Big budget music videos are probably more of an expense than an investment.
As the power of the Internet persists in aging record label practices, leveling playing fields and dismantling preconceived notions of success in 'signing', certain rites of passage like nabbing astronaut trophies or peaking on video countdowns simply don't count anymore.
The count is in streaming numbers, in grabbing and holding the abbreviated attentions of millennials and under.
Now, the investment is in visualizers.
Grammy award winning musician H.E.R. released this brand new visualizer for her single, We Made It, earlier this week. But why 'visualizer' and not 'video'? We recall the time when music videos anchored programmes like Total Request Live or 106th and Park. Nowadays, consumers' favourite tracks are sent directly from their phones to their ear pods, buds or surround sound speakers. It would seem an accurate assumption, that this quelled music fans need to see songs on screen.
Of course it didn't.
It's just no longer feasible for labels to take on multimillion dollar productions to show off top talents; and the talents are moving without labels anyway. Nevertheless, label or no label, countdown or nah - the demands of denizens of the disruptive Internet remain visual.
And so the less-developed, smaller budget, arguably more intimately produced 'visualizers' emerged, like a reaction to the music videos’ dwindle, sustaining audiences desire to see along with their favourite artistes music.
In this visualizer, reggae music stars Protoje and Lila Ike make a passageway their stage at The Habitat, performing the sensual single, In Bloom, at the InDiggNation's creative hub. Fun fact: Protoje released a visualizer for each track on his album, In Search of Lost Time.
Instead of convulted plots, a laundry list characters, gaudy sets and flashy scenes, we get to visualize, to see what songs sound like - and pile on the streaming numbers while we're at it.
Here are a few just for you. If you heard and not seen, please pree:
Solitude by Lila Ike
Elevated by Jaz Elise
A boy (Live) by Daycare Joy