Musicians are always complaining that making music videos is so much work. When I tell them they need to make a music video for every single release, I'm met with this exasperated groan. There's so much effort to put into making a music video. But whether you're just trying to get a video done or make a visualizer or a lyric video, there are a few models you can always follow that are crowd pleasers.

By the end of this, you'll have at least a few video ideas you can easily do that will get views.

The Importance of Music Videos

If you've been following my content, you've probably heard me going on and on about how you need to make tons of music videos. And if you've not heard me talk about that, I highly recommend you watch my video on releasing music videos, since videos are eventful ways to get attention for you and your music, and one of the most effective ways to get new fans.

Minimum Viable Videos: A New Approach

One of the conversations we've been having is about Minimum Viable Videos. When your song is released and you're promoting it, we at least need a simple video with some motion to capture the attention of those navigating away from attention span-killing apps like TikTok, Reels, Shorts, or even text-based apps like Twitter, Threads, and Bluesky.

Now, some of you are still in a pre-COVID music video mindset where everything needs to be polished and big budget like some 1990s Guns N’ Roses video for some horrible 9-minute song. That's not the case. You can make a great music video for your song at some point, but when you first drop it, you can put out a minimum viable video. If the song starts to gain momentum, then invest in a higher-quality video to boost consumption and shareability.

I often think about Lil Peep's documentary, Everyone's Everything. If you watch it, you would see that he bought a green screen by buying a sheet on Amazon and then simply put that up when making videos, the second he was done with his songs, and just acted them out. Not everyone can do things this simply, but it does show that simple content that accompanies the song can go a long way. Yes, I think you should strive to create the best music videos possible, but I believe it's better to make a video that allows fans to bond with you than not make one at all.

7 Simple and Effective Music Video Ideas

So let's talk about these five different music videos that you can make that always work well to bond with fans.

1. Fire Visuals: Captivating and Easy

The first idea is based on every musician's favorite emoji to put in my DMs, which is fire. Yeah, it sounds dumb, but the visual of fire is a sight to behold. Ever since the caveman days, people have loved to watch things burn. Whether you're singing in front of a fire or just burning something fun, people love fire in a video, and it can make for a great visualizer. Just be safe and make sure you do a test run to ensure your camera is adjusted right to capture it.

Particularly this video from Oliver Tree, where he performed a single while standing in front of a fire, which is likely on a green screen. It really shows the power of how simple this visual can be to make a song work.

2. Photo Collage: Creative and Personal

The second idea is the photo collage. If you want to get creative, get a Polaroid or an Instax or some other cool camera and then take some photos of yourself doing things. Maybe raid your closet, put on some different looks, especially if they'll get everyone horned up. Then simply take your camera, film an area, and throw the Polaroids down one by one. Then throw on some cool filters or saturate the film, give it a film grain, loop this, and you are done. Now, if that's feeling a little art-school-girl-dorm-room, I would first implore you to open your mind to art school girls since most of my best friends are them, but there's another way we can do this.

Neural Frames: AI-Powered Visuals

If you simply have a bunch of cool photos of you or your group in your phone, you should assemble some and then head over to Neural Frames, the sponsor of this video, which is like a synthesizer for making visuals for your music. I've been playing with Neural Frames, and many other AI tools are kind of like hitting shuffle on a mood where you type in something and "hope for the best." Whereas Neural Frames offers tons of features to make the creation of visuals a fun & creative process.

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So if you have a few images, you can sync Neural Frames to the elements of your song and create seamless transitions. It feels to me more like putting an image in a sampler and then playing with it till you find cool visuals that match your song. This means you can take two cool shots from a shoot or a show and repurpose them in numerous ways that utilize motion to keep viewers engaged. That's why they call it the synthesizer for the visual world

It's super fun to mess around with their tools and watch it change your footage, making visuals you've already used before fresh and exciting to your audience. It's super easy to also use their automatic features to generate settings and effects in sync with your song's tempo and make it all your own, so it doesn't look like some corny AI art you see on everyone else's account. Use my link to get their current best offer for my readers.

3. Split Screen Performances: Multi-Instrumental Magic

Another fun idea that works especially well for multi-instrumentalists or solo artists is to do a split screen of having yourself play all the instruments in the song. This Instagram from Mike Cancela of American Football and Owen is a great example.

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People always love the visual of seeing one person playing a lot of instruments in one song. If you can split the screen in creative ways in your video editing software, it's a super-easy way to make great content that fans enjoy.

4. Studio Vibes: Authentic and Relatable

One of the easiest videos that has made countless songs go viral is to simply play the song in the studio and vibe to it. That's what has kicked off so many viral moments like Tommy Richman, which we covered all of in one of my member videos. Post Malone, too. Simply vibe hard in front of some cool-looking equipment and show off the lab. Now, the cooler the studio looks, the more it helps, but if you show how much you feel the song, it helps others feel the song. Hell, even if your friend has a sick studio and you can sneak in and just vibe to it over the speakers, it can often do the trick.

5. Dancing in Unusual Places: Fun and Viral

There's also dancing where you aren't supposed to. Truly, one of the ultimate easy ones to do that always works is to dance where you aren't supposed to. Now, before you all take this too far, don't go all eco-terrorist and pick up a piece of fine art and dance to it or hang off a cliff.

But even something as simple as the table at Easter works, even if it brings grandma to an early death, or a video like "WTF Is this MFer dancing on the top of Raising Canes?" and the answer is your boy is the manager.

Use your imagination and resources, if you have, let's say the longest escalator in a city, you can cut a little rug on and have your boys standing in front and back of you so you have some space, well, that’s a great visual.

If you have access to stand next to the Buccees beaver well, I don't see why you shouldn't twerk on them. Since this always runs up the views.

6. Lyric Videos: Bringing Words to Life

The last one is especially good for lyric videos, where you just make a real-life visual of the lyrics. The classic example is Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" or the INXS remake of it called "Mediate."

You can always get creative in the real world by writing your lyrics down, filming them, and putting them in sequence. Doing something creative, whether it's lining up jelly beans or whatever else, will be fun for your audience to watch you do with your lyrics.

7. Green Screen Fun: Endless Possibilities

Lastly, there's always just having fun with a green screen. You can always think of something cool to do with a green screen and have fun in front of it. There are so many ways to get creative with this. All you need to do, like I said with that Lil Peep video, is to just buy a $14 sheet and do something fun in front of it. Make sure it's just lit well enough, and then get creative with what's going to be on the screen.

And that’s 7 simple ways to make an easy music video. Hope you enjoyed.