CHAPTERS:
1. Optimize your profile
2. Spread the word
3. Interact with similar channels
4. Schedule your videos
5. Create engaging content
6. Find your audience
7. Use YouTube SEO
9. Track your analytics
10. Use CTAs in your videos
11. Collab with influencers
12. Paid YouTube ads
12 ways to promote music on YouTube
Why are videos so important for promoting your music? well, much of the reliance on video and visuals comes from their ability to establish a agile and more meaningful joining between a song and its listeners. Plus, you can get paid every time someone watches your music video.
And do n’t forget, Ditto can get your music television on Vevo, putting you in an even better place for views, engagement and more likely royalties when people watch your vids. With that said, here are 12 surefire ways to boost your ocular presense and promote your music on YouTube.
1. Optimize your profile
First impressions count. Big-time. Hit the ground running by taking the meter to make sure your YouTube transmit is well-presented and pleasing to the eye. here ‘s our handy checklist to cover the basics. Has your channel got :
– A well-designed & optimal sized YouTube banner image
– A great profile photo or logo
– Well-organised content – i.e. content arranged into playlists or thematic sections for specific kinds of videos (‘official music videos’, ‘official remixes’ & ‘live performances’)
– Links to your social media and official website
-A description in your ‘About’ section i.e. a clear statement about your mission & voice as an artist (as well as any hashtags that might help the algorithm pick up your channel!)
– High-quality thumbnails – either ones suggested by YouTube or ones you’ve customized yourself, via apps like Canva & Adobe
As you can see below, Becky Hill ’ s channel meets all of the requirements. Profile image, banner and social links
Organised distribution channel content & quality thumbnails
A big onscreen aesthetic can be the difference between viewers deciding to stay on your channel and have a amble about, or leaving before they ’ ve tied put two feet through the door.
2. Spread the word
Just because you ’ re trying to generate an audience on YouTube, doesn ’ triiodothyronine mean you should slack on your social media scheme. rather – you should take advantage of online groups and communities as an opportunity to interact with different people, topics and interests. Some of the most popular on-line community groups among musicians are on places like SoundCloud & Reddit. With Reddit for exemplar, you can join subreddits that align specifically with your music genre or expressive style, ampere well as more general ones like ‘r/listen to this. ‘ Think about how you could add value to these group dynamics. Does your video cope interact with certain topics or themes that are relevant to this group or residential district ? If it does, then that ’ s big ! Post your television and encourage people to check it out and don ’ thymine forget to upload an attention-getting thumbnail. This besides means being on all the most important social media platforms to extend your reach, create hype around approaching projects or developments, share your music video of path, and come up with early forms of engaging content. You can besides prepare cuts of your music video to be utilized as teaser content for use across your social media – either as a 15 seconds Instagram narrative or a 30 moment Facebook post. here ’ s an example from Justin Bieber, who created a teaser version of his music video for 2012 track “ Boyfriend ”, which he posted across his social channels american samoa well as his official YouTube.
This gives people a prowler top out into your video which will help build anticipation and aim people to your YouTube channel to view the wax thing when it ’ s out !
3. Interact with similar channels
One of the main ways to promote employment with your channel is to engage and interact with early channels that are similar to yours. You ca n’t promote yourself all day every day to be effective. You need others – people who you can spouse with to add rate to your own propose. Similar channels are the ones to target, because if they ’ re posting exchangeable music to yours and people are subscribing, you ’ ve basically found your target hearing ! so build a network with other musicians on the platform by finding channels that play your style of music and take their content seriously. You can do this by just searching YouTube for similar artists or general vibration of music. Say your music is Lana Del Rey related, then look for YouTube channels that are orientated to that vibration – so either artists like Lana Del Rey specifically, or indie dream wave more by and large. You ’ ll find a whole bunch of channels that feature that kind of music…
then you can get to liking & commenting on similar artists’ YouTube videos. Curate some in truth standout comments that ’ ll have you noticed by other artists and YouTube users alike. And if your comment blows up, it could get pinned to the top of that video recording, putting your channel in a choice view blot !
TOP TIP: you can also comment on a channels community tab to interact with their social feed!
But don ’ t sleep on your own ! You need to cover ALL ground. Which means inciting conversations in the comments section of your own video. Whether they ’ re old video or new ones, there ’ sulfur always a conversation to be had.
