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YouTube Optimization for Musicians, How and Why?

All about YouTube

Today, YouTube is the largest platform for any artist to create viral content and gaining fame. For that very purpose, it is essential to know exactly how YouTube optimization for musicians can help be a successful music artist.

YouTube Optimisation for Musicians

YouTube was born on 14th February 2005 and has grown rapidly since then. Every minute, more and more people around the world connect to the second-largest search engine in the world. People are also simultaneously uploading 400 hours of video footage on average, every minute, to YouTube. Additionally, 1 billion hours of video content is being watched on YouTube every day. Furthermore, it has also ranked as the second-most popular site, in 2018. Its founders are Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim. Its parent since 2006 is Google.

YouTube Channel

Setting up a YouTube channel brings all your music videos together under one roof for viewership. Just uploading videos will not be enough, having great YouTube content ideas for musicians is also equally important to grow your YouTube channel and increase your fan base. This also allows you to customize your channel with display and cover pictures. The channel includes an ‘About’ section to provide a short description of yourself, your music, why you chose it and perhaps a little history about your musical journey. Link to your website and provide contact details there.

When people subscribe to your channel, they will find your videos listed on their YouTube homepage when they log in.

Creation of ‘playlists’ within your channel to organizes your videos by type of music genres.

YouTube Analytics

It is an analytic and reporting tool that functions on self-service. It calculates data about each video you upload, so you can easily keep a tab on the views it gets, where people are coming from to view it and the type of people watching it.

YouTube Advertising

YouTube incorporates features that let you earn with your videos when you promote them, or it goes viral.

Advertisers pay each time someone views their ad running on your video. It’s up to you to choose its format, the location of the ad, and even how much you pay per view (if you want to boost the prominence of your ad over your competitors). YouTube’s advertising guide explains how it exactly works.

How to earn from YouTube?

No one becomes a YouTube sensation overnight. It takes a lot of effort and is time-consuming. Here are some pro tips on how YouTube Optimization for musicians enhances monetization.

  • First and foremost, it is important to find a niche for your channel. Choose between the kind of music you want to produce, be it instrumental, EDM, Sufi, Acoustic, Acapella, or whatever interests you. For example, visit this young musician Shraddha Sharma.
  • Link your YouTube channel with AdSense and enable monetization
  • Use good devices for recording your video. Nowadays, smartphones have good enough cameras which will save you money initially. But it is always better to invest in a good professional videographer who can edit as well. Or you may as well get yourself a camera and shoot your own videos and ask for a friend’s help.
  • Use good tools for editing your video. If you cannot edit them yourself, you can find freelance editors or get a friend who can help you.
  • Increase your social presence on other social platforms and let people around you know what you’re up to.
  • Use online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Quora etc. to enhance your viewership (over-time) by answering music-related queries and then re-directing them to your YouTube channel.

We came across this very beautifully explained blog on earning money through YouTube. You must have a look here. Also, read our blog How to make money as a musician?

Tips for YouTube optimization for Musicians

Branding Your Channel

  • As stated above, it is essential to find a niche for your channel. Choose between the kind of music you want to produce, be it instrumental, EDM, Sufi, Acoustic, Acapella, or whatever interests you. For example, visit this young musician Shraddha Sharma.
  • Then, design a customized channel art to display your branding.
  • Upload a good quality display and cover photo on your channel to enhance your personal brand.
  • Show your presence on Social media platforms and cross-promote your channel by linking one to another.
  • You may also want to customize the colors on your channel to match your brand/website.
  • Thumbnail is the visual description people will first see first when you share your video. An attractive image will compel people to click and view. YouTube has 3 thumbnails to choose from. if and when your channel is verified, you may as well upload a tailor-made thumbnail.
  • Be specific about your Call to Action. Whether it be ‘visit the website’, ‘listen to you on Soundcloud or Spotify’, or ‘to subscribe and press the bell icon. Don’t over-do the CTA option, it may confuse your audience.

Optimize Your Uploads

  • Add a title, description, tags (limit to about 5, use the most relevant ones first), and pick an appropriate category (most likely “Music”) for your videos. These are the most significant bits for SEO purposes.
  • A headline is important for SEO space. The chances that people are actually searching for you specifically is low until they’ve heard you first. So, make yourself discoverable.
  • Use the description field to link up to your website and other related links (where they can buy your song, album, etc.). The link to your website should include the “HTTP://” portion and be on the first line of the description.

