?

 

 

BINGO.

[wheresgrant3]

Whatever. My 22 years experience playing bars says otherwise. YMMV

 

Well the difference could be that you're just in a different part of the country. In the Northeast, popular cover bands outdraw some national touring acts. But you're right. People aren't coming out to see us as a band. They're coming about to be a part of the scene we've created. That's easy to do in a market that has nightclubs full of people waiting to be entertained. Our story is different, we've made the band the destination in a local market where bars aren't really drawing on their own. They wholly depend on the band to put bodies through the door. When you are depending that solid 200-300 people to show up every weekend I'd like to think the videos and extra promotion keep people engaged and connected Monday thru Friday until the next show.

[wheresgrant3]

 

Cool, you guys know how to work a crowd. But I'm wondering...are there legal ramifications to putting copyrighted material in your videos? Did you have to get clearance?

 

 

No problems thus far. We're not selling anything or profiting of their display and since we're not performing complete songs is there a problem with posting a performance on the web? You Tube can be sketchy when it comes to copyright material but Vimeo and other web services less so.

[Potts]

Whatever. My 22 years experience playing bars says otherwise. YMMV

 

LOL.. I had to actually look that that up on Urban Dictionary.

[Kramerguy]

 

In the Northeast, popular cover bands outdraw some national touring acts.

 

 

This is true- At least in the philly suburbs- some of the most popular bands around AREN'T originals acts... they are just hugely popular cover-bands.

[mstreck]

I've gone the other way - using After Effects and other video/audio editing programs to make "fun" promo videos - although I'm restricted by time/available footage/my own lack of talent so some are much better than others.

 

I can't beleive the number of people that come up to us at shows and tell us how much they like them or how "cool" they are (from their lack of "likes" on fb, I figured no one even really noticed). So I'll continue making them, at least throughout the summer.