20/02/08 - Country Music Videos Are On The Up

By Tim Holland

I was trilled to here last week that “Marry Me”, a Conti Bros Films production was the winner of Tropfest 2008.

Conti Bros (Myles and Karl Conti) have recently started to produce clips for a number of country music's leading artists. Their first was the debut clip for Morgan Evans (Big Skies) which received a CMAA Country Music Awards nomination and in my opinion is the best locally produced video clip I've ever seen on CMC.

They've gone on to do a couple of clips for my label (ABC Music). They produced Catherine Britt's Little WildFlower video in November last year and have just completed Shea Fisher's new clip, Everyday Girl. You'll see that clip in the next week or so.

The emergence on the country scene of Conti Bros as well as other new entrants like Rumblevision and Pie Full Of Black Birds is seeing more fierce competition for video business in the genre. These companies are also doing the clips at prices the labels can justify.

More then ever, all the leading labels appear to be looking at how they approach things and are no longer content with simply getting something made that will be good enough to air on CMC. Instead they are challenging directors to come up with fresh concepts and clips that will create interest beyond that channel alone. This is great for country music.

In my view, this has seen the standard of our locally produced videos increase significantly in the past 12 months and I've got no doubt that this will continue.