Frequently asked questions

Send an email to join@spectavid.xyz telling us your name, how you heard about SpectraVid, your connection to music video as a form (collector, director, writer, researcher, or just a serious fan), and three videos you love.

We read every application ourselves. If it's a good fit, we'll send an invitation link with a 7-day expiry. We typically reply within 5–10 days, though it can take a bit longer when we're deep in a curation sprint.

Partly quality of community — the platform works better when members share context, recommendations, and curatorial notes, which tends to happen more reliably with people who applied intentionally. Partly a practical licensing constraint: some material in the archive is there because we have informal arrangements with labels and estates who trusted us to keep it within a defined community. Open registration would complicate that significantly.

Monthly membership is €10/month. Annual is €90/year (equivalent to €7.50/month). Both include full access to everything. See the pricing page for details.

Yes. Email hello@spectavid.xyz and we'll cancel your membership immediately or at the end of your current billing period, whichever you prefer. We don't make this difficult.

Yes. Mention it in your invitation request and we'll discuss. We generally offer a reduced rate for students enrolled in film, music, or media programmes, and for independent researchers who aren't institutionally funded. We've also occasionally offered comp access to journalists writing seriously about music video — contact us.

Please don't. Accounts are individual, and we occasionally need to reach out to members about their accounts or catalogue contributions. If someone you know wants access, encourage them to apply — the process is pretty low-friction.

Music videos across all genres and eras — the oldest material in the archive dates from the early 1980s. The catalog is biased toward work that isn't well-preserved or easily accessible elsewhere: director-led work from independent labels, non-English language material, pre-YouTube archive footage, and visual albums from artists who treat the form seriously.

We also have a dedicated section for concert films that function as distinct works, not just documentation.

Yes — this is one of the main ways the catalog grows. Members can submit requests through the members forum, or email hello@spectavid.xyz. We track all requests and work through them when time allows, usually in batches. There's no guarantee of timing but we do work through the list.

Please do. Email hello@spectavid.xyz with a link and a short description. We review all director submissions and respond within two weeks. If your work is added, you'll be credited with a director page and can optionally contribute a commentary note.

We define it loosely: a sustained visual work tied to a record, intended to be experienced as a whole rather than as a collection of individual clips. The category includes things like Beyoncé's Lemonade, Prince's Sign "☮" the Times concert film, Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer, and shorter forms like Donald Glover's Feels Like Summer. We don't insist on a strict definition — if the director intended it as a unified work, it qualifies.

Occasionally, usually because of a takedown request from a rights holder. We always note when something has been removed and why, and we try to maintain the metadata even when the video itself is gone. In practice this happens a few times a year at most — rights holders rarely object to a non-commercial curated archive, especially when the material isn't available elsewhere.

Most material is available at up to 1080p. Some archive material from the 1980s–90s is sourced from broadcast or VHS digitisations and tops out at 720p or SD. We note the source quality on each video page so you know what to expect before you watch.

The site works in any modern mobile browser. We don't have a native app currently — it's on the list, but the platform is fundamentally a web application and we've optimised for that experience first. Safari on iOS and Chrome on Android both work well.

Not currently. Downloads would complicate the informal licensing arrangements we have for some archive material. It's something we'd like to offer in the future with appropriate safeguards.

Catalogue requests, discussion about specific directors or works, sharing finds from elsewhere on the web, and occasional longer threads about music video as a form — history, craft, industry. It's low-volume and text-only. We don't allow self-promotion from people who aren't already known to the community.

Yes — members who want to contribute notes can do so after a short vetting process (basically: we look at your forum activity). Good curatorial notes are specific, knowledgeable, and focus on the work rather than the artist's biography. We credit all contributors on the relevant pages.

We periodically conduct written interviews with directors — usually emerging directors whose catalog is underrepresented in mainstream coverage, or directors who've been working in the form for a long time and haven't been written about seriously. These are exclusive to SpectraVid and live alongside the director's page in the archive. Annual members vote on upcoming Q&A subjects.