How Much Do Music Videos Cost to Make? (2024 Prices) (2024)

You wrote a song. You’ve finally recorded, mixed, and mastered it. Now you want to shoot a music video so the world can both see and hear your vision. Great idea!

How much does a music video cost nowadays anyway? Well, that all depends on what you’re trying to do and how you want your video to look.

In this article, I’ll cover the average cost of a music video and the different ways you can take to produce one (and the corresponding costs). I’ll discuss all these based on my own real-world experience, since we’ve produced a few music videos for our band.

Cost of Live Performance / Story Music Video

Shooting It Yourself

Currently, we are all very lucky in a sense that most of us will have a phone with a very capable camera built right in. A camera that can record in high-resolution, some even in 4K with built-in optical image stabilization, as well as effects applications and other useful features.

If you really wanted to, you could ask a friend to help you record a video using nothing but your phone.

You can upload all those great shots you got and cut them together in an online program like CANVA (pro membership required), simply add your song in the audio track portion, and sync it to the cuts yourself.

It’ll be a little bit tedious, but if you’re a solo artist or band on a tight budget, this is a viable option and should only cost you maybe a couple of hundred dollars.

Using a Professional Studio

Maybe you take your music more seriously and are looking for a more professional outfit? You want a music video that is going to make an impact on your audience. You want more polish, better edits, and more flare. Then I’d recommend finding a studio.

Yes, it’s a costlier option to use a studio that does everything in-house. But I think you’ll find that it’s worth the investment.

Many studios have teams that will help you with everything you need. The directing, the shooting, the lighting, the editing, the location.

It’s all done for you so that you can focus on your performance. Sometimes, studio teams will even help you execute a concept if you don’t have one readily available in your head.

If you or your bandmates want to go the route of shooting your performance in a professional-grade studio, I can say from experience that this might cost you around $1,500 to $2,000 (all-inclusive).

Here’s a music video of my own band for your reference.

Other variables, such as song length, additional actors, additional production crew etc. will always drive the cost upward. Obviously, the price could also vary depending on where you live.

Unfortunately, studios like the one I mentioned above (which our band used) aren’t available everywhere. You may have to travel a bit, which will also add to your overall cost.

All in all, don’t be shocked to pay somewhere between $1,500 to $4,000 for a professional-looking, studio-grade music video.

Cost of Animated Music Videos

Animated videos can be so much fun to watch and create!

Whether it’s 2D, 3D or 8-bit style, animation can allow artists to explore concepts that normally would be impossible to execute in the real world. However, animation can get expensive very fast.

Animation can also be a risky path to take for a music video. There is a lot that goes into the process even before your vision starts taking shape on screen.

It is extremely important to research who you plan on using, the style or medium in which they specialize, and convey your idea in a clear and concise manner. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting a lot of money and time.

Generally speaking, a small studio specializing in 2D animated music videos will charge anywhere between $800 to $1,000 for one minute of animation. For a typical 5 minute song, this means a total cost of around $4,000 to $5,000 for an animated music video.

The more ambitious the project and the more details you want, the higher the cost becomes. It is not unheard of for animators to cost anywhere between $2,000 to $8,000 per minute of animation.

3D animation is even more costly, which is why you don’t see many 3D-style animated videos. One minute of 3D animation can cost between $20,000 and $50,000. Yikes!

If you are absolutely set on getting an animated music video made for one of your songs, then go ahead! With some good research and negotiation, you can probably find the right artist for the job for a reasonable price on websites like Fiverr or UpWork.

Cost of Lyric Videos

Lyrics videos have become quite popular of late. This is largely because they can be produced quickly and inexpensively, making them likely the cheapest music videos you can produce.

It is not uncommon to be able to get a professional lyric video completed for a few hundred dollars at most and in a timetable of a week or two.

If you’re looking to get some content out for your band quickly and easily, then this would be an effective option from both a marketing and financial standpoint.

If a listener likes your song, they’re going to want to know the words and sing along. A visually stimulating, well-crafted lyric video could be the thing that ignites the fire of interest in your listeners.