How to Promote Your Music on YouTube – And Keep your Subscribers (2018)

21-Jul-2018 By Robert Loustaunau

Promoting your Music on YouTube

Promoting your Music on YouTube isn’t exactly revolutionary. In recent years, the content-sharing platform has beefed up its incentives for creatives looking to grow a subscriber-base and monetize their music. For the DIY musician, the challenge is rising above that seemingly infinite noise of YouTube content and its pesky algorithms. Here we’ll outline how to make your channel a hub of unstoppable, watchable content that the algorithm’s just can’t keep at bay.

Put Your Best-Flick Forward.

Nick Aslam – youbloomDublin Music Festival 2018

Have your best or newest music playing at the start of the page or readily clickable. A majority of viewers decide whether or not they’re going to subscribe to a channel in the first 30 seconds of scanning the page. If they’ve ended up on your page then that’s already a great start for you. But now you need to hook them. Have your newest release or most popular upload playing automatically as they enter your channel. That, or have a welcome video that immediately makes the page personable between you and the viewer.

Clear Call-To-Action

You don’t want it to be hard for your viewer to find more of what they like. At the start and end of videos, as well as throughout your profile, make your call-to-action easy to see, and simple to click. The Backlink channel with Brian Dean has a really useful tutorial that explain the “In and Outs” of creating an effective call-to-action as well as tips on all aspects of YouTube strategy. A call-to-action can be links to your other social media, website or BandCamp album. Also, end your videos with explicit calls-to-action for viewers to leave a comment. Anything that will provoke further engagement among viewers is key.

Keep it Consistent

Choosing a day and time of the week to consistently upload content will more likely gain you a consistent fan base. Followers are more reliable if they can rely on you to stick to an upload schedule.

You’ve most likely spent a lot of time developing your band or music to fit a certain style. You want the feelings fans associate with that style to transfer over into your YouTube page. Work on developing your page to mirror your music. This could mean creating a layout with video thumbnails and color schemes that match that of your album artwork.

No Returns Without Tags

The tags you choose to represent your videos with will be your first line of attack in ranking among the ocean of YouTube videos. You want to cast a wide net but you also want to be casting it in the right place. Tags are the primary source that YouTube algorithm’s use to place your video.

Peco – youbloomDublin Music Festival 2018

Your first tag should match the keyword you have chosen to represent your video and should also be included in the video title. If the video in question is your “Music Vlog at the Hollywood Bowl,” than an appropriate first keyword might be “Hollywood Bowl or “Music Vlog.” For your next view tags, use variations of that keyword. Perhaps “Gig Vlog,” “Vlog,” or “Hollywood Music.” For your final few tags, use general terms that encapsulate the big picture of your video: “live music” or “LA music scene.”

Another way to get your tags working for you is by using the same ones as other popular videos that are similar to your’s. Websites like TubeBuddy and vidIQ allow you to quickly check the tags of high ranking videos allowing you to slap on the same tags for a chance to show up beside them in a search.

Keep it Short Lengthy

This isn’t Twitter folks. 140 characters isn’t excessive. In fact, research has shown that writing longer descriptions for your videos actually helps your ranking. 100-200 word descriptions seems to be the sweet spot here. This is because the more specific you are, the more YouTube bots have to work with when sorting you for organic searches.

By the same logic, longer videos, usually 8-15 minutes long, rank better. Just by making longer content you are quickly increasing the chances that your video will get more watch time. So if you’re wondering how to turn that 3 and a half minute music video you’re premiering into ideal-length content, get creative. Add bonus content to the ends of your music videos; a behind-the-scenes feature or heartfelt message from you and your band to your followers serves two purposes. It gets that run-time up closer to the sweet spot and it humanizes you and your content, giving fans a connection to you and your band that would otherwise be lost in cut-and-dry music video.

Co-Market

Image-1 (2) — The Burma – youbloomDublin Music Festival 2018

Many YouTubers rely on one another to promote their own channels. Teaming up with other artists, collaborating, or guest appearing in each others’ videos is mutually beneficial when both parties exchange niches of fans and followers. Websites like youbloomConnect make this co-marketing simple by matching you with compatible artists that suit your style and are based nearby. This makes collaboration seamless and if you end up finding a good match, youbloomConnect will even help you to set up gigs with the other artists. Check out our Connect Guide to learn more about everything youbloomConnect can do for artists.

Make this Space a Home

Finally, you want your channel to be more than a glorified playlist; that’s what SoundCloud is for. YouTube is the perfect platform to show your followers the minds behind the music and to establish a personal connection with subscribers. Feeling a relationship with a YouTuber promises a much higher return rate of loyal viewers between uploads. This can’t be done with a music video alone. Create band interviews, behind-the-scenes gig vlogs, or an informational video. And don’t forget to end each video with some specific call out to your viewers: “Leave a comment about your favorite part of that gig, what band we should collaborate with next,” etc.

Stay tuned or subscribe to the weekly youbloom Newsletter for our follow up article on promoting your music on YouTube. In our following post we’ll be getting into the nitty-gritty of perfecting your SEO score and how exactly you can beat the algorithm.

