YouTube Essentials

20 Oct

YouTube is one of the worlds most used & popular platforms, with a global search engine used by all age demographics, where content can be spread far and wide. The planet has faced and will continue to face many hard challenges during this Covid pandemic. With a little bit of imagination and creativity, the music industry is finding new ways to promote their art and engage with fans, existing and new. YouTube is one of those platforms, where the chance to connect and tell a story to your audiences is still present. Below are helpful tips to help spark creativity and lead you on the path to making your YouTube profile successful. 

 

So you have created your song/album, now what?! It's time to start creating extra assets to market yourself and your release to your audiences. Take a look at four example videos of extra supportive content created:

 

Music Videos

Kween G Offical Music Video- Something In Your Eyes 

 

Live Performances/Streams - This can be a full performance or used to showcase a new release. 

Freeds- Seafoam Green (Live From The Hive)

 

Lyric Videos - Sound with moving graphics and animated text overlay.

honest dan- Star Struck 

 

Visualisers - Sound with moving graphic, animation or an unofficial video.

ICEVENA- Is This Love for Real 

 

YouTube Pitching

YouTube can help get better watching time on a new release or even chances for it to be playlisted. YouTube compiles playlists by genre, cultural trends, activities and other themes using internal data and user input.

Key information to include in your YouTube pitch is a short story about your song (not a full artist bio) and marketing information (how are you going to direct users/fans to the video and your profile). It's highly recommended to look into your analytics so that you can target the territories you're succeeding in.

 

Reasons to pitch to YouTube: 

- You have a new song delivery - you have a new song being released that has not been released before this week. 

- You're uploading an Official Music Video (catalogue priority) 

- You're uploading extra creative content i.e.visualiser- This is for an already existing release and is another way to prompt the song such as a lyrics video to accompany a music video

 

Additional reason to pitch:

This is an opportunity to re-pitch for a different genre or because a song is resonating with listeners after it has been released. This can include:

- Supporting an album release

- Supporting radio play

- Pitching for seasonal support like holidays music

- Supporting another artist/ song milestone i.e. tour launch, press/tv appearance. 

 

MCN- Multi-Channel Network

For unestablished and/or new YouTube profiles, you can be added to our Multi-Channel Network. “MCNs” or “networks” are third-party services that affiliate with multiple YouTube channels to offer services that may include audience development, content programming, creator collaborations, digital rights management, monetization, and/or sales.

Onboarding and releasing channels in line with contracts in place between artist agreements and YouTube regulations. For more information on how to set up your profile within our MCN, email musicvideos@xelondigital.com.

For more information on the best practices for YouTube, click here.