Ah, YouTube – the magical place where free time goes to die and be swollen in the never ending vortex of cat videos. Hello, dear reader, today we are going to talk about how you too can contribute to YouTube’s powerful time-sucking medium with your music. All joking aside YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google and has proven time and time again that it can be a great source for musicians to present their music and reach new fans.

As you know, there is nothing better than quick interesting facts to get us going. So here are some fun details about YouTube we hope you didn’t know:

• Every minute more than 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube
• The oldest video about cats available on YouTube dates back to 1894
• Poor Gwyneth Paltrow – in 2014 she made less money than YouTube star Grumpy Cat … and she has an Oscar
• Type in “Do the Harlem shake” in YouTube and see what happens. [Spoiler Alert]: The whole page will do the Harlem Shake for you
• Justin Bieber’s “Baby” is YouTube’s most disliked video with more than 4 million dislikes, so I guess you don’t need to sweat those 12 thumbs downs you got on your last song
• YouTube has a production space in LA available for free to anyone who has more than 10 000 subscribers

OK, Alright, after we have filled your head with useless trivia, let us continue to the tip section of this article where we will present you with some guidelines to starting off your YouTube channel.

Create a YouTube account

Do you have a YouTube account set up? What, you don’t? Um, okay, I guess I will wait here until you go set yours up – I am waiting for the water to boil for my tea anyway…

Ok, so here I am, tea in hand and you with your shiny new YouTube account, let’s continue.

Just be yourself

Yes, our favoruite self-help line has come to the rescue once more. I guess it’s a cliche, because it’s true. Introduce yourself to your current and future fans, tell them about yourself and your music. Fill your channel with music you care about and do it because you enjoy it, not only because it might bring you more subscribers. People can tell when you are not genuine and tend to be put off by it.

Love at first sight

How? By choosing a great thumbnail for each of your videos. We all do it – decide whether to watch a video or not depending on the thumbnail.

Don’t neglect the title and video description

Titles work magic in not only attracting views, but also in improving the search results of your video. Be concise, to the point and clear. Include band/artist name, name of the song and location of performance if relevant.

The description allows you to go into more detail about the song, your band, the inspiration behind the song, etc. People love to get more information about a tune they are enjoying. Also by including relevant keywords people will be more likely to find you. You can include the lyrics so everyone can sing along and have a jolly good time.

Slap a tag

Tags are extremely important if you are looking to get more views, which we know you are. In order for other of your videos to show up on the ‘related videos’ section or once the video has stopped playing, you should tag them all in a similar way. For example, by including your name in each one, as well as several more matching tags. This will make your videos more relevant to each other and make it more likely that they will come up as related videos, which will bring you additional views. Yay!

Fill up on annotations

You know those pop-up boxes that come up on videos that suspiciously look like spam? Well, as it turns out they are called annotations and in the realm of YouTube are a powerful tool to direct viewers to additional content – previous videos, your website, purchase links, your other social media channels or just a funny comment to show your viewers why you never made it into comedy.

Be a tease

Create a buzz around your upcoming singles! Tease people with a short sample like this one:

Adele’s inspiring teaser for ‘Hello’:

Share a part of the lyrics, post a video of you recording/mixing/editing the new song! Give people the opportunity to tremble with anticipation to hear your upcoming song.

Become the playlist master

Create an interesting playlist where you mix famous songs and some of your own tunes as a way for people to come across your work. Give the playlist a good name and theme, relevant to your music, for example, “Contemporary blues bands” – this way you can come up in relevant search results.

Take them behind the scenes

Give people a peek behind the curtain, let them in your artistic world – upload a video of a rehearsal or recording, interview bandmates or friends, make a tour diary, show them what’s in your fridge. Be creative and authentic – it will get you places.

Get ready for some hard work and dedication

Looking from the outside in, maintaining a successful YouTube channel may seem like a breeze. But don’t be fooled – it’s grueling work. Be prepared that to stay relevant, keep and expand your following and get the most out of the platform you will need to stick to a regular posting schedule, come up with exciting new ways to engage with your fans and always aim to provide high-quality videos. It might not happen overnight, but if you dedicate yourself – you will see results!

Drooble wishes you good luck on your YouTube journey! Share with us some of your go to YouTube tricks in the comments.