One thing we talk about often on this site is how advances in Internet and camera technology have opened up the world of music videos to everyone. There was once a time when being a professional music video director meant you worked with large budgets and your videos got played on TV. Today, directors of all skill levels have access to high quality video equipment, and websites like YouTube and Vimeo give everyone a stage. This, unfortunately, is not as great as it sounds… and also not completely true.

With 72 hours of video content added to YouTube every minute, and Vevo music videos dominating the audience, the base might actually be too broad to really get noticed, and the stage is far from equal. Filmmakers and artists who aren’t signed to a major label, and don’t get their videos promoted by Vevo, tend to get lost in the webs. Because of this, many of them have gotten into the game of self-promotion on social media websites like Reddit as a way to get their work noticed. Gesar Mukpo, Reddit username Chewyguru, has succeeded at this game. When the music video he directed, “Words That Make You Feel Good” by The Caravan, was posted to Reddit, it had about 1,500 YouTube views. By the time he got home from work the next day, it had made it to the front page and received over 80,000 views. It has over 160,000 views to date.

The massive Reddit community is an interesting one. Lovers of free speech and rage faces, Redditors have made the news for some really great stuff, and also some really shitty stuff (the "stuff" was going to link to r/spacedicks, but I won't do that to you guys). The concept of Reddit is a relatively simple one. Users log in and post interesting content from the wab, and other users either up or down vote the content. The more up votes a link gets, the more prominently it is shown on the site. As Gesar describes it:

I knew that when things get popular on Reddit, they get a lot of exposure in a short amount of time, because it will get picked up by so many other places … You don’t have to deal with a label, or promotion, or any marketing companies, or anything like that. You just put something out there, and if people like it, it gets seen. 

However, like most web communities, Redditors can often be very cynical. Therefore, it is not uncommon for an awful music video to gain popularity on Reddit. The Rebecca Blacks and Reh Doggs of the world have all benefited heavily from this phenomenon. Genuine content? Not so much. One of the downfalls of having widespread access to high quality video equipment is that there is so much content out there, it’s difficult differentiate the people with talent from the people with too much free time and a 5D. Despite that, Gesar went to Reddit and posted the link to the video along with this simple description: "The clerk at the liquor store told me he was a rapper. I made this music video for him. Enjoy!"

The video was produced on an $8,000 budget that came from MuchFACT, a music video production fund funded by MuchMusic. It was then submitted to MuchMusic for airplay, but was rejected. So, despite the video being funded by a grant, the promotion of the video was basically limited to posting it to sites like Reddit.  

I have to imagine that a large amount of people clicked on the thing because they wanted to see this guy make a fool of himself ... But, I knew it had to have something interesting for people to click because just saying ‘hey, check out this great music video’ or ‘hey, check out this great rapper’ that’s what everyone says, it’s not going to get any exposure. So, since he does work at a liquor store, there was the idea that he was just an average guy who’s this amazing talent. ... There had been another video up a week before of some old guy rapping, I just figured if an old guy rapping can get to the front page of Reddit, there’s no reason why someone with some kind of talent and gift can’t as well. 

Regardless of why they originally watched it, the video started to quickly spread and the feedback was positive. The video spread so fast, that it was nearing 100,000 views and Gesar had not even spoken to the band yet. Then, just as fast, the Reddit fact checkers and trolls started coming out from under the bridge (like they always do), and began questioning the authenticity of the post (like they always do). Some users brought up the MuchFACT grant as an indication of some kind of marketing scam. Some went as far as to suggest that it wasn’t even a person who posted the video to Reddit, but some kind of corporation pretending to be a person. 

Kyle, the MC in The Caravan, does in fact work at a liquor store, so Gesar wasn’t being misleading in that sense. They actually met when Gesar saw them playing at a house party, it wasn’t as simple as Kyle “telling him he was a rapper.” But, no one was upset about him not being truthful about where they met, and that fact seems pretty meaningless. I think people got upset about that video because it was a video posted online, and people get upset about everything posted online. 

I still think 40% of the people who were upset were because they didn’t see some guy make a fool of himself. The rest of the people expected a guy with their iPhone recording some other guy rapping. Some people thought the title of the post meant it wouldn’t be a well-produced music video.

Anyone who really wants to get their work “out there” should already understand that “out there” could be and likely is the worst place ever. This guy knows what I’m talking about. But, just because there is some push back doesn’t mean Reddit isn’t a valuable tool to promote music videos. So, while hundreds of videos continue to sit on Reddit day after day without much attention, for Gesar and The Caravan, the results of using Reddit as a promotional tool are undeniable. Since the video’s success online, The Caravan have been contacted by several record labels, and Gesar has been contacted by some more established artist to do some music videos for them. They found their way to connect to the audience of Reddit without using memes or Karma whoring or anything. Which, at the end of the day, is what music video promotion is all about. 

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.