Back when MTV played music videos regularly, the way a band was depicted in their music video could literally make or break their career (this guy knows what I’m talking about). Although no one discovers new music by watching MTV anymore, music videos are still a way for bands to present themselves and their image to new fans. For a new band, their first music video might be the only thing on the internet to truly represent them. Sure, it only takes 5 minutes to build a Facebook fan page and to post losts of cool pictures of your band sitting around a piano, but that only goes so far. 

Bands use a variety of channels to get their music out to the world, many of which provide no representation of the bands image. When a fan hears a new song while driving to the Gap, or while shopping at the Gap, or in a commercial for the Gap, their next step is usually to look that song up online. Spending 2 minutes in the YouTube comment section on The Lumineers’ debut video "Ho Hey" will prove that a lot of people found their music from this Bing commercial:

Those comments also prove that there is a direct line from song discovery to watching a band's music videos, and regardless of how those people discovered the song, they are learning about the band through the music video. Because of that, new bands like The Lumineers will often turn to music video directors who they have personal relationships with to driect their first videos. Ben Fee, who directed “Ho Hey,” talks about what this experience was like from his perspective:

To hear more from Ben Fee about his work with The Lumineers and some other awesome bands, check out our full length interview.

Doug Klinger is the co-founder/content director of IMVDb and watches more music videos than anyone on earth. You can find him on twitter at @doug_klinger.