Knowing the If, When, and How of Hiring a Manager

18-Jul-2018 By Josey Dunbar

Knowing when hiring a manager (and whether or not to hire one at all) is right, can be a tough call for artists…

When deciding what’s right for your band, it’s important not only to weigh the obvious pros and cons, but also to consider the methods of attracting and choosing the best manager for your individual group of artists.

Step One: Consider the Pros of Hiring a Manager

1) Experience

Managers can provide outside knowledge of the music industry for your band. Whether you’re an up-and-coming group or have years of experience preforming, hiring a manager will provide knowledge that can prove to be essential when dealing with hosts, venues and sponsors.

2) Third Party Ear

In addition to providing knowledge of the industry, managers can also serve as a third party perspective when disputes arise within the band. Having an unbiased opinion can help to resolve budding conflicts between artists.

3) Concentrate Vision

Hiring a good manager can also be a perfect way to narrow in on a brand for your band and develop a solid vision for your group’s future.

Step Two: Consider the Cons of Hiring a Manager

1) Money

Managers aren’t free nor are they cheap. If your band is going to end up losing money or barely breaking even by hiring a manager- maybe consider holding off for the time being.

2) Loss of Artistic Freedom

It’s no secret that a band loses the total control they started with when they decide to hire a manger. Though releasing some control may prove to be beneficial for the musician’s future, you must decide if the end goal is worth it.

At the end of the day, hiring a manager is an investment that only you can deem worth the expense and risk.

But the important decision-making doesn’t end there; after deciding if a manager is the right move for your band, it’s time to decide how to attract and choose the right one.

Step Three: Attracting a Manager

After deciding to find a manager for your band, you’ll learn the first step in finding the right one is to not look. No you did not read that sentence wrong—don’t go looking for a manager; the right manager will come looking for you.

With that said, there are certainly methods of speeding up the process.

1) Growing Your Fanbase

The more buzz there is around your band, the more managers will know who you are and where to find you. To learn more about growing your fanbase check out “How To Hook the Super-Fans.”

After you attract managers who embody the same vision you have for your group, don’t be afraid to give them some control while still maintaining your own individuality, of course.

Maintaining some control of your own booking and touring can be made easy for those who choose to hire a manager and those who fly solo through youbloomConnect. Learn more at youbloom.com

How to Hook the Super-Fan

07-Jul-2018 By Josey Dunbar

Contrary to popular belief, a super-fan is not always a crazed group of followers or a die-hard groupie. All brands have super-fans. They’re a key component in building and sustaining a successful career by enagaging a solid fanbase.

The question then becomes: what classifies as a brand and how do you build one that attracts enough super fans.

The term super-fan refers to an individual who supports a brand and everything that brand produces. Artists depend on super-fans as a bedrock of support. When on tour, a band can trust that their super-fans will show up, buy merch, and be tweeting about the show long after it’s over. When band’s establish a healthy base of super-fans, they are establishing a continuous body of support that can last throughout their careers.

From Starbucks to your local coffee shop that plays nothing but bluegrass, all brands attract super-fans. This comes down to the fact that people are drawn to originality. Every brand needs its own niche to attract a sustaining number of super-fans.

Who will your super-fans be?

Before a company, artist or individual can successfully attract, engage, and retain super-fans they must have a well-established brand. At the end of the day, there are billions of different people in the world with trillions of different interests; this means every brand who successfully markets a clear and individual niche has a high likelihood of attracting super-fans.

Building a brand comes down to three things: intended audience, clarity of product, and quality of service.

Whether you’re trying to market your sound or attract a wider demographic of ticket-buyers, your brand begins with your unique offerings and intended audience. Detecting what sets you apart is the quickest way to identify the basis for your brand.

After establishing a solid brand with individualized characteristics that will attract super-fans, the task becomes maintaining engagement from those fans. This maintained loyalty is often seen when artists create personal relationships with fans and release a steady flow of their branded product (shows, recorded music, etc.).

In addition to establishing these bonds, the branded product must retain its super-fan as the brand grows.

Joining a community with inter-industry connections can make a huge difference too. Today, a lot of artists are finding security in artist networks, like youbloomConnect, which help bands grow their fanbase and develop their brand through artist-partnering and co-marketing tactics. Definitely check out our guide to how youbloomConnect works if you want to learn more about our strategy.

Ultimately, developing a brand comes down to originality. Pursuing what sets you apart and working to maintain relations with super-fans as your brand-base expands will ensure your success in the future marketing of your music.

Local Gigs: How to Know When You’ve Outgrown Them

15-Jun-2018 By Josey Dunbar

Is your local bar circuit starting to feel like a song on repeat?

There is a sort of stigma, for some artists, around playing local gigs. Performing in the same city or the same rotation of venues can begin to feel repetitive- but how soon is too soon to expand your fanbase and seek venues further from home?

NORTHLIGHT at local gigs in youbloomDublin '18 — NORTHLIGHT at youbloomDublin ’18

First, it’s important to note the benefits of a solid local foundation.

