Are you an artist who wants to make a music channel on YouTube? No matter how cool it is, you should have a well-prepared strategy that combines several ways to promote your music – thus, you will maximize your chances of reaching worldwide fame. Below, we will share with you what exactly it consists of.

You can learn about the role that streaming can play in your strategy and how to use our Gyre tool for this.

 
 

Develop a Clear Content Strategy

It's worth starting with building a detailed, well-thought-out content strategy. It can be based on trends in addition to your existing tracks. We also highly recommend researching popular music creators on this platform to determine their path to success.

Identify your target audience

So, first, you will need to define your target audience by creating a portrait of the average viewer (including their age, location, interests, gender, etc., basically everything you can glean from your channel analytics). In general, you have to focus on attracting loyal fans, not one-time viewers – therefore, the more accurately you “guess” their preferences, the better.

Post more than just music videos

Of course, your music videos will be the centerpiece of your music channel on YouTube, but that doesn’t mean your channel should only include them. In particular, to get closer to your audience and lift the curtain on your life, you can also publish behind-the-scenes footage of your creative process. In addition, you should take advantage of YouTube Shorts to attract new audiences quickly. Finally, you can provide educational materials about your creative activities or insights into your musical path.

Plan and schedule your content

Now that you have a bunch of ideas about what kind of content needs to be on your channel, you should schedule posting music on YouTube, taking into account your audience's highest activity time, optimal frequency, and video order.

By the way, to maximize reach and attract as many viewers as possible, you can run 24/7 streams consisting of pre-recorded content. In this case, your resource costs will be minimal (i.e., you will not have to be online in front of the camera all the time), and the profit will be the highest.

Leverage YouTube’s Tools for Musicians

You can use specialized tools for artists on YouTube to promote your content effectively within the platform. The first of these is YouTube Ads for musicians, with which you can target your videos to users interested in your creativity and bring them directly to your channel. However, that’s not all.

You also have the option to set up an Official Artist Channel, where you can consolidate all your music content. It will give you the image of a professional artist and also provide you with access to advanced YouTube Analytics for Artists and some additional features, such as adding tabs with albums and organizing playlists. Moreover, with the help of an official channel, it will be easier for you to interact with your audience since all your videos will now automatically appear at the top of your channel.

Here, you can learn even more about the tools and services for promotion on YouTube.

Optimize Your Videos for Discovery

Now let's find out how you can optimize your videos and channel in general: 

  • Consider customizing your channel design. To promote music on YouTube, you should create an attractive banner that would reflect your style and genre of music (it is essential to make sure that it is optimized for all devices), and also come up with an informative description of the channel (it should be inserted in the "About the channel" section, indicating the genre of music, sources of inspiration (optional), its history, etc.);
  • Apply SEO for your videos. To do this, research keywords that your viewers can use to search for music – they will need to be inserted into the titles, descriptions, and tags of your videos (you can find more information about hashtags here), in particular when it comes to description, it has to be detailed, has with keywords, as well as include mentions of the participants of your track and links to your albums and third-party social networks;
  • Create visually attractive thumbnails. Here, you will have to create bright and eye-catching images with call-to-actions and graphics that complement the content of your video; in general, each thumbnail should be related to what the viewer will see after starting the video; 
  • Focus on increasing watch time and engagement. Since YouTube considers overall watch time, its boosting can help you promote your music on YouTube as well – that’s why it’s so essential to create long-form videos (like track lists, song creation stories, or podcasts); you should also encourage viewers to like, comment, and share your videos; 
  • Be consistent and use the platform to its full potential. Group your tracks into themed playlists to make it easier for users to find your content, recommend other videos to maximize your channel’s watch time, and create a posting schedule to ensure they are coming out regularly.

Experiment With Livestreaming

Generally speaking, live streams are considered a powerful tool to promote a YouTube channel and attract an audience, and they can also be used in your monetization strategies. In particular, many musicians give concerts online (this became especially popular during the COVID-19 pandemic when offline concerts were prohibited). However, if you do not have the opportunity to spend a lot of time in front of the camera (or you are simply not ready for this), you can stream using previously recorded videos.

If we discuss monetization in more detail, there are several options: first, you can enable Super Chats and Super Stickers — since they are paid, you will receive income from each live stream. You can also collect donations by redirecting your viewers to third-party platforms such as Patreon and encouraging the audience to buy a Premium subscription.

Engage With Your Audience

Now let's take a closer look at the principles of interaction with the audience to promote your music video on YouTube:

  • Greet your viewers by name – this is especially important during live streams for viewers who often leave comments, send questions, and donate: this way, you will create an impression that they are significant to you;
  • Organize AMA sessions – thus, your audience will get the opportunity to learn about precisely what they are most interested in (for example, about your creative process);
  • Ask questions to the audience – in particular, you can ask about what song they would like to hear performed live or what the topic of your next live stream should be;
  • Use polls – with them, you will be able to understand the interests of your audience better and boost their engagement;
  • Create exclusive content — here, we mean song premieres or behind-the-scenes moments;
  • Respond to comments even if they are negative. The main goal is to create a warm and trusting atmosphere with your viewers.

Collaborate and Network

We would like to dedicate this paragraph to cooperation with other content creators since, in general, it can boost your YouTube channel and open up new horizons. To do this, you need to:

  • Collaborate with other musicians and authors, creating joint tracks (duets, covers of popular songs, etc.);
  • Invite your colleagues to perform on your live streams or take part in theirs yourself;
  • Unite with authors from different genres to go beyond the usual audience and thereby expand it;
  • Participate in challenges and competitions – such events quickly gain popularity and grow real subscribers.

Track Analytics and Adjust

YouTube Analytics provides a wealth of useful information that will help you improve your music channel on YouTube in the future. In particular, we are talking about:

  • Watch time – here, you can understand at what points viewers lose interest and reconsider the format of your subsequent videos;
  • Demographics – this will help you understand the characteristics of your audience and tailor your content to their preferences;
  • Traffic sources – they will help you understand where the bulk of your viewers come from, so you can focus on those platforms that bring the most benefit;
  • Click-Through Rate – this metric will help you create attractive titles and covers;
  • Comments and likes are needed to understand which content elements your audience likes most. 

Promote Your Channel Outside YouTube

At the end of our guide for musicians, we would like to note that YouTube is only a part of the comprehensive promotion strategy – that’s why you should also use other social networks, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc. You can publish teasers and highlights from your videos to redirect the audience to your YouTube channel. Also, don’t forget about streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.) – you will need to post links to your accounts on your channel, too.

More advanced promotion strategies can also include email newsletters (if you have a subscriber base, you can send them announcements of new videos or links to your exclusive content) and offline promotion (if you are regularly invited to interviews or you have offline concerts where you can present your new tracks on YouTube).