The Hidden Struggles of Music Covers
You ever see a cool clip of someone on Instagram beatboxing something, or a full-blown YouTube singing cover? Regardless of length, production value, and social media site, these videos had a lot of thought put into them and took a long time to create. Rarely are these as serendipitous as they may seem.
Back when Vine was a thing, a simple six second clip could take me hours to make. There are several hidden challenges that make the process lengthy. At the very minimum for a good take, you need to perform well, capture good audio, and capture proper video. It doesn't matter if two of the three are on point for a shot if the third isn't (although video isn't seen as essential in music, good video really helps draw people in). Getting all three necessitates several retries. If you're recording on DSLR or videocamera, the process to review and getting feedback for each shot may be longer than it would be recording on cell phones.
On top of this, there are hidden costs of time that people overlook. Take the cover (shown above). It takes anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to set up equipment and prep. This includes making sure the video has the right frame and the audio works well. I also have to plan out the sequences for each song and pre-program effects into the looper. Before all this, I had to choose on a song, practice it to make sure I know the lyrics and beat, and decide which parts to include in the cover based on length and how well I think I could perform it. After I record myself, I have to edit the video which can include several tasks such as overlaying text, mixing/mastering audio, and video color grading. Finally, after I edit and export the video, I then publish/advertise it to all of my social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Steemit, Snapchat). Each channel takes time to upload and create captions/filters, and some like Instagram and YouTube require further editing.
Naturally, the more you practice, the easier the process becomes. You learn to perform better, requiring fewer retries and waste less time figuring out operational/logistical details. My first looping cover took over 12 hours total. The cover above (my fourth and most recent one) took a little less than 6 hours total and is much better in quality. I'm relatively new myself to the whole process, and I'm definitely learning how to cut the time down and improve my videos.
The above all assumes that the process goes smoothly. Sometimes, there are unexpected setbacks as demonstrated in the post below. I lost two hours of work unfortunately that day.
All this effort for a minute or two of content! If it's what you love though, then you make the initiative anyways. If you have any suggestions on how I can get better or have song suggestions, let me know in the comments!
You can follow my musical journey here or on my other channels:
www.youtube.com/Phortissimo5
www.soundcloud.com/phortissimo
www.twitter.com/phortissimo
(IG) @phortissimo
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