1) Building Origin Loyalty at Local Gigs

It’s no secret that fans who can claim to be “day-one fans” or to have “seen them before they were famous” will maintain type of loyalty to your band that cannot be matching by fans, no matter how die-hard, you acquire later on in your career. Because of this, it’s important to stay local long enough to build a solid following of fans with a strong sense of “origin loyalty”.

2) Saving Money

Dreaming of Jupiter at youbloomDublin ’18

As your group is beginning to grow and venues are starting to pay higher wages for gigs- it’s important to not be spending more than you’re making on transportation to and from shows. This includes sticking with the free drinks at shows and Being your own Booking agent. Attempting to play shows far from home too quickly can set an artist or band up for financial issues later- another benefit of local revenue.

With that in mind- there will be a time when branching out is not only preferable, but necessary to pursuing the dream. The question then becomes when (and how)?

When?

When to take the risk and hit the road for a tour or remote gig will vary from artist to artist. However, before attempting to broaden a fanbase, artists should a) be confident in their local/foundational following and b) be prepared for an initial hit to the wallet.

How?

There are many ways for an artist to expand their following when the time comes, but who says they have to do it alone? youbloomConnect is designed for these very sorts of ventures. youbloomConect helps musicians expand their fanbase and seek gigs further from home by working alongside other artists on the rise, by exposing to other fanbases, and by creating performances in their ‘partner band’s’ city. Learn more at youbloom.com!

The 6 Music Conferences & Festivals in LA this Summer – 2018

11-Jun-2018 By Robert Loustaunau

In the Golden Age of Festivals it’s Easy to get Lost in the Noise

It’s 2018 and we’ve graduated from festival culture. These are nuanced times we are living in where “music festival” is no longer synonymous with patchouli and Birkenstocks. Music producers, labels, and artists converge at music conferences to scout, network, and discuss the industry’s hottest topics and tech.

If you’re wanting to elevate your festival experience this Summer, here’s our pick of Top Music Conferences in Los Angeles. Not ready to ditch the over-sized festival floaty just yet? No worries, check out our top picks for Music Festivals in LA this Summer.

SongWriterCamps

October 15 2018 – October 18 2018
Palm Springs, CA

While not an official ASCAP event, SongWriterCamp is a retreat hosted by ASCAP affiliates Pam Sheyne and Richard Harris. For an extended weekend, aspiring songwriters take part in masterclasses, workshops, and performances under the guidance of seasoned lyricists. If you’ve been meaning to get pen to paper SongWritersCamp is just the music festival for you. As a bonus: members of ASCAP get a discount on tickets.

The MIRA Conference

June 25 – June 26, 2018
West Los Angeles, CA

Brought to you by The Music Industry Research Association, the MIRA Conference is as cerebral as a music conference gets. All corners of the musical spectrum come out to play here. Discussion topics range from industry policy to groundbreaking research among the academic community. This year, MIRA will be tackling topics such as streaming corruption, piracy, and diversity and inclusion in the industry. Take a look at the full program.

Youbloom LA Music Festival & Summit

September 20- September 22, 2018
Los Angeles, CA

Some have called the youbloom Music Festival & Summit the biggest little music conference in SoCal. Based in Los Angeles, California, youbloom has prided itself on drawing an international community of artists from across the globe for a weekend of workshops, discussion panels, and stellar music making. Think SXSW but less food trucks.

Attend workshops on marketing yourself as an independent musician, and participate in 1-on-1 Q&A sessions with agents and producers. By night, attend free shows across some of LA’s hottest venues and showcase your own band. youbloomLA is definitely the top pick for DIY musicians and bands looking for a leg up in the industry. See this year’s speaker and apply to play for youbloom LA.

The PMA’s Production Music Conference

September 26 – September 28, 2018
Hollywood, Ca.

Every year, the Production Music Association (or PMA) holds its official Production Music Conference right in the heart of the entertainment industry. For 3 days, Highland Avenue in Hollywood is awash with composers, tech vendors, and music industry gurus. It is one of the larger music conferences that happens every year and if you’re planning on operating in these types of circles, you will want to be meeting the people who attend this.

Force Music Conference & A&R Artist Showcase

November 10 – November 11, 2018
Los Angeles, Ca.

Perhaps you already know your niche in the industry and you’re looking for music conferences that are more specific. If your future is in A&R (Arts and Repertoire) than Force Music Conference & A&R Artist Showcase is your bread and butter. This particular event packs a lot in a weekend long conference. From mixers, to live radio shows, to artist showcases, Force is a conference for the movers and shakers of the music industry as well as a peak at the industry machine in motion.

The Indie Entertainment Summit

August 9 – August 12, 2018
North Hollywood, Ca.

Just because it’s a conference doesn’t mean there’s no live music. The Indie Entertainment Summit is a 3-day coming-together of the big heads of the Indie music scene. The event is filled to the brim with panels, guests speakers, and independent artists showcasing their talent at venues throughout the city. Panel topics this year are to include marketing strategies for growing your own artist brand, music tech developments, and the state of the music industry. It’s also not a bad place to be in order to stop being independent, as agents have been known to attend this event in past years.