Saturday, April 21, 2007

Music: Better With Or Without Video?

My little audiophile label records our projects in a single session. There are no overdubs or later processing of the tracks to correct mistakes or replace less than perfect performances...we capture real music making. Because of this single session methodology, I have brought video equipment into the auditorium during virtually all of the recording sessions. In the beginning it was pretty basic videography, no fancy lights, no set dressing or even camera operators. Things have changed in the past two years, however, I shoot all of the sessions with HD Video equipment, have real lighting [although not the concert arena look and feel]. Because we release our titles on DVD, it seemed natural to include the video of the music making...and we do.

My question is this. Do music fans like to experience the music alone or do they embrace the idea of having the performance on their video monitor, plasma or big screen projection? It takes a lot of extra money and time to capture the video, edit it and sync it up with the audio. Perhaps I should just think like a traditional label and put out music only. It certainly would save a bunch of effort.

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