How to leverage your youtube music channel

YouTube is the most popular video outlet in the world, and as such, the free service is an integral part of any serious artist’s music marketing strategy. Ignore it at your own peril! Among all the categories of videos found on YouTube, music is far and away the most popular, accounting for nearly 31% of all videos played through the website.So how do you begin to leverage its potential into a plus for your career? Here are six key tips to keep in mind as you go about building your YouTube presence.

1. Provide your viewers with information
The people who discover your videos could already be fans, but they could also have absolutely no idea who you are. The proper information needs to be available to users so that they can become more familiar with your act.Providing relevant links, video descriptions, and additional detailed information provides your viewers with easy access to important data such as the location where they can buy your album or download or share your content with their own personal networks.

2. Talk to your viewers, because they care (or might want to)
Engage with your viewers! Social media is a two way street, so if someone sends you a message or comments on your video, do your best to answer their questions, stir up a conversation, or thank them for the time they spent watching your videos.Ultimately, the more closely connected a fan feels to you as an artist, the more likely they are to watch that video again, post it to Facebook, tweet it, or share it in some other way.

3. Keep the content flowing!
The more engaging content you can post on your channel the better. This includes song videos, behind the scenes footage, tour diaries, etc. Give your fans a reason to stay involved in what you’re doing on your YouTube channel. Film a quick video of your band doing vocal warm ups before a gig, or saying hi to a crowd before you go out on stage.

4. Put yourself behind the eyes of a viewer
Be mindful of how fans and YouTubers are seeing your band’s presence on your channel. DIY bands
hurrying to shovel more content onto their channel often overlook the basics. In addition to
ensuring that your video and audio content is worth broadcasting, be sure the titles of your videos make sense and are informative (Band name/song title/ live performance venue/ etc.). Do your Tags make sense for each video? Are viewers able to get more info about this video if they need it?

5. Promote your YouTube content on your other Social Channels
It may sound obvious to interlink your various digital media channels, but some bands forget to do
this. Use your YouTube videos as content for blog and Facebook posts, tweets, and fodder on your
other social channels. It gives you timely content to broadcast, and it drives views and traffic to your YouTube channel. Engage with fans by sending them a new song they’ve never heard before. If you decide to debut a new song on YouTube, decide on a release date and start promoting the release via all the forms of digital media you use. You can also try a video teaser on your other channels by excerpting a scene or two from a new YouTube release.

6. Customize you YouTube channel
Remember to always:
- Add performer info.
- Add links to descriptions where appropriate.
- Upload your three Album images with buy links to your purchase page. This can be used for anything, so be creative! Don’t forget that you can link to your merch.

Set your channel type to “Musician.” By changing this status within your “Settings,” you can add things like band member info and add “Events” for things like shows or new releases.

Making the most of your YouTube channel requires you to spend some time learning what is working for other bands and what works best for your audience. Be sure you speak with and listen to your fans using social media and YouTube, as they will help guide you to build a channel that is engaging and effective.

source:discmakers.com