ABOUT RIVE VIDEO: Helping Independent Artists, Bands, and Record Labels Get Their Music Videos Airplay and Seen Since 1993
Founded in 1993 by John Warden, Rive Video was built from a simple idea: great music videos deserve an audience.
What started with a phone, a fax machine, a passion for music videos, and fewer than ten legitimate places for music video submissions has grown into one of the longest-running independent music video distribution and music video promotion companies in the United States.
For more than three decades, Rive Video has helped independent artists and bands, record labels, managers, and music video directors connect their music videos with: programmers, producers, curators, broadcasters, networks, content acquisition teams, retail brands, DJs, VJs, streaming channels, and media outlets throughout North America, the UK, and beyond.
Today, Rive Video has promoted and distributed more than 35,000 music videos while adapting to every major evolution in music video consumption and technology - from traditional broadcast and cable television, Smart TVs and mobile devices, Retail Music Pools, DJ and VJ Music Pools, to streaming platforms, connected TV ecosystems, Video On Demand, YouTube, podcasts, blogs, reaction channels, and digital media outlets.
Rive Video Story
When Rive Video launched in 1993, the music video landscape looked very different than it does today. There was no YouTube. There were no social media platforms. There were no streaming services. Artists, bands and the record labels who represented them had limited options for getting their music videos seen, heard, and discovered.
Recognizing this challenge, John Warden began building relationships with Music Video Pools, helping artists distribute their songs and videos to DJs, VJs, and programming decision-makers responsible for entertainment in commercial and public spaces. As the industry evolved, so did Rive Video.
Rive Video’s distribution network expanded to include:
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National television outlets across the United States
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Regional television networks across the United States
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Retail Music Pools
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DJ & VJ Music Pools
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OTT music channels: Roku, Apple tv, Amazon fire, Google/Android tv, Chromecast,
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Music blogs and websites
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Online music magazines
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Journalists
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Podcasts, music interviewers, reviewers, and reaction channels
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Streaming and connected television platforms
For over 30 years, our mission has remained the same: helping artists and record labels maximize airplay and exposure opportunities for their Music Videos.
ABOUT RIVE MUSIC VIDEO PROMOTION
A music video promotion is much more than simply having a video on YouTube and hoping to get people to click your link. Music fans do not even know your video link exists on YouTube at first, and these fans must be exposed to your new music release. That is what we do with your music video. Our video promotion introduces you to hundreds of programmers and bloggers, and we promote your video to convince the programmers to add your music video into rotation on their playlists, to be seen by large audiences.
This is how you get wide-scale airplay on TV shows Like MTV, Fuse, Music Choice, BET, REVOLT TV, TEMPO NETWORKS, TRACE TV, CMT, plus hundreds of regional shows, video pools, hundreds of websites and blogs. It is a coordinated effort to see your video impact on these shows at the same time. This is what introduces your music to a mass audience of potential fans. That is when the audience will react and begin to search you online, to look for your website, social media and official video. Everything grows from there.
As video promoters, it is our job to submit your video master correctly to video shows, pools, and networks. We then follow up with programmers to make sure they watch your video, stress to them why they should air your video, then obtain programmers’ feedback and deliver that to you across multiple PDF reports. Multiplying this effort with over 750 video outlets creates a powerful promotional campaign. All final decisions regarding airplay are made by the programmers and every programmer is different. We’ve helped thousands of artists get their videos on national networks like MTV, BET, FUSE, REVOLT, Music Choice, and dozens of other outlets. Every artist on our website came to us for this service. We’d love to help you as well.
Rive Music Video Promotion acts on the behalf of our artists to increase awareness of their music videos and the artists who create them. As a part of Rive Music Video Promotion and Distribution services, Rive Music Video sends out social media and marketing blasts and professional press releases as part of the many services we provide to our artists when they choose to work with us.
OUR PROMOTION SERVES
TWO NECESSARY FUNCTIONS
DISTRIBUTION
First, we have to format the video master for broadcast. This means that every master has to first be Closed Captioned, and master copies have to be made in the appropriate tape, disc, or digital format, and shipped to the individual programmer. We use the highest quality stock and most popular closed captioning program to achieve this, preserving the original look and quality of the master, so the video presents pristinely. When shipped, each programmer will receive a package with the video master, all necessary paperwork, subforms, bio, and a Rive Video One-Sheet, describing highlights of the artist’s career, tour dates, press, updates, and notable hype. We send out a press release distributed to thousands of bloggers, websites, and industry contacts including links to download the video, artist bio, highlights, and press photos, everything anyone needs to feature the artist and the video.
PROMOTION
After servicing your video masters to the programmers, our promotional service retainer begins. We make weekly calls to each programmer, providing them with updates on the project, and pitching them to program the video for their next show or playlist. We also follow up with our programmers via e-mail blasts with promotional information & downloadable video files for the easiest possible access to your content. Our average promotional campaign runs for approximately 8 weeks, during which we provide the artist/label with weekly campaign progress updates with all programming details.