Libor Šmoldas 4 & 3 goes video. Why?
Videos are by no means anything new in the world of music, in fact its roots go back all the way to 1894! But then, like now, the amount of equipment and people used just to shoot a straight, not too complicated piece of film was, at least for me, a big surprise since everything is supposed to be AI today, or did I miss something here? 
. I already had a small idea of the amount of work that had to be done and who would do it, but still… Look at the pictures and you get a little touch of what I’m talking about. You’ll find the intro to this blog is HERE!
. I already had a small idea of the amount of work that had to be done and who would do it, but still… Look at the pictures and you get a little touch of what I’m talking about. You’ll find the intro to this blog is HERE!
But why?
It’s no news that the music business today is not what it used to be. It’s also no news that the one who it has affected most is the artist itself. It’s getting harder and harder for the productive musician to make a living on his/her own profession, very few artists make records anymore, the different streaming “services” have more or less killed all the other different compensations etc. There are still the live performances, but since the competition is very hard due to the circumstances already mentioned, it has also affected how much you get for an evening’s work. And yet we have, especially in the Czech Republic, these absolutely fabulous human beings that take the stage night after night so you and I can go out and enjoy overself, something to think about maybe? 🧐 If I had a hat I would for sure raise it, and multiplied times…
That obligatory video...
Today it’s not enough that you have the tallant, or are extremely skilled in what you do, singing, playing, you name it. No matter how hard you practice, it’s just not enough anymore. Today it requires so much more to stay on top of things, that is, if you want to eat and pay the rent with your music. An almost most today, for the performing artist, is the video, let’s face it, like it or not, the music video belongs to our daily life, and if you as an artist don’t have one, who will find you and how? But here lies a big danger, and that’s the reason why I found myself early one morning in March with Libor and his friends at the studio of SONO Records.
The pitfalls...
Libor, whom we know as one of the best jazz guitarists in Europe, also has some secret talents, or is it experience…? Libor has been around for quite some time and the man loves to play, maybe even more than we love to listen to him do, to directly quote him, “I have no problem, I could play all day” tells you something about his attitude to music. But he has also adapted himself to the current situation in the music world and that’s why we are in the studio to make a couple of videos he can use to mainly promote himself. Now I can almost hear the outcry, first I try to explain the hard situation for performing artists today, and then I find myself in one of the best studios in Europe, which can’t be for free, isn’t there a conflict here if there ever was one?
A conflict?
At first sight it might feel like it but… First the studio, they are in the same situation with the artist, nobody makes records anymore, because nobody is buying them anymore, except for me but I’m old school! 
Everybody is trying to save on their expenses. Without having knowledge of the situation, a wild guess is that this has put down the prices as well as the income from what it used to be for the studios, or what do you think? And then secondly we have Libor, who is smart enough to understand that yes, he could let the neighbours boy shoot the video with his mobile, hardly cost him anything, especially since the lad would be only proud when the video he made shows up on YouTube but, and here’s the pitfall for so many artists. Who will watch the video made by the neighbour’s boy?
Everybody is trying to save on their expenses. Without having knowledge of the situation, a wild guess is that this has put down the prices as well as the income from what it used to be for the studios, or what do you think? And then secondly we have Libor, who is smart enough to understand that yes, he could let the neighbours boy shoot the video with his mobile, hardly cost him anything, especially since the lad would be only proud when the video he made shows up on YouTube but, and here’s the pitfall for so many artists. Who will watch the video made by the neighbour’s boy? 
Drop off after 15-30 seconds...
The drop off on commercial videos is a subject for numerous studies, and most of them have come to the same conclusions; “Drop off is the most harsh in the first 15-30 seconds, and that’s where you lose most of your viewers. This is why you see so many 6 and 15 second ads online nowadays.” And when we add to that the fact that losing a customer/viewer you have to work six time more to get him back then what you did just to get him there in the first place. And why do they leave your video, it’s a tune that gets a big ovation when played live? Correct, the neighbours boys video! Social media is unfortunately full of videos that very few of us have the patience to watch or even leave it on for the music due to the bad sound. Why? Because you’ll also find very good music clips in the same place as an alternative to the neighbours piece of work. Also remember that after you published one or two of the videos your next door boy did, your name will automatically be connected with cheap and bad video productions that people won’t even bother opening. So ask yourself, how much did you actually save?
There you have the background to the day in the studio, I promise to keep my opinions a little shorter as we go on, because this story will continue in a short future… 
All the pictures from part 2…
