Promoting A Song (2)

Obviously social media is one of the main means of promoting your songs. Remembering that this current generation of potential listeners is essentially a video generation, it is important that at least some of your promotional media are video-based - rather than just still images. Instagram and some of the other social platforms use the concept of ‘reels’ - short videos of 10-30 seconds - intended to provide entertainment in themselves but also to act as’tasters’ for longer presentations. Spotify uses the term ‘canvas’ to describe a very short video (5 - 8 seconds) that can be played or looped over a song when it is selected by a listener. Spotify claims this significantly increases the listener’s engagement with your music.

Videos can take some time to produce so it is worth saving time where you can. One little ‘trick’ is to create a canvas first and then use this as the start of a reel for the same song. There is software that can help you produce both canvases and reels (just search for ‘create Spotify canvas’ or ‘create Instagram reel’. The main thing is to ensure you adhere to the rules laid down by the platform(s) on which you intend to use the product - in terms of size, length, aspect ratio, etc. A canvas should be fairly simple - preferably with some, but not too much, motion. Again a simple trick is to take a still image and just ‘animate’ it via a transition to a different mood or colour. This is enough for a 5 or 6 second reel. Again, in terms of re-use of material and saving of your time, if you have a Youtube channel - and you should start one if you haven’t - then your reels can be uploaded to Youtube as ‘shorts’.

You will find that, as you make more reels and canvases, you get more ambitious and create more sophisticated videos. The illustration belowis an example of a canvas I created to go with my song about the White Horse of Kilburn. I am quite proud of this one.