Understanding Your Audience
One of the most critical aspects of creating a successful YouTube channel in any niche is the in-depth understanding of your potential audience. You should analyze which age categories will prefer your content and what genres of music people like most. It is also essential to check what type of content people perceive the best today – for example, YouTube live-stream music is among them. For inspiration, you can check channels like Boiler Room, Pitchfork, and BBC Radio 1.
How to Make a Music Channel on YouTube: Step-by-Step Instructions
First of all, you need to create a music channel on YouTube. To do this, just follow the simple instructions below:
- Log in to YouTube.
- Click on your profile icon.
- Select "Settings".
- Click the "Add or manage your channel(s)" tab.
- Select the type of your channel, namely “musician.”
- Click the "Create a new channel" button.
- Come up with a channel name and enter it.
- Fill in the description field.
- Click "Submit".
Now when you know how to start a channel, you need to create a banner and a miniature logo that will be displayed in the bottom left corner of your videos. On the banner, you can place up to five links to pages on third-party platforms like Spotify, Soundcloud, Instagram, X, etc. As for the logo, it should reflect the theme of your channel and demonstrate its personality. All the above are basic recommendations, so you can check out our complete guide on optimizing your YouTube channel.
Creating a Content Plan
To constantly gain new viewers on your channel, you must develop a content plan and always stick to it. Your subscribers, just like YouTube algorithms, expect you to post new videos regularly. It could be one video per week or two or four per month – the main thing is that your content comes out constantly. As for the content type, you can publish music videos, shorts, and play music in live stream. This way, you can diversify your channel and don’t allow the public to forget you for a long time.
Creating Interesting Content for a Music YouTube Channel
With engaging content, people will watch your channel. Therefore, you must think carefully about what videos you will upload to YouTube. Let's look at the types of content you can provide your audience with:
- Music videos. The first thing that comes to the mind of any artist is to create music videos and, with their help, to popularize their art. These videos allow you to introduce your music to people worldwide and, if they like it, attract them to your channel as subscribers.
- Cover versions of songs. A great way to brand yourself as a good musician is to make cover versions of popular tracks. For example, by singing Billie Eilish's song in your style, you will attract the attention of her fans, and they may become your audience, too.
- Music lessons/teaching aids. If you are good at playing musical instruments and singing, you can show others how to do it correctly. Indeed, aspiring musicians often go to YouTube for advice. Your lessons may be of particular interest to them.
- Live streaming. You can play music on YouTube live streams and, this way, get more subscribers. The platform’s users often look for live-streaming YouTube channels to listen to music while studying, working, or resting.
- Backstage. You can always shoot material about how you produce a video for a channel, create music, or rehearse with a group. Viewers like this type of content because it allows them to learn more about you and oversee these magic processes.
- Collaborations. If you have friends who also play music, you can make a song with them. This way, audiences on both sides may become interested in your channels, and you will be able to “exchange” your subscribers.
- “Question and Answer” sessions. Indeed, your followers have something to ask you, and such a section on your channel will also increase interest in your person and brand.
Optimizing Your Music Videos for Search
To make your channel rank well in YouTube search results, you must optimize it. It may sound complicated as you need to master basic SEO skills – without it, your music may receive much less attention. For this, you need to analyze the most frequent user requests, such as “lounge,” “music for focus and work,” “relaxing music,” etc. These are called tags or keywords, and you should include them in the descriptions of your videos. You can write not only the genre of music but also the name of the artist, song titles, and everything related to your topic.
Hashtags play no less important role – along with keywords, they allow you to increase the presence of your videos in search results. Here, you can also write genres of music and create your own, such as the name of the group/artist, the name of the track, the name of your channel, and related topics such as “live music channel,” “metalhead,” and others.
Music Streaming as a Source of New Subscribers
Live streaming for musicians is one of the best ways to gain extra audience growth. Nowadays, any content creator must know how to make a 24/7 live stream of music. Special tools allow you to go live with your music quickly and easily.
One such cloud-based tool, Gyre, allows you to stream 24/7 using pre-recorded content. Depending on the plan, you can run up to 8 simultaneous streams on 1 YouTube channel or even use different channels for this. You can also run streams on Twitch, Facebook, and Instagram. In addition, many features save you time: you can set up playlists and start a stream in a couple of clicks, schedule autostart and completion, and optimize files in your account for platform parameters. And, of course, you can go live in Full HD or 4K. This way, you can reach the maximum number of views and reactions.
FAQ
How often should I upload new content to my music channel?
In this situation, everything depends on you. The more often you do this, the better. It could be one video per week or more. You can also go live musically to maintain activity on your channel and attract new subs.
What equipment do you need to make quality videos?
If you want to try yourself as a live music streamer, you need a camera, microphone, a PC for video and music editing, and creative ideas. Without them, even with the most advanced equipment in the world, you will not be able to make viral content.
Can I use copyrighted music in my videos?
You can use it in your videos; however, the problem is that if you choose copyrighted music for live streaming, you will not receive any income from it because it will be divided between YouTube and the license owners only.