4. Schedule your videos
Create a consistent and regular upload schedule, so fans and subscribers know when to expect a new television from you. This international relations and security network ’ t about posting television left, right and concentrate – in fact, it ’ s the reverse. It ’ south better to over rescue than underdeliver. so don ’ t set yourself up to post three videos a week, miss two of them because you were interfering on tour, and leave your fans feeling damage and defeated because you missed a deadline. The frequency of your television posts is wholly up to you. But it ’ s a beneficial idea to post at least once a month, sol fan don ’ t drop off while they ’ ra waiting for your new video spill or doubt whether your groove is still active. As you can see, Lil Nas X regularly updates his YouTube channel on a 3-4 week footing, posting systematically and never leaving his fans questioning his following video dismiss.
Posting during peak times of the day is a good rule of thumb to make sure your videos reach the utmost number of people as possible – specially if you ‘ve got listeners across different clock time zones. You can ’ t actually incrimination fans for not tuning into your latest vid if you posted it in the in-between of the nox or when they ’ re out getting loose on a Friday night ! But – if you want to actually effectively tailor your release schedule to your audience, head to your channel ‘s ‘Analytics’ tab. From there, you ‘ll be able to see a breakdown of when most people view your television. You can then use this information to dictate the days/times that you ‘ll schedule in your vids. Handy, justly ?
5. Create engaging video content
Your YouTube channel shouldn ’ thymine affair as merely an archive for your tracks. It needs to do more than that. It should feature other content that will add value to your music and your fans viewing experience – peculiarly content that enables them to connect with you on a deeper level. Brainstorm some content ideas ahead of time to help you organise the content on your duct and what types of video you ’ ll promote. here ’ s some ideas to get you started :
– Q&A/get to know sessions – Live video streams – Playlist series or sessions – Teasers/behind the scenes clips
And if you ’ re very stuck for ideas, the analogy to follow is : multiple videos, one song. What do we mean by this ? well, you can get at least 2-4 videos out of each of your songs by just repurposing the master content. Think: official song release, lyric video, collabs, acoustic/acapella/remix versions and so on. Pop music powerhouse Ed Sheeran is a prime exemplar of reusing similar content to make it stretch further – in the form of remixes and acoustic sessions of his tracks…
Plus his more personally curated content in the kind of behind-the-scenes videos and his take on YouTube shorts, # SheeranShorts…
YouTubers and artists are constantly finding new and creative approaches for making betroth content. so take note and try it for yourself !
6. Find your audience (or pinch someone else’s!)
When you ’ re just starting it, it ’ s unlikely you ’ ll have a estimable enough subscriber or fan foundation to get you that charge of exposure you want. So you ’ ll have to build one. Finding your consultation or finding your recess, is thinking about where – either on-line or offline – people who appreciate and listen to your kind of music hang out. Think social media platforms, on-line and offline communities etc. Approach these people either immediately, or by sending them a link to your channel and a civil note to check out your material ! And there ’ s nothing underarm about pinching person else ’ s. Most of the time, building an audience comes from tapping into an existing audience of music that’s already popular. One of the number one ways artists have done this in the past, is by making a cover television of a well-known sung by an artist who already has a big subscriber basis. Boyce Avenue are one exemplar of a band who rose to fame when they posted covers of celebrated 90s bands and artists such as Oasis, The Goo Goo Dolls and Avril Lavigne.
truth is, people rarely pay attention to an artist they ’ ve never seen ahead. Sometimes it takes that artist to play a song by their all-time favorite artist for them to just sit up and take notice ( harsh but true ! ).
7. Use YouTube SEO
In elementary terms, SEO or “ Search Engine Optimization ” is about using phrases and keywords that people search for within your video content. By tapping into what people are searching for, you can about guarantee to get an increased number of views and fans. Get started with Ahrefs complimentary keyword explorer ! With YouTube, you can take advantage of keywords by… – Using keywords and search phrases in the title of the video – Using keywords and search phrases in the video description – Using tags that help describe what your video is about e.g. “independent music” or “indie” now when it comes to choosing which keywords to target, fair remember while certain keywords may have a high gear search book, they may besides have a set of competition. It ’ s best to try and target words that are less competitive to make surely your television actually has a probability of getting seen !
Top Tip: Consider SEO when it comes to choosing your song titles.
