Lyric videos on YouTube have become music’s hottest trend. In fact, labels and artists are making big money and reaching more fans as DIY-style clips hit the streaming service. In the 1966 documentary Don’t Look Back, Bob Dylan is featured in what, at the time, was an innovative music video. As the song “Subterranean Homesick Blues” plays, Dylan unfurls cue cards that correspond to the lyrics. The clip became a moment aped by many artists since, the visual suggesting a connection between hearing a song and reading the lyrics.
Today, with YouTube replacing MTV as the primary outlet for music videos, the lyrics-only clip has become one of the most effective marketing tools online, with many generating more than 100 million views without a single shot of the artist. And the content can be monetized, thanks to YouTube’s ad revenue sharing program. According to one expert, if you have 1,000 or more pieces of content on your channel, those monthly revenue sums really start to multiply.
