Tech Isolate

Choosing to make a lyric video might be an entirely practical option.  You might not have the budget or resources to make a full music video but with an animated lyric video, you can still give your song a visual presence on important channels like YouTube.

Fans love to know lyrics and to sing along, but sometimes they might mishear and that often translates to mistakes on lyric sites. An artist posting a lyric video is a great way to make sure the right lyrics are there from the start.

Great Examples of Successful Lyric Videos

Many artists are using lyric videos, and while we probably have one particular idea that comes to mind when we think of a lyric video, there are lots of different approaches. Let's look at a few. There are many Taylor Swift references in this next section.

Lyrics Only—'Only The Young' by Taylor Swift

If you're just getting started with video, you might want to start out with animated lyrics on a relatively simple background. Only The Young uses flare and flashes on an otherwise plain background. The text itself is simply coloured and the font is easy to read. Taylor has a simple, direct message to get across, and the style of the lyric video supports that.

Although Taylor's latest single, The Man, will have a full music video, this animated lyric version was released several weeks before to help build hype for the single and the anticipated music video.

Again, the font style and placing of the lyrics reflect the tone of the song—they're mostly capital letters, they appear aggressively and disappear quickly—and the animation in the background tells the story conveyed in the lyrics.

Font Choice

Use a font that fits with the mood you’re trying to convey in the video, but balance this with the lettering being simple to read in a relatively short time on screen. 

How Much is On Screen

Your video should be, above all, easy to read and understand. Don't let exciting animation or storytelling pull away from that.

Theme and Storytelling

Telling a story that fits with your lyrics is a great use of an animated lyric video, and as we've seen from the examples above, it's possible to do that in a variety of ways. The theme of your video should fit with or compliment the lyrics.