How Much Does a Lyric Video Cost? A $400 Pricetag Simplified
Calvin West | Mar 15, 2022
You want to promote your upcoming release and are wondering how much a lyric video costs. As I previously discussed, lyric videos are an economic alternative to music videos that offer more bang for your buck. To summarize my lyric video pricing, I charge a $400 flat fee for a lyric video with optional promotional material as extras. This covers the vast majority of lyric videos I make.
There are a few other things to consider when calculating a price quote for your lyric video, so for the sake of transparency, I wanted to go over these numbers and features below.
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In This Article
The $400 Base Price
When I first started offering lyric video services, I used to calculate a custom quote for each song based on the number of words in the song. This worked well enough initially, as it made sense from my own perspective. More words means more work which means more pay. However, it makes little to no sense for an artist or a record label who wants to promote their next release. In retrospect, it felt a little strange to count words and explain my cost per word basis. Nobody wanted to waste time counting words in their lyrics to know how much their video would cost.
Furthermore, the previous pricing system affected some song genres more than others. For instance, rap would almost always cost more than a slow ballad, even though the time it took to produce them was roughly the same.
Besides the number of words in the lyrics, there’s a lot of creative work that goes into every lyric video. Such as setting up a theme, and experimenting with various concepts for the video like imagery, fonts styles, colors, and animation styles. Similarly, at the end of every project, I go over the entire video, adding effects, camera movements, floating particles, and finishing touches. All these elements tend to converge the amount of work it takes for each video to a certain average so I found the new flat rate to be a lot easier to deal with both on my end, but more importantly, for the artists as well.
Lyric Video Ordering Process
1. Get in Touch
Contact me with details about your lyric video. Include your music, lyrics, and any extra artwork you might want to incorporate.
2. Free Demo
Based on our discussion, I will produce a short demo to showcase the general direction of your lyric video.
3. Payment
Once you approve the demo, I will send you a link where you can choose from various payment methods.
4. Video
After the payment, I can work my magic on the rest of your lyric video. Turnaround is 3 to 5 days, and I also offer rush service when needed.
5. Final Adjustments
Want to make changes? No problem! I offer free adjustments because it’s important to me that artists approve of my videos.
IGTV Vertical Optimization
Extra Services
In addition to the standard lyric video, I offer 3 optional extra services that are quite useful in promoting your new lyric video while keeping your audience engaged and even reaching new audiences in some cases.
All of these extras would come in the same theme and branding as the lyric video (unless discussed otherwise), and I will list them below along with their corresponding prices that can be added to the base lyric video cost.
IGTV Lyric Videos
Price: $200
Ever since Instagram launched IGTV, followed by YouTube supporting vertical aspect ratios for mobile, I’ve had an increased demand for vertical lyric videos.
This service gives you the lyric video in a vertical format (in addition to the standard one) so you could post it on IGTV (or other mobile-friendly platforms such as TikTok, etc).
Otherwise, posting the standard version on these platforms would give you big black bars at the top and bottom of the video and would look smaller on mobile devices as they don’t fill up the entire screen.
Spotify Canvas
Price: $60
Spotify Canvas is an 8-second visual that loops on the “now playing” screen on Spotify.
If you use Spotify, you’ve probably seen them by now. They used to be exclusive to big artists but more recently Spotify unlocked it for everyone.
This service would usually have a seamlessly looping visual in the style of the lyric video, sometimes with the song title visible.
You would be able to upload it through your Spotify for Artists dashboard.
Social Media Promo Pack
Price: $100
A collection of short videos in square and vertical format. This usually shows the name of the artist, and song title, followed by a promotional message.
The promotional message would be different in each of the many variants. For instance, the first one would just say the release date. Then a second version could say “This Friday”. A third version could say “Tomorrow!”, and finally a version that says “OUT NOW!”.
Great for promoting your upcoming release!
Lyric Video Turnaround Time
By default, I advertise a turnaround time of 3 to 5 days, but depending on how much work I have when I’m commissioned, it could be less. On certain occasions, I’m asked to complete a video within a much tighter deadline, sometimes down to a few hours. For such cases, I can offer extra fast delivery which can cost a bit extra, depending on the deadline. The cost is to justify working late nights and often staying up even after delivery, in case any adjustments need to be made before the video gets final approval.
Revisions are Included
By default, I advertise a turnaround time of 3 to 5 days, but depending on how much work I have when I’m commissioned, it could be less. On certain occasions, I’m asked to complete a video within a much tighter deadline, sometimes down to a few hours. For such cases, I can offer extra fast delivery which can cost a bit extra, depending on the deadline. The extra cost is to justify working late nights and often staying up even after delivery, in case any adjustments need to be made before the video gets final approval.
How much does YOUR lyric video cost?
I have recently added an interactive lyric video pricing calculator on my homepage. Feel free to play around with it and get your personalized lyric video cost. And if you have any other thoughts, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your project details. To expedite the process, remember to include your audio and lyrics files. You may optionally also include your album cover art, as I usually like building the theme of the lyric video around it to match your artistic branding. I respond to all inquiries within a few hours and look forward to hearing from you soon!
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