Use an attractive thumbnail

  • You better keep in mind that your thumbnail is going to be the full visual representation of your video that viewers will see first when your video is shared on different platforms.
  • Be mindful of choosing an interesting and attractive image for your thumbnail, which will compel viewers to click on your video to see what’s in it.
  • YouTube lets you choose from 3 different images for your thumbnail so you can choose the most interesting one.
  • Ensure that your thumbnail consists of some text along with the image which tells what the video is all about.

Choose a catchy YouTube title

  • One of the major factors that contributes to the number of clicks your video gets on YouTube is the title of your video.
  • Ensure that you title your video in a catchy and attractive way and in not more than 70 characters, keep it short, simple and crisp. As many people will watch your video on a mobile phone and your title will be chopped of after 100 characters.
  • Be sure to use the term ‘video’ in your title as a lot of people search for videos when they are looking for content on other platforms like Google, Bing, Microsoft explorer etc.
  • Be sure of the relevance of the title to the content. Include the song title, artist’s name (using the word “cover” is beneficial), and your name (if an original composition).
  • Be alluring and think of such a title that your audience would love to watch, but it must also be relevant to your video and not just clickbait.

Write a relevant description of your YouTube video

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  • Add a reasonable descriptive text with details outlining your video. The description may be secondary to the title. Search engines will use that information to index your content.
  • It is crucial that the description of your video have keywords that will enhance your chances of showing up in searches of your fans or potential fans. While it should have all the necessary details, don’t make it too lengthy.
  • Keep it in mind that only a small part of your description is visible to your viewer before that press the drop-down menu to get more information. So, be sure to write the important details and information at the top.

Write tags and categorize your videos on YouTube

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If you’re blogging about music, then Tags are further important search tools used to categorize different posts based on the content. Relevant tags for musicians might include things pertaining to genres, musical style, artist name, record label, and similar others.

Choose a category that is best suited for your video, in your case, it will be music, and it can be different for different creators/artists. Tags will help you in improving your ranking in search and will improve your visibility. YouTube automatically suggests you some keywords based on your video title, and you can then add or remove them from your video. It’s better to use short and descriptive tags and keywords here and don’t forget to add your brand’s/artists name in the tag as well.

Interact

  • Use liking, commenting, subscribing and sharing capabilities of YouTube on a routine basis to enhance your visibility.
  • Subscribing to similar channels will cause you to pop up on other people’s radars more often. Contemporaries may want to check out your channel.
  • Collaborating with contemporaries would get you a good deal of visibility.

Make use of google keywords

Brainstorm the kind of stuff people search for on the internet. Search for such keywords online using various SEO platforms available. Include the proper keywords to target and rank for.

Most people begin their searches with what, why, how, where and when- so try and answer these questions in your title itself to get more reach.

Playlists

  • Categorize videos you have on your channel using Playlists. For example, live performance, music videos, acoustic covers, tour diaries, Acapella, etc.
  • Take advantage of the descriptive text fields provided while indexing your videos into playlists.
  • Create your own playlists, with your own videos.

Using annotations and promoting a Call to Action

  • You don’t just make a video only to get views. The purpose is to make people to take any action; it could be anything like following you on social media, listening to you on Spotify, buying your music or donating to the crowdfunding campaign you started.
  • One should always include a CTA (call to action) in the videos they post like, “follow me on Instagram”, “share this video”, or “visit our website”, etc.

Monetizing your YouTube

If you own your video’s rights and the music used in it or if you have the song you covered licensed under your name, you can monetize your video.

You just have to ensure that you are legally allowed to receive money for the content you produced.

Also, learn how to monetize your Soundcloud with our detailed blog.

Publish your video and start promoting

  • After all the time you have spent creating the metadata to ensure that you can be found, you can now publish your video and share it with your fans and viewers.
  • You can share the video in your community of creators with similar interests, reach new followers, and increase your fanbase.
  • If some other YouTube video inspires your video, be sure to give credit to them and politely ask you viewers to check out both the videos.

Analyze and make changes

  • If you are not satisfied with your own content and want to modify a few aspects of your video, take a hard look at your video and analyze your content to find out what is working out for and what is not.
  • Remember that you can edit out the title, description or thumbnail anytime you want in your video.

We hope to have cleared most of your doubts on YouTube optimization for musicians. Furthermore, feel free to get back to us through the comments below if you have any feedback or enquiry for us.

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