YouTube is one of the most influential platforms when it comes to music promotion and marketing.

With its 2.1 billion monthly active users, it’s arguably the best place you can upload your music and reach a wider audience.

But creating a YouTube channel and uploading music is not enough – you also need to promote it.

In today’s post, we’ll show you how to promote your music on YouTube and take advantage of all the promo tools you have at your disposal.

With these tools and methods, you’ll undoubtedly grow your audience and increase your chances to get discovered.

How to Promote Your Music on YouTube – 13 Ways 

There’s no doubt about it – YouTube plays an important role in every musician’s career, and it’s been one of the most prominent online platforms for a while now. 

Uploading songs and videos on YouTube is still one of the most effective music marketing strategies, and it’s a must for every aspiring artist.

But competition is high, so getting yourself noticed and increasing YouTube followers is not easy.

In fact, it takes a lot of time and effort to succeed.

Nevertheless, there are certain techniques and strategies that will help you get on the right track. 

1. Customize your channel

If you’re a new artist and you want to get started on YouTube, you first need to claim your YouTube for Artists profile.

To do this, you can contact your label or distributor and request an Official Artist Channel (OAC), or you can contact a Music Service Partner who can request an Official Artist Channel on your behalf. 

You are eligible for an OAC if you:

• Own a run a YouTube channel that represents you or your band 
• Have at least 3 official releases on YouTube delivered and distributed by a music distributor or label

Make sure you’re familiar with all the requirements and policies before claiming your OAC profile.

And if you don’t have any released songs yet, you can stick to a standard YouTube channel for now. 

Either way, apart from creating a channel, you also need to invest some time and effort into optimizing it. 

In other words, you need to make it nice and shiny.

Your YouTube channel should be neat, well-organized, and informative.

Your fans need to feel welcome, and they should be able to navigate the page very easily.

To make that happen, you can arrange your content into playlists and categorize your tracks by themes. 

Some artists offer playlists like tour playlists, live sessions, official videos, remixes, and so on. 

Besides making your page well-organized and easy to navigate, you should also make it aesthetically pleasing.

Eye-catching pages will keep your listeners interested, and there’s a better chance new visitors will click on some of your videos and subscribe. 

YouTube channels offer fewer possibilities and customization options than websites, but you can still make it visually appealing and personalized. 

For instance, you can add a well-designed YouTube banner image; and make sure it’s optimally sized as well.

A good profile photo or logo is also important, along with a clear and engaging description, social media links, and high-quality thumbnails.

2. Promote your channel on other platforms

Once your artist page is set up, you can start letting people know it exists.

You can use websites like Reddit and SoundCloud to join groups, communities, and conversations that include people who might be interested in your music.

And of course, you should create a powerful social media strategy.

Building a strong online presence is generally one of the most important marketing strategies for musicians, and social media platforms play a huge role here.

Many people use social media to discover new music, and in many cases, they discover it by accident.

That said, you can reach out to creators and influencers and ask them if they’re willing to use your song in their stories or posts.

Getting in touch with influencers is a great way to promote your music – a lot of people will hear your track, and at least some of them will check out your Instagram page and then visit your YouTube channel to listen to more of your music. 

So, make sure you include a YouTube link in your bio.

You can also promote your songs on platforms like TikTok, as short-form video content is dominating the Internet right now.

At the end of the day, you should use the platforms you feel comfortable with. 

The goal is to spread the word and attract active listeners and music fans who will be interested in your type of music. 

3. Find similar channels

Another good way to grow your audience and get more YouTube views is to find similar YouTube channels.

Engaging with similar channels will allow you to get attention from their audience – and since you share certain similarities, that might become your audience as well. 

So, search for YouTube channels with similar genres, styles, and moods, and comment on their videos.

To increase your chances of getting noticed, engage with multiple channels and comment and like frequently.

This way, you may even end up in the top comment section.

And you’ll support a channel that you like – so in a way, it’s a win-win situation.

4. Create engaging content 

Needless to say, the most important thing on your channel is your content.

If you keep promoting your profile but you don’t have a lot to offer, you won’t get that many subscribers.

Of course, your content should be based on your music, and if you’re making great music, you’re already on the right track.

But you also need to present that music in the right way. 

For instance, if you don’t already have one, you should think about shooting a music video.

It’s possible to make a quality music video nowadays even if you’re on a budget – you just need basic recording equipment and a good concept. 

See also: How to Make a Music Video

Apart from official music videos, you should upload audio videos and lyric videos.

When starting out, it also wouldn’t be a bad idea to upload a cover song.

Cover videos of popular songs by artists with a similar style to yours can attract many new potential subscribers. 

Furthermore, you can add remixes or acoustic versions of your previously released song.

Many successful artists tend to upload older songs over and over again – sometimes they upload a re-recorded version, and sometimes they just re-upload a track with a slightly better quality.

But the truth is, posting regularly and repurposing original content ultimately helps artists get more views, likes, comments, and subscribers.

And the more active you are, the more the YouTube algorithm will work to your advantage. 

5. Be consistent

Speaking of YouTube activity, our next suggestion is based on precisely that – being active and consistent.

Just like on social media, you need to post regularly on YouTube to keep the momentum. 

Of course, YouTube requires less activity than social media.

After all, you can’t release new songs every day, nor do your subscribers expect that of you.

But you can ‘fill the gap’ between two releases with short videos, behind-the-scenes videos, teasers, and so on. 

To make things easier for you, you should schedule your videos.

This way, your fans will always know when to expect a new video. 

6. Find your audience

Finding new listeners and building a fan base is sometimes challenging.

There are so many emerging artists out there, and with the oversaturated social media platforms and streaming services, it’s not easy to stand out from the crowd.

But it’s important to start small – join online music groups and communities, reach out to music bloggers and creators, and generally talk to people.

If you approach people directly, there’s a high chance they will be interested in what you have to say, especially if you have similar interests and musical tastes.

You need to find your niche and really know who your potential listeners might be – that’s arguably the best way to grow an audience in an organic, natural way.

Of course, music promotion services and promo tools can help you push your music forward, but you need to put the work in as well.

Once you find your audience, everything will be easier – people will start to talk about your music, share it, and recommend it. 

Word of mouth is sometimes the most effective marketing strategy. 

7. Use SEO

Besides approaching music fans and creators, you should also think about more technical ways you can promote your music on YouTube.

You’ve probably heard of SEO – search engine optimization which helps your page rank higher on Google and other search engines.

YouTube artists and creators use SEO as well, and that usually includes:

• Using keywords and search phrases in the title of the video and video description
• Using tags that help describe what your video is about 

SEO optimization will help you reach your target audience and get more views and subscribers.

8. Check what’s trending

Choosing target words and keywords for your YouTube video titles and descriptions also depends on what’s currently trending.

If you check what’s currently #trending, you can also get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. 

And this knowledge can help you create more engaging content.

You can check YouTube Trends to see what’s trending on the platform, and you can stay up to date with top songs on YouTube, charts, and so on.

Although finding out what’s trending can help you grow your channel, you should approach it carefully.

It’s important to stay authentic and not succumb to the latest trends just because you want more views and likes.

Creating good music and staying true to who you are as an artist should always be your priority. 

9. Include CTAs in your videos 

Another thing that can help you promote your songs on YouTube is the use of CTAs.

A call to action (CTA) is a marketing term that refers to the next step a marketer/creator wants their audience to take. 

In the world of music marketing and promotion, this may look like this:

• Adding a pop-up during the video
• Links in description bars
• A link at the end of the video

Many artists use CTAs in their videos, as they’re a very effective way to prompt an immediate response from viewers and get more engagement. 

10. Make YouTube shorts 

Another great way to get engagement on YouTube is to create YouTube shorts.

Short-term videos started to dominate the Internet a while ago, so it comes as no surprise that YouTube integrated this option into its platform as well. 

With a maximum length of 60 seconds, YouTube shorts offer the possibility to grab the attention of many users.

So, make them interesting and engaging, and include a teaser or something that will intrigue people and motivate them to check out your channel and music.

11. Track your progress

Once you start to grow your audience and the results of your music promotion start to be visible, it’s time to dive into YouTube analytics.

If you use YouTube for Artists, you’ll get in-depth insights into your progress and statistics such as:

• Subscriber rates
• Watch times
• Traffic sources
• Audience demographics
• Playback locations
• Audience retention rates

YouTube analytics will also help you figure out what to do next and whether you should continue with the same strategies.

12. Run paid promotions

Although it’s important to learn how to grow your audience on YouTube organically, you can also explore other options.

For instance, you can use YouTube paid advertising.

This is a rather effective way of getting more subscribers and promoting your music online.

And you don’t have to spend a ton of money right away – start small, and see how that affects your statistics. 

But how does advertising actually work on YouTube?

Well, there are different types of ads on YouTube: 

• Pre-roll video ads
• In-stream ads (skippable, sponsored ads) 
• Bumper ads (non-skippable clips)

Starting an advertising campaign on YouTube is rather easy – you just need to determine what type of ad you want to go for and why.

You need to pick a campaign goal, set a budget, select the places you’d like your ad to show and not show, name your ad group (use SEO keywords), name your bid amount, and name your target audience. 

If all of this seems confusing, you can use YouTube analytics to find out more about your audience.

13. Collaborate with others

As we mentioned before, it’s useful to get in touch with influencers and content creators who can help you promote your music on social media and other platforms.

But it would also be good for your channel to collaborate with other people on YouTube. 

You can get in touch with other musicians, for example – you can host live sessions together, or you can simply exchange ideas.

And you can reach out to YouTubers who are focused on different types of content. 

There are many YouTube channels based on new song and album reviews, reaction videos, comments, and discussions.

If you get in touch with the right person, your music might get featured in their content which would bring you a ton of new listeners. 

How to Promote Your Music on YouTube – Final Thoughts 

With the right approach, you can effectively promote your music on YouTube and significantly grow your audience – perhaps even by millions.

But you need to put the work in – you need to create engaging content, use SEO and good marketing strategies, promote your music on other platforms, and collaborate with others. 

And if you stay consistent, you’ll undoubtedly manage to achieve your goals. 

It’s important to get started, and once you find the way that works for you, you’ll be able to focus on what really matters to you – performing and making music. 

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