Generic titles like ’Love Song’ or ‘Heartbreak Song’ are really overused and therefore highly competitive. So try to be a bit more original.
If you ’ ve already chosen your song championship, you might want to consider a name change when you post it to YouTube, flush if you don ’ thymine change the song ’ south actual lyrics ( it ’ sulfur legal, we promise ! ). Beyond Ahrefs, TubeBuddy besides has a long ton of great absolve SEO features and gives you a breakdown of what your videos are missing to be in full optimised.
8. Find out what’s #trending
Take advantage of current trends that match your style of music and what you stand for. You could see huge fanbase growth off just one in truth trendy video. so next time something happens and you find it interesting, make a music video about it. You ’ five hundred be surprise how a lot creative room you can besides hold onto while taking advantage of a course. Google Trends is a beneficial place to find out what ’ south getting the most hits online, or you could check out YouTube Trends to see what ‘s trending on the platform more specifically. possibly you ’ re tapping into a modern crocs tendency ( nice ). That doesn ’ triiodothyronine mean you have to write lyrics about a pair of crocs literally. You could write a song on what they represent in terms of nostalgia and childhood memories for example. Another exemplar is the manipulation of ephemeral dance fads within a music television – think Gangman Style, Single Ladies, Vogue. Trends and fads come and go, but the overnight exposure you could get from tapping into a ephemeral swerve, can actually have a durable impact.
9. Track your analytics
Find out who ’ sulfur viewing your video recording, where they ’ ra viewing it from and how long they ’ ra viewing it for. You can then use these figures to see which of your videos are most highly in need and then try to make contentedness that is exchangeable to that one. YouTube has its own built-in analytics section which you can access from the ‘YouTube Studio ’ section of your YouTube profile. There ’ s a huge array of useful reports that ’ ll provide you with all the information you need to make tactical video recording selling decisions. Including information on : – Watch times – Traffic sources – Audience demographics – Playback locations – Audience retention rates – Subscriber rates
10. Use CTAs in your videos
Having a ‘ call To Action ’ or CTA in your video is a way of directing users to do something before, during or after your video. Whether that ’ s subscribing to your channel so they never miss a new television, prompting them to watch another video exchangeable to this one, or encouraging them to go elsewhere to your official web site. These can take the class of : A pop-up book during the television
A link in the description legal profession
A link at the end of the television
11. Collab with other YouTubers & influencers
Just like networking with other musicians on YouTube, it ’ s a great theme to get collaborating with YouTubers who aren ’ t inevitably artists in their own field, but are alternatively mighty music influencers in the creative video recording diligence. Search YouTube accounts that do reaction videos or TikTok creatives that recapitulation people ‘s music or video recording message. See if they ’ rhenium open to posting a link to your impart somewhere, hosting one of your videos, or giving your video recording a recapitulation. If it ’ s a democratic channel, that ’ s very good exposure. And if they like your music, they ’ ll most likely do it for dislodge ! One such case is @ bakuriftu – a TikTok creative whose unconstipated content includes a mix of new artists, music spotlights, sample breakdowns and record reviews of raw music.
@bakurifuto New Artist 🚨 @iamdeyaz #newmusic #indiesoul #indiemusic #musictok #sunsetmusic #musicdiscovery #newmusic #musicsocialite
♬ Helpless – Deyaz
With over 92K followers and 2.2M likes, influencers like this ridicule are nowadays the modern music tastemakers. sol connecting yourself with the correct people – for little to no money – is a great way to trade traffic with these big creatives !
12. Paid YouTube Ads
Up until now, all the methods we ’ ve talked about have been organic – i.e. ways you can grow your audience organically ( all hard work, 0 dollar bills ). And while organic methods have proven in truth effective, we can ’ thymine overlook the value of using YouTube paid advertising as a herculean creature to promote yourself on the chopine. YouTube allows you some fantastic target options and you can optimize the budget you set out for this feature of speech.
Read more: The Best 8 Ways to Promote a Music Video
If you haven ’ thymine already, you can get started by signing up for a Google Ads report. beginning by testing the waters with a relatively low budget. See what sort of return you get and you can then use this feedback to inform a basic ad strategy that you ’ ll consumption to increase your visibility on the chopine. It ’ sulfur all about experimenting with unlike formats to see which ones work the best for promoting your music !