How can music on YouTube be promoted? Not an easy task, that one. Even though we put our entire beings into the music and video content, the majority of us are limited to a few hundred YouTube views every video. It is not in the proper state.
In this essay, I’ll go through everything I’ve learned about promoting my band’s songs on YouTube. Use my other tips on SEO, content marketing, Facebook, SoundCloud, and music promotion as well.
YouTube music promotion
Extreme metal is a subgenre of underground music where I’ve observed instances of unheard of bands achieving over 100,000 views very quickly. For genre searches like “melodic death metal,” “sludge metal,” or “shoegaze,” the top results are often returned. Unlike on Facebook, there are still opportunities to succeed and score highly without spending any money on advertising.
How can your music get hits on YouTube?
But what can you do to make it possible for people to do this with your songs, albums, and other videos? Social media, search engines, and YouTube hits make up the three main sources of traffic (like recommended and similar videos). Start by putting the below-mentioned recommendations into practise if you want to optimise your videos for search and clicks.
The YouTube algorithm logic
The following are some of the most important YouTube ranking factors:
- Typical viewing duration
- Video name
- described in the video
- YouTube tags
- video calibre
- View count
The algorithm used by Google is different from YouTube’s. It has some flaws that can be used against it. Similar to Google, the focus has switched from keywords to metrics that indicate how engaged users are. The average watching time is a crucial factor in whether new videos trend strongly. The significance of keywords and other metadata has not diminished, though.
Average viewing time (watch time)
What it says on the tin is the ranking criterion for YouTube watch time. How long does the average watcher of the video spend watching it? The best way to keep readers on your site for longer is to provide them with interesting content. Lyric videos are usually superior to songs with album covers. Longer videos are a tried-and-true method to increase YouTube views.
This is not to say that the videos are intentionally filled with less worthwhile content. To make it easier for the public to grasp, one method is to post entire albums or combine songs into one movie and another. According to my observation, complete albums frequently get more YouTube views than individual tracks.
Average viewing times from my YouTube channel
I’ll offer a variety of statistics from my songs and albums as my YouTube channel includes a tonne of actual music data. The contrast helps to make the differences clear.
The trend is intriguing even when we are comparing multiple songs. The live screen lyrics video takes centre stage, overshadowing the album cover video. Over individual single videos, the extended album-focused video wins. This proves it’s a smart idea to use extended videos.
Video for “Zombie” album cover: 1:57 minutes on average
The “With or Without” lyric video has a 2:52 minute average viewing duration.
“An Empty Frame” full-length video 8:10 on average are spent watching.
The length of time that my participation involves viewers is contrary to the adage “action keeps the viewer active.” Breeding Death by My Bloodbath averages just 1:17 whereas Brave New Hell by the group is watched for an average of 1:18. Only 1:13 are really used in my odd System of a Down cover of “Erials.” In the end, the covers have more benefitted my channel as a fun hobby than anything else.
Video title
Your video’s title plays a critical role in YouTube music promotion for two reasons: it describes the video for viewers and gives search engines a definition of it. Try to include your genre and the year without making it too lengthy. If the band sounds similar to another, it could be a good idea to include “similar to xxx.” Ultimately, it needs to be both readable and SEO-optimized.
Also Read : YouTube music video promotion service that actually works
Video description
The process of creating metadata for videos and other types of content is incredibly laborious. Consequently, you should put in more effort. I try to create a video description of at least 300 words for each video I upload. Start with the essential identifying details, such as the artist, song, year, and genre.
A clear clickthrough link should always be included. A mistake would be made if you omitted it, even though it won’t help you sell a million CDs. Do you think of Bandcamp or Facebook?
Here are some guidelines for making video descriptions 300 words long and still relevant (searchable):
- Put lyrics in
- Add comparable artists or influences
- Include URLs to additional videos
- Include useful links
- include collaborator links
- What inspired you to create this video?
Video tags
From comparable videos, the tags might produce valuable referral traffic. Make some research to find out more about tags. Find the band articles that have had the highest traffic and include them in your tags. Views can be increased by using tags in an innovative yet suitable way.
Video quality
Video quality is a factor that YouTube ranking regularly ignores. YouTube prefers HD video, regardless of if it contains merely a music video with an album cover or only a few lines. Due of the rarity of this action, make sure to take it. Remember to give your video file a name that is consistent with the video’s subject and title. Additionally, rankings may be impacted.
View count
A large number of views serves as both a rating indicator and a badge of authority. It makes sense to promote your most popular videos. Consider someone who is viewing your channel profile for the first time. Isn’t a video with 50,000 views better than one with 500 views for greeting them?
Video formats for music promotion
More than merely uploading your songs to YouTube is required for music promotion. You should think about content marketing more the better. The most well-liked music videos that bands and performers can create to promote their work are listed below.
- Playthroughs
- Cover music
- current versions
- practice versions
- Live Q&As
- music critiques
- prime lists
YouTube playlists
Playlists are an underutilised strategy for increasing traffic to your YouTube channel. It could be a way to increase channel views and subscribers. You might be able to include your own content in the playlists if you’re a little crafty in order to draw in the appropriate viewers. Think over the following recommendations while choosing playlist themes:
- playlists by genre
- Mood playlists
- regional playlists
- annual playlists
- One last important note
To be successful with social media marketing, keep in mind that building a brand is essential. Your brand may be your band, your individual company, a channel or page concept, etc. Make thoughtful use of well-known themes and other components across all platforms. Every profile photo and thumbnail is an opportunity to advertise your brand. This is essential if you want to distinguish something, like your YouTube music channel. In the end, for me, it’s all about my bands. There’s a good reason why almost all of my online profiles feature the Soliloquium – Contemplations advertising.
Spread the word
Because you’re trying to increase your YouTube audience, you shouldn’t disregard your social media approach.
To converse with people who have various viewpoints and interests, you should instead use online forums and organisations.
Some of the most popular online artist groups can be found on platforms like Reddit and SoundCloud. For instance, you may subscribe to both more general subreddits like ‘r/listen to this and subreddits specifically linked to the genre of music you enjoy on Reddit.
Think about how the dynamics of this group could be improved. Does your video contain any dialogue addressing subjects or concerns that are significant to this community or group? If so, that would be wonderful. When you publish your video and urge users to watch it, don’t forget to provide an enticing thumbnail. Having profiles on all of the major social media platforms is necessary to expand your following, generate excitement for upcoming events or initiatives, post your music videos, of course, and create other types of engaging content.
You may also create teaser content from your music video for use on your social media like a 15-second Instagram story or a 30-second Facebook post.
