Music industry data analysts Next Big Sound offer up their trends and highlights of last year’s digital music world.

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In the modern era of job search, there are many ways to improve your chances of finding that dream career. Whether you are a singer or a DJ looking for a big break, an engineer wanting to broadcast your expertise, or even a teacher looking for more students or a full-time position, here are several ideas using video that you can implement to aid your job search.

Uploading videos of yourself may seem pointless or egotistical at first, but for performing and recording artists, online video has become a huge tool in promotion. Whether you use Youtube, Vimeo, Google Video or any other number of websites, you can gain important exposure and raise awareness of your talents. It is also great to have so much interactive content built into your resume – think of it as your greatest hits in showreel.

Recording a video resume for other music careers can also add depth and character, and increase your appeal next to simply a printed list.

If looking to prove your knowledge or share your service in a certain field of music, it is important to not record one long commercial for yourself – adding interesting and topical content will help reach out to new people looking for genuine advice and expertise. For example, if you are looking to move into music equipment sales, share your reviews on any products or software that you or your friends may have.

If you’re not keen on your face on camera, but still want to chase that dream music job researching and developing new software, you can use screen capturing tools and record your knowledge and experience.

You don’t have to be an editing genius or have expensive equipment to dive into video either; if you can’t record the piece in one take, the iMovie software bundle into every Macbook is a great free tool, and you’ll probably find that an inexpensive, out of the box digital camera that you already own can capture video good enough to share online.

Even right here at Music Jobs, we offer a place to upload video content of yourself on your profile, be that a resume, performance, or any kind of variation of the above. For example, I have uploaded video to my DJ resume of a recent gig in Chicago…

I also recently started recording interviews with artists and independent music professionals, to help share advice on various blogs….

There are many ways to use online video to help in your job search. Get creative, and get sharing!

by Lee Jarvis.

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Looking to make a music video to help promote your music? Well, you could learn a lot from OK Go’s unique work. Here are a few videos that you can also learn from, and by that I mean avoid these mistakes at all costs…

5) Get Technical

Do not adjust your set, this video was filmed in black and white. In a forest. And possibly in the dark.

4) Choreography

If you are going to have some kind of group dance scenes in your video, it may be worthwhile getting some moves choreographed. Or practicing.

3) Flow

Even if you do just slap together random home video clips of you and friends from over the years, it’s probably best to skip the shower scene. (more…)

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Chicago-based indie rockers OK Go caused a sensation with the video for their 2006 song “Here It Goes Again”. The video featured a choreographed treadmill dance routine, and reached nearly 50 million views on Youtube, and inspired scores of remakes. The band became the perfect example of viral marketing in the new music industry.

So, any follow-up would be a tough task, and would need to be a pretty impressive video. “This Too Shall Pass” premiered yesterday, and has received some great reviews so far. The latest project collaborated with Syyn Labs on a two-story Rube Goldberg machine. The machine, constructed in a warehouse in Echo Park, keeps perfect time with the band’s latest single “This Too Shall Pass,” thrashing TV sets, dropping pianos, launching paper airplanes, blasting paint, and much more in spectacular synchronicity with the song. Check it out here at US Music Jobs.

What do you think of the video? Do you see it being another hit for the band? How relevant are music videos in the internet age? This will definitely inspire a further music video post from me, and I would like to hear your views.

Lee Jarvis.

To celebrate the video release, OK Go will be taking part in a concert fundraiser for LACMA Muse. Friday, March 5, 2010, LACMA West Penthouse, 8 pm–12 am. More